Mike Krieger
Mike Krieger is best known as the co-founder and former CTO of Instagram, the photo-sharing platform he built alongside Kevin Systrom and scaled to over a billion users before its acquisition by Facebook and their eventual departures in 2018. His engineering and product instincts helped define the modern mobile social media experience, making Instagram one of the most consequential consumer technology products of the past two decades. While not a traditional AdTech figure, his work at Instagram placed him at the center of one of the world's largest digital advertising ecosystems, shaping the product surfaces on which billions of dollars in social advertising are transacted. After leaving Instagram, Krieger joined Anthropic as Chief Product Officer, helping guide the company's product strategy during a pivotal period of growth for its Claude AI models. He has since transitioned into the role of Head of the Labs group, focused on experimental Claude products — a unit dedicated to pushing the boundaries of what AI assistants and interfaces can do. This move reflects both his entrepreneurial instincts and his deep interest in building novel, user-facing AI experiences from the ground up. Krieger holds a BS and MS in Symbolic Systems from Stanford University, a program blending computer science, cognitive science, linguistics, and philosophy. His career arc — from scrappy startup founder to big-tech product leader to AI frontier builder — makes him one of the more distinctive product minds operating at the intersection of consumer technology and artificial intelligence today.
Last updated Sep 26, 2026 by ATDb automated enrichment
- Years in industry
- 15 years
Bio
Mike Krieger is best known as the co-founder and former CTO of Instagram, the photo-sharing platform he built alongside Kevin Systrom and scaled to over a billion users before its acquisition by Facebook and their eventual departures in 2018. His engineering and product instincts helped define the modern mobile social media experience, making Instagram one of the most consequential consumer technology products of the past two decades. While not a traditional AdTech figure, his work at Instagram placed him at the center of one of the world's largest digital advertising ecosystems, shaping the product surfaces on which billions of dollars in social advertising are transacted. After leaving Instagram, Krieger joined Anthropic as Chief Product Officer, helping guide the company's product strategy during a pivotal period of growth for its Claude AI models. He has since transitioned into the role of Head of the Labs group, focused on experimental Claude products — a unit dedicated to pushing the boundaries of what AI assistants and interfaces can do. This move reflects both his entrepreneurial instincts and his deep interest in building novel, user-facing AI experiences from the ground up. Krieger holds a BS and MS in Symbolic Systems from Stanford University, a program blending computer science, cognitive science, linguistics, and philosophy. His career arc — from scrappy startup founder to big-tech product leader to AI frontier builder — makes him one of the more distinctive product minds operating at the intersection of consumer technology and artificial intelligence today.
Career
Chief Product Officer
Anthropic · 2023-2026
Co-founder & CTO
Instagram · 2010-2018
Expertise & education
Expertise
Education
- BS, Symbolic Systems, Stanford University
- MS, Symbolic Systems, Stanford University
Speaking topics
Recognition
Notable achievements
- Co-founded Instagram, which was acquired by Facebook for approximately $1 billion in 2012 and grew to over 1 billion monthly active users
- Served as Chief Product Officer at Anthropic, helping shape Claude's product strategy during a critical growth phase
- Launched Anthropic Labs as Head, focused on experimental and next-generation Claude product experiences
- Scaled Instagram's engineering and product teams from a two-person startup to a global platform