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Throughout 2011 and leading into the new year, Buick began moving his own startup toward social. But by that time, it was perhaps already too late: Its photo-sharing competitor Instagram had soared beyond Hipstamatic in popularity, and would soon capture the attention of Facebook. Like so many other startups in transition, Hipstamatic would soon start experiencing severe growing pains. As it hired more people and pursued new products in an attempt to keep pace with competing apps, Hipstamatic's culture became fractured. On one side, founders chased venture capital and rushed through work on a series of half-baked products, while on the other side, newly hired employees struggled to build something they thought would last. The two groups had very disparate visions for Hipstamatic's future.

Instagram’s core strength relied on a similar principle. It was just photos you could scroll through. Nothing more, nothing less. You could open Instagram for 10 seconds and check what’s new, or for 10 minutes and get lost in the universe of people’s lives. And you always knew what you were going to get: an endless stream of photos. Just keep scrolling. Well, not any more.