Evan Spiegel

Spiegel was born in 1990 and grew up in the Los Angeles area. In high school he took classes at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, an experience he later described as formative to his career, saying it “changed my life.” He went on to study product design at Stanford University.⁠[1][1][2][3][4]

Spiegel recalled thirteen years at Crossroads School for Arts & Sciences. He also described studying at ArtCenter and Otis, combining their intensive critique with Stanford’s emphasis on empathy.⁠[5][6]

Snap’s predecessor was Future Freshman, LLC, a California limited liability company formed in 2010 and renamed Toyopa Group, LLC in 2011. In 2011, in a class project at Stanford, Spiegel and his classmates Reggie Brown and Bobby Murphy came up with the idea for an app in which photos disappear automatically.⁠[7][4]

The app, first called Picaboo, launched in July 2011 and was renamed Snapchat that September. Spiegel then dropped out of school to run the company full time.⁠[8][8][4]

In 2012, the company was reorganized as a Delaware corporation, Snapchat, Inc. Spiegel has served as the company’s Chief Executive Officer and a director since May 2012, and Murphy has served as Chief Technology Officer and a director since the same time.⁠[7][7][7]

In February 2013, Reggie Brown sued the company, its predecessor entity, and Spiegel and Murphy in Los Angeles Superior Court, claiming the company was using intellectual property he jointly owned with the two founders. In his complaint, Brown said he had come up with the idea for the app at Stanford in 2011 and shared it with Spiegel, and that Murphy then joined to write the code, but that about a month after the app launched he was excluded from the collaboration and its profits. Brown described himself as a co-founder, which Spiegel and Murphy denied.⁠[9][8][8][9]

In 2013, Facebook offered to buy Snapchat for $3 billion in cash, and the 23-year-old Spiegel turned it down. Snapchat was then about two years old and had no revenue; in September of that year Spiegel said users were sharing 350 million photos a day through Snapchat, up from 200 million in June.⁠[4][10][10]

In September 2014, Snapchat reached a settlement with Brown resolving all claims between them. In a statement, the company acknowledged that the idea of sending disappearing picture messages originally came from Brown while he was a student at Stanford and that he had taken part in Snapchat’s early development; Spiegel said, “we acknowledge Reggie’s contribution to the creation of Snapchat.” The settlement amount was confidential at the time; the 2017 prospectus disclosed it as $157.5 million, of which $50 million was paid in 2014 and the remaining $107.5 million in 2016.⁠[7][7][7][8][8][8][8][9]

In July 2015, the board approved granting Spiegel, upon the company’s initial public offering, restricted stock units equal to 3% of the company’s outstanding capital stock, to motivate him to bring the company to the point where it could go public. The award would vest fully upon completion of the offering, with the shares delivered in equal quarterly installments over three years beginning in the third full quarter after the offering.⁠[7][7][7]

In 2016, Snapchat, Inc. changed its name to Snap Inc. Late that year, the company launched its first hardware product, Spectacles, a pair of sunglasses with a built-in video camera that the company views as an extension of Snapchat.⁠[7][7][7][7]

In 2017, Spiegel established the Spiegel Family Fund, which supports arts, education, housing, and human rights projects in California and beyond.⁠[11][11]

On March 2, 2017, Snap went public on the New York Stock Exchange, offering 200 million non-voting Class A shares at $17 per share, valuing the company at about $24 billion at the offering price; the stock opened above $24 on its first day. The prospectus stated that, to the company’s knowledge, no other company had completed an initial public offering of non-voting stock on a U.S. stock exchange. After the offering, the Class C shares held by Spiegel and Murphy, carrying ten votes each, represented about 88.5% of the total voting power.⁠[12][12][12][7][7][7]

Under his offer letter as amended in October 2016, Spiegel’s annual base salary was $500,000, reduced to $1 upon the effectiveness of the registration statement for the offering.⁠[7][7]

Snap reported a $39.9 million third-quarter Spectacles inventory charge. CFO Drew Vollero said the company had overestimated early demand and purchased more than it expected to sell. Costs mainly concerned excess inventory and cancelled purchase commitments; he also said Spectacles would remain on sale, with modest expected revenue.⁠[13]

After visiting ByteDance in 2017, Spiegel pursued a Toutiao-inspired algorithmic redesign. User opposition led him to acknowledge mistakes to employees and largely restore the previous app structure.⁠[14]

In 2018, nearly seven years after dropping out to start the company, Spiegel received a B.S. in Engineering (Product Design) from Stanford University.⁠[2][1]

Since October 2021, Spiegel has served as a director of KKR & Co. Inc.⁠[1]

On May 12, 2022, Spiegel and Miranda Kerr announced that, through a private donation, they would pay off the student loans of all 285 graduates of the Otis College of Art and Design class of 2022. Neither the college nor Spiegel disclosed the exact amount, but the college said it was the largest single gift in its history, surpassing the previous record of $10 million. Both received honorary degrees from the college.⁠[3][15][3][3][3][3][15]

On August 31, 2022, Snap announced it would cut about 20% of its full-time employees, expecting pre-tax charges of $110 million to $175 million. In a letter to employees, Spiegel said quarterly revenue growth of 8% year over year was well below what the company had expected earlier in the year and that it had to reduce its cost structure; the company would henceforth concentrate on three priorities, community growth, revenue growth, and augmented reality, discontinue its investments in projects such as Snap Originals, Minis, Games, and Pixy, and wind down the standalone apps Zenly and Voisey.⁠[16][16][17][17][17][17]

On January 31, 2024, Spiegel appeared alongside the chief executives of Meta, TikTok, X, and Discord at the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing “Big Tech and the Online Child Sexual Exploitation Crisis.” Committee chairman Dick Durbin noted that Spiegel was appearing under subpoena. During the hearing, Spiegel committed Snap to supporting the Kids Online Safety Act and offered condolences to parents whose children had obtained illegal drugs through Snapchat: “I’m so sorry that we have not been able to prevent these tragedies.”⁠[18][19][19][19][19]

In 2024, Snap released the fifth generation of its Spectacles augmented reality glasses, designed mainly for developers to build apps for the later public launch of Specs.⁠[20]

On June 10, 2025, Snap announced that it would launch Specs, lightweight augmented reality glasses, in 2026. The company said it had spent 11 years and more than $3 billion on the effort; Specs are a wearable computer integrated into a pair of glasses with see-through lenses, able to understand the world around the wearer and bring AI assistance into three-dimensional space.⁠[20][20][20]

On January 28, 2026, Snap set up its Specs business as a wholly owned subsidiary, Specs Inc., to sharpen operational focus, build a distinct brand, form partnerships, and leave room for potential minority investment. Spiegel serves as Chief Executive Officer of both Snap and Specs Inc.⁠[21][22]

On February 18, 2026, Spiegel published an op-ed in the Financial Times on Australia’s law barring people under 16 from using certain social media platforms. He wrote that, to comply with the law, Snap had locked or disabled more than 415,000 Australian accounts believed to belong to users under 16; he argued that because the law covers only some platforms, it may push teens toward apps with fewer protections, and that if age limits are imposed, age verification should be handled uniformly by app stores.⁠[23][23][23][23]

Irenic Capital, reporting approximately 2.5% economic exposure to Snap’s Class A shares, publicly urged Spiegel to separate Specs or close it if independent funding proved unavailable. It put cumulative spending above $3.5 billion and annual cash spending near $500 million, while calling for changes to advertising monetization, costs and voting rights. These were the investor’s figures and assessments.⁠[24]

On April 12, 2026, David Senra’s podcast released an interview with Spiegel. Spiegel has always argued that Snap is a “camera company” and believes that the camera on your face will eventually replace the screen in your pocket.⁠[4][4][4]

On April 15, 2026, Snap announced it would cut about 16% of its full-time employees, affecting about 1,000 people, and close more than 300 open roles. In a letter to employees, Spiegel said the changes were expected to reduce the company’s annualized cost base by more than $500 million by the second half of 2026, establishing a clearer path to net-income profitability; he said rapid advances in artificial intelligence enable teams to reduce repetitive work and work more efficiently.⁠[25][26][26][26]

On Lenny’s Podcast, Spiegel argued that easily copied software and network effects offered insufficient protection; distribution, creator–developer ecosystems and vertically integrated AR hardware mattered.⁠[6]

He described weekly reviews with nine to twelve designers and design approval for coherence. AI-assisted coding was available to designers, without being compulsory.⁠[6]

At AWE, Snap announced consumer Specs at $2,195, taking refundable $200 deposits and expecting autumn shipments in the United States, United Kingdom and France. The glasses integrated see-through displays, computing and AR interaction without an external processing unit. June marked announcement and preorders, rather than delivery.⁠[27]

Responding to investor criticism, Spiegel defended long-term hardware investment and said Snap should pursue lasting profitability and remain independent rather than sell the company.⁠[28]

On September 8, 2026, in a letter to employees marking the company’s 15th anniversary, Spiegel said that in the second quarter of 2026 Snapchat had 971 million monthly active users and 493 million daily active users; the company had never turned a full-year GAAP net income profit, but analysts estimated it would do so for the first time in 2027. He named ads revenue growth as the top business priority after keeping the community safe, and said Specs, after twelve years of development, would launch that year.⁠[29][29][29][29][29][29]

Snap demonstrated work, creation and shared experiences on Specs, introducing Specs Intelligence across iPhone, Mac and glasses. An initial limited iOS preview targeted U.S. adults, with broader access still forthcoming. Snap continued to forecast autumn shipments; the official website still showed preorders when checked in October.⁠[30][31]

Reporting on Specs described a September voice demonstration that failed before recovering about a minute later. Spokesperson Russ Caditz-Peck identified early adopters and developers as initial customers and declined to disclose presale orders. Price, bulk and audience remained central questions for the investment.⁠[14]

Snap has a three-class share structure: the publicly traded Class A shares carry no votes, Class B shares carry one vote each, and Class C shares carry ten votes each. As of December 31, 2025, Spiegel and Murphy together controlled more than 99% of the company’s voting power, and Spiegel alone could control a majority of it. At the time of the IPO, each had designated the other as his proxy, so that if either dies or becomes incapacitated, the other exercises his voting power.⁠[7][1][7][7]

Spiegel and Murphy co-founded the Snap Foundation, which creates pathways into the creative economy for underrepresented youth in Los Angeles. Spiegel also serves on the boards of the Berggruen Institute and Crossroads School for Arts & Sciences, and is a member of the Business Roundtable and the Business Council.⁠[11][11]

Snap Inc.: Official website: https://www.snap.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[7]

KKR: Official website: https://www.kkr.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[32]

Specs Inc.: Official website: https://www.specs.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[31]

Spiegel Family Fund: Official website: https://www.spiegelfamilyfund.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[5]

Personal X account: https://x.com/evanspiegel (opens in a new window).⁠[33]

Personal LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry: https://www.linkedin.com/in/evan-spiegel (opens in a new window).⁠[34]

Personal Snapchat account: https://www.snapchat.com/@evan (opens in a new window).⁠[35]