Damn, this was not how I wanted to wake up.

And right here in your ears here in the podcast, I wanted to recount something from

early morning, April 9th, 2012.

Almost a decade ago, nine, nine, nine years something ago.

I remember my phone on this morning. It just wouldn't stop dinging. You know that ding when you get a text? I left my audio on on the phone that night. And I remember sort of that dreamy bit where you're,

I'm not sure if you're awake and you hear something and just that thing, ding, ding, text after

text was rolling in. And apparently when I, you know, raised one groggy eyelid.

I knew the people that were in my, on my phone there texting me, they wanted to talk about the news.

The news that Facebook had just acquired this company called Instagram for an eye-popping price of a billy.

That's right. A billion dollars. It was making headlines all over the

world. And, you know, there's many things that were astonishing about this, but who could have

imagined that a slightly more than two-year-old company with basically a dozen employees

could command a 10-figure billion dollar

valuation. Well, there I was watching that tech fairy tale unfold, and I could not help in that

moment, but be amazed at what the Instagram team, starting with the

founders Kevin and Mike, had accomplished in such a short time.

And I also have something to confess.

I felt a huge sting, a smack of regret.

What if things had gone a little differently?

It might have been my company that was making headlines.

It wasn't my imagination either.

You know, the texts that were in my phone that morning when I sat up, again, nine and a half years ago, the texts within minutes of the news, they were proof of how close I was to that prize, to that process, to that experience, that opportunity, the outcome.

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