“There might be 10 clones here, [but] there is also 20 clones from the United States right? You know, being copied is something that I think that every successful company will go through. Our biggest defensible asset really is our community, and I think that’s the thing that you’re not going to find on any of these replicas.”

Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom on clones of his fast growing service that now has 12 million users. I agree. It is not the filters or the features, it is people and their emotional relationship with a product who make a startup successful. Here is a link to my conversation with Kevin from GigaOm Mobilize.