Bobby Murphy

Bobby Murphy
Murphy in January 2013
Bobby Murphy
Born	Robert Cornelius Murphy 19 7, 1988
Birthplace	Berkeley, California, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Software engineer, entrepreneur
Title	Chief Technology Officer of Snap Inc.
Employer	Snap Inc.
Known for	Co-founder of Snap Inc. and Snapchat
Education	Stanford University (BS)
Spouse(s)	Kelsey Bateman
Awards	Time 100 Most Influential People (2014)

Robert Cornelius Murphy (born July 19, 1988) is an American Internet entrepreneur and software engineer who serves as the co-founder and chief technology officer (CTO) of Snap Inc., the parent company of the multimedia messaging application Snapchat. Murphy co-created Snapchat alongside Evan Spiegel and Reggie Brown while the three were students at Stanford University, launching the application in 2011 under the name Snapchat Inc. before rebranding the parent company as Snap Inc. in 2016. As the technical architect behind one of the most widely used social media platforms in the world, Murphy has overseen the engineering and product development of Snapchat from a Stanford dormitory project into a publicly traded multinational technology company. In 2014, Time named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world, and in 2015, Forbes listed him as the second-youngest billionaire globally. Murphy's Filipino-American heritage has also drawn attention in media coverage of his rise in the technology industry.

Early Life

Robert Cornelius Murphy was born on July 19, 1988, in Berkeley, California. He is of Filipino-American descent, a background that received significant media attention when he became one of the youngest billionaires in the world. Murphy grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, an environment that placed him in proximity to the technology industry from a young age.

Murphy attended Saint Mary's College High School, a Catholic preparatory school in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. During his time at Saint Mary's, Murphy developed an early interest in mathematics and computer science, disciplines that would form the foundation of his later career in software engineering.

After graduating from high school, Murphy enrolled at Stanford University, one of the premier research universities in the United States and a well-known incubator for technology startups in Silicon Valley. It was at Stanford that Murphy would meet Evan Spiegel, a fellow student with whom he would go on to create Snapchat. Murphy studied mathematical and computational science at Stanford, earning a Bachelor of Science degree.

Education

Murphy attended Saint Mary's College High School in the San Francisco Bay Area before matriculating at Stanford University. At Stanford, he pursued a degree in mathematical and computational science, a program that combined rigorous mathematical training with practical computer science coursework. This academic background equipped Murphy with the technical skills necessary to build the software infrastructure that would underpin Snapchat. Murphy's time at Stanford also connected him to the university's broader entrepreneurial ecosystem, which has produced numerous technology companies including Google, Hewlett-Packard, and Yahoo!. It was during his years at Stanford that Murphy met Evan Spiegel and Reggie Brown, the collaborators with whom he would conceive of and build the Snapchat application.

Career

Creation of Snapchat

The origins of Snapchat trace back to Murphy's time as a student at Stanford University. In 2011, Murphy, along with fellow Stanford students Evan Spiegel and Reggie Brown, developed the concept for a mobile application that would allow users to send photos and messages that would disappear after being viewed by the recipient. The concept of ephemeral messaging distinguished the application from existing social media platforms, which at the time were oriented toward permanent sharing and archiving of user content.

Murphy served as the primary engineer on the project, writing much of the original code for the application. His technical expertise in software development complemented Spiegel's focus on product design and business strategy. The application was initially launched under the name "Picaboo" before being renamed Snapchat. The platform gained rapid traction, particularly among younger users who were drawn to the concept of messages that would not persist indefinitely online.

The early growth of Snapchat was notable for its speed and organic nature. The application spread rapidly through word of mouth, particularly on college campuses and among high school students in the United States. Murphy's role during this period was focused on scaling the platform's technical infrastructure to accommodate the surge in users, a challenge that required continuous engineering effort as the user base expanded from thousands to millions.

The creation of Snapchat was not without controversy. Reggie Brown, who was involved in the early conceptualization of the application, was eventually excluded from the company. Brown filed a lawsuit against Spiegel and Murphy, claiming he had originated the idea for disappearing messages. The dispute was settled in September 2014, with Brown receiving a reported $157.5 million settlement. Snap Inc. subsequently acknowledged Brown's role in the conception of the original Snapchat idea.

Growth and Expansion of Snap Inc.

As Snapchat grew from a simple photo-messaging application into a comprehensive multimedia platform, Murphy's responsibilities as CTO expanded significantly. The company introduced a series of product innovations during the mid-2010s, including Stories (a feature allowing users to post content visible for 24 hours), Discover (a platform for media publishers), and various augmented reality features including filters and lenses.

Murphy oversaw the technical development of these features, managing an expanding engineering team as the company grew. His role involved not only software architecture and product development but also the scaling of backend infrastructure required to support hundreds of millions of daily active users sending billions of messages, photos, and videos.

In 2016, the company rebranded from Snapchat Inc. to Snap Inc., signaling its ambition to expand beyond the core messaging application. The rebranding coincided with the company's entry into hardware, most notably with the release of Spectacles, a pair of sunglasses equipped with a built-in camera that could record short videos and upload them to Snapchat. Murphy's engineering teams were involved in the development of Spectacles, which represented a significant expansion of the company's product portfolio from software into consumer electronics.

Initial Public Offering

In early 2017, Snap Inc. filed for an initial public offering (IPO), one of the most anticipated technology IPOs in years. The company's S-1 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission revealed extensive details about the company's finances, governance structure, and business operations.

As part of the IPO process, Snap Inc. announced the creation of the Snap Foundation, a philanthropic initiative funded by shares of Snap stock. The foundation was established to support arts, education, and youth programs. As co-founder, Murphy was involved in the creation of the foundation, which was funded with Snap shares as part of the company's commitment to corporate social responsibility ahead of its public listing.

Snap Inc. went public on the New York Stock Exchange on March 2, 2017, under the ticker symbol SNAP. The IPO priced shares at $17 each, and the stock opened at $24 on its first day of trading, valuing the company at approximately $24 billion. As a co-founder holding a significant equity stake, Murphy's personal wealth increased substantially as a result of the public offering.

Role as Chief Technology Officer

As CTO of Snap Inc., Murphy has been responsible for the company's technical direction, including its engineering, product development, and research efforts. Unlike many technology company co-founders who assume the role of CEO or shift into public-facing positions, Murphy has maintained a more low-profile role focused on the technical and engineering aspects of the business.

Murphy's leadership of Snap's engineering organization has encompassed work on augmented reality technology, machine learning, and the company's advertising platform. Snapchat's augmented reality features, including its widely used face filters and lenses, have been a significant area of technical investment under Murphy's direction. The company has positioned augmented reality as a core differentiator and a potential future computing platform.

The company's top executive structure has placed Murphy alongside Spiegel, who serves as CEO, in a co-founder partnership that has been compared to other technology company duos. While Spiegel has generally taken the lead on public communications, corporate strategy, and investor relations, Murphy has focused on the technical organization and product engineering.

As of 2025, Murphy continued to serve as CTO of Snap Inc., a role he has held since the company's founding.

Personal Life

Murphy married Kelsey Bateman. The couple has maintained a relatively private personal life compared to many technology executives of similar stature.

In 2018, Murphy purchased a property in Pacific Palisades, a neighborhood in the western portion of Los Angeles, California. The property, which had historical significance as the former home of actor Eddie Albert, reflected Murphy's ties to the Los Angeles area, where Snap Inc. is headquartered.

Murphy's Filipino-American background has been a subject of interest in media coverage, particularly in the Philippines, where his success as a technology entrepreneur has been a source of cultural pride. Philippine media outlet ABS-CBN News profiled Murphy in 2015, noting his heritage in its coverage of his inclusion on the Forbes billionaires list.

Compared to his co-founder Evan Spiegel, Murphy has maintained a notably lower public profile. He rarely gives interviews or makes public appearances, preferring to focus on the engineering and technical aspects of Snap Inc. rather than media engagement. This understated approach has been a consistent feature of Murphy's public persona throughout the company's history.

Recognition

Murphy's role in co-founding Snapchat and building it into a major technology platform has resulted in significant recognition. In 2014, Time named Murphy one of the 100 most influential people in the world, acknowledging the impact of Snapchat on digital communication and social media.

In 2015, Forbes included Murphy on its annual list of the world's billionaires for the first time. At the age of 26, he was listed as the second-youngest billionaire in the world, a distinction that underscored the rapid growth of Snapchat and the value of the company's equity. Murphy's wealth has fluctuated in subsequent years in correlation with Snap Inc.'s stock price following the company's 2017 IPO.

In 2025, the Los Angeles Business Journal ranked Murphy on its list of notable business figures in the Los Angeles area, recognizing his continued role as CTO of Snap Inc. and his contributions to the region's technology sector.

Murphy's recognition has been characterized less by personal celebrity and more by his association with the broader success of Snapchat and Snap Inc. While his co-founder Spiegel has tended to receive more individual media attention as the company's CEO and public face, Murphy has been consistently acknowledged for his essential technical contributions to the platform's development and growth.

Legacy

Bobby Murphy's legacy is closely tied to the creation and development of Snapchat, an application that fundamentally altered the landscape of digital communication and social media. The concept of ephemeral messaging — content that disappears after being viewed — was popularized by Snapchat and subsequently adopted by numerous other technology companies. Facebook's Instagram introduced Stories in 2016, a feature widely seen as directly inspired by Snapchat's format, and similar features were adopted across platforms including WhatsApp, YouTube, and Twitter.

Murphy's role as the technical architect of Snapchat places him among a generation of software engineers who built some of the most consequential technology platforms of the 2010s. His work on the technical infrastructure of Snap Inc. — from the core messaging application to augmented reality features to hardware products like Spectacles — has demonstrated a range of engineering capabilities.

The Snap Foundation, which Murphy co-established ahead of the company's IPO, represents an effort to direct a portion of the wealth generated by Snapchat toward philanthropic purposes, with a focus on arts, education, and youth programs.

As a Filipino-American who achieved prominence in the technology industry at a young age, Murphy's story has also had cultural significance, serving as a point of representation for the Filipino-American community in an industry where such visibility has been limited. His sustained role at Snap Inc., where he has served as CTO from the company's founding through the present, reflects a long-term commitment to the technical direction of the company he helped create as a college student.