Who is Evan Spiegel?
Evan Spiegel is an American entrepreneur who co-founded Snapchat and is CEO of its parent company, Snap Inc. In 2015 he was the world’s youngest billionaire.
Early life and education
Spiegel was born in Los Angeles in 1990 to two lawyers. He took design classes while still in high school and went on to study product design at Stanford University. He left in 2012 to focus on Snapchat, but returned to finish his degree in 2018.
Founding Snapchat
In 2011, Spiegel and Stanford classmates Bobby Murphy and Reggie Brown launched an app called Picaboo, where photos disappeared after being viewed. It was soon renamed Snapchat and became very popular with teenagers and young adults.
Career highlights
- Rejecting Facebook (2013): turned down a reported $3 billion acquisition offer.
- Stories (2013): introduced Stories, a format later copied by Instagram, Facebook and others.
- Snap Inc. (2016): renamed the company to reflect a wider camera focus, launching Spectacles camera glasses.
- IPO (2017): took Snap public.
Major achievements
Snapchat created ideas that became standard in social media, such as disappearing messages, Stories and face filters. Snap became a leader in augmented reality (AR) lenses.
Expertise
Spiegel is known as a design-focused founder who thinks of Snap as a “camera company” and invests heavily in AR.
Philanthropy
With his wife, model Miranda Kerr, he runs the Spiegel Family Fund. In 2022 they paid off student debt for the graduating class of Otis College of Art and Design.
Lessons for your career
Spiegel’s story shows how a simple, original idea can challenge giant competitors, and how design thinking can shape technology.
Competing with giants
Snap has spent much of its life competing with much larger rivals. After Spiegel declined Facebook’s offer, Instagram launched its own Stories feature in 2016 and quickly grew larger than Snapchat’s. Spiegel responded by focusing on what made Snap different: close friends, the camera and creative tools. Snap built a strong position with younger users, introduced the Snap Map, Bitmoji avatars and a subscription service, Snapchat+, and continued to invest in AR glasses for the future.
Timeline: key moments
- 1990Born in Los Angeles
- 2011Launches Picaboo, soon renamed Snapchat
- 2012Leaves Stanford to focus on Snapchat
- 2013Turns down Facebook; launches Stories
- 2015World’s youngest billionaire
- 2016Company renamed Snap Inc.; Spectacles launch
- 2017Snap IPO; marries Miranda Kerr
- 2018Completes Stanford degree
Evan Spiegel turned a disappearing-photo app into Snap, introducing features that reshaped social media.
