Instagram 背后不少故事，比如这一则。

风险投资机构 Andreessen Horowitz，在 Instagram 初创时投资了 $250,000，在被 Facebook 收购后获利 $78,000,000，312 倍的投资回报。

可是，这远远不够，因为他们在 $25,000 之后没有继续追加投资，而是转而投资了竞争对手 PicPlz。The New York Times 的 Bit Blog 对此写了一篇文章，「How Andreessen Horowitz Bunted on an Instagram Investment」，对 Marc Andreessen 没有继续关注、追加对 Instagram 的投资非常无语。

这个事情其实并不是这么简单。 Andreessen Horowitz 的投资人 Ben Horowitz 在一篇名为「Instagram」的文章对整个过程进行了回忆：

After speaking with both entrepreneurs and much internal discussion, we concluded that funding Kevin to compete with Dalton would be a violation of the original implicit commitment we made to Dalton—to not fund competitors to PicPlz. On the other hand, funding Dalton did not violate our implicit agreement with Kevin because he changed his business—we’d funded Burbn not Instagram.

So our choices were: a) invest in Dalton b) invest in neither or c) invest in Kevin and violate our commitment to Dalton. As soon as we fully recognized those were the choices, we ruled out option c and elected option a.

简言之，当时他们有三个选择，投资 PicPlz、谁都不投和投资 Instagram（但是这样会违反与 PicPlz 的 Dalton 的协议）。最后他们选择了第一个，因为这样不会违反当初和 PicPlz 签订的“不投资竞争对手”的协议。这样的选择就是他们也不能继续追加对 Instagram 的投资。

结果已经是大家都知道的，可是当事人面对对他们的“指责”，并不买帐。

Ben Horowitz 说，「不能因为 Dalton 的 PicPlz 没有卖 10 亿美元就认为我们对这笔投资非常后悔。Kevin 和他的 Instagram 团队是非常特别和唯一的，但是我们对投资了 Dalton 还是非常满意的 」：

We are excited and enthusiastic investors in Dalton’s company. Several reporters implied that we regret funding Dalton, because he did not sell his company to Facebook for $1 billion after two years. News to world: it generally takes longer than two years to create a billion dollars in value. What Kevin and team did was special and unique. We expect great things from Dalton and look forward to another massive return from his new idea.

Dalton 在 Hack News 上则说到，「他先发现了这个市场并建立了 PicPlz，并坚信移动照片分享的市场机会，因此他全心投入其中。虽然结果是 PicPlz 没有获胜，但是我一点也不会羞愧和遗憾，因为我已经尽力」：

Anyone reading this article needs to remember to never be afraid of putting yourself out there because you are afraid of failure. I saw the market first, I created picplz, and I went for it. I was a huge believe in the mobile photo sharing opportunity, and I went for it with all of my heart. Clearly, picplz didn’t win, but I have ZERO shame or regret for doing my best.

大多数人只会记得结果，而不会关注过程。所以少数人才能成功，因为他们更专注成长与过程，知道这才是他们最需要的。