Instagram founder: there were tensions around leaving Facebook

Instagram founder Kevin Systrom says there were tensions around his departure from Facebook, but he has no hard feelings towards his former employer. He said so in his first public interview after leaving the social network last month.

Systrom declined to elaborate on exactly why he left in the interview at a Wired magazine conference. “You’re not leaving because everything is great, are you?” he said in the interview, which Wired posted in its entirety on Facebook. “When you leave, there are always reasons for it.”

The founder compared his company to a rocket. “You launch it, you make the boosters work, but when it lands in orbit, you also have to be able to let go.” Systrom and his co-founder Mike Krieger suddenly left Facebook last month. The departure sparked rumors of squabbles between the founders and the top of Facebook over Instagram’s course.

It is Systrom’s first interview since leaving. He says he doesn’t have a new job or new company yet. He’s far from the only guest on Wired 25 Monday. Employees of the magazine interview Apple designer Jony Ive, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey and former Facebook CEO Sean Parker.