Evan Spiegel

Evan Spiegel
Born	Evan Thomas Spiegel 4 6, 1990
Birthplace	Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Nationality	American, French
Occupation	Entrepreneur, business executive
Title	CEO of Snap Inc.
Employer	Snap Inc.
Known for	Co-founder and CEO of Snap Inc.
Education	Stanford University (BS)
Children	3

Evan Thomas Spiegel (born June 4, 1990) is an American and French businessman who co-founded Snap Inc., the parent company of the multimedia messaging platform Snapchat. As co-founder and chief executive officer, Spiegel has led the company from a Stanford University dorm-room project into one of the most prominent social media companies in the world. Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, Spiegel conceived the idea for an application built around ephemeral photo messaging while studying product design at Stanford. He launched what was initially called "Picaboo" in 2011, alongside fellow Stanford students Bobby Murphy and Reggie Brown, before rebranding the service as Snapchat. In 2015, Spiegel became the youngest billionaire in the world. He took Snap Inc. public in 2017 in one of the largest technology initial public offerings of the decade. In subsequent years, Spiegel has expanded Snap's focus beyond its core messaging product into areas including augmented reality and hardware, most notably the company's Spectacles smart glasses line. Spiegel has also emerged as a public voice on technology policy, speaking at forums such as the Council on Foreign Relations and writing in the Financial Times on issues including social media regulation.

Early Life

Evan Thomas Spiegel was born on June 4, 1990, in Los Angeles, California. He grew up in an affluent household in the city's Pacific Palisades neighborhood. Both of his parents were attorneys; his father, John Spiegel, was a partner at the law firm Munger, Tolles & Olson, and his mother, Melissa Ann Thomas, was also a lawyer. Spiegel attended the Crossroads School for Arts and Sciences, a private school in Santa Monica, California, where he developed interests in both art and technology.

Spiegel showed entrepreneurial inclinations from an early age. He was exposed to the technology industry during his youth in Los Angeles and took an interest in design and product development. His upbringing in one of the entertainment and technology capitals of the world shaped his later approach to building consumer products that emphasized visual communication and creative expression.

Education

Spiegel enrolled at Stanford University, where he studied product design. It was during his time at Stanford that the concept for what would become Snapchat first materialized. Working alongside classmates Bobby Murphy and Reggie Brown, Spiegel developed the idea for a photo-messaging application in which images would disappear after being viewed by the recipient. The idea was initially proposed in a class setting, and Spiegel and Murphy began coding the application while still enrolled as students.

Spiegel ultimately left Stanford in 2012 to focus full-time on the rapidly growing Snapchat application, though he later returned to complete his degree. He received a Bachelor of Science from Stanford University.

Career

Founding of Snapchat

In 2011, Spiegel, along with Bobby Murphy and Reggie Brown, launched an application called "Picaboo," which allowed users to send photos that would automatically delete after a set period. The application was soon rebranded as Snapchat. The core concept—ephemeral messaging—distinguished it from other social media platforms that emphasized permanent content sharing. Spiegel served as chief executive officer from the company's inception, while Murphy took on the role of chief technology officer.

Snapchat gained rapid traction, particularly among younger users who were drawn to the impermanence of its messaging format. The application's user base grew substantially throughout 2012 and 2013, attracting significant venture capital investment. Spiegel's product decisions during this period, including the introduction of "Stories" (a feature allowing users to post content visible for 24 hours), helped define the platform's identity and influenced the broader social media landscape.

The founding of Snapchat was not without controversy. Reggie Brown, who had been part of the original trio, was forced out of the company in its early stages and subsequently filed a lawsuit against Spiegel and Murphy, claiming he had originated the idea for the disappearing-photo application. The lawsuit was settled in September 2014 for a reported $157.5 million, with Brown receiving credit as one of the original co-founders of Snapchat.

Growth and Snap Inc. IPO

Under Spiegel's leadership, Snapchat expanded from a simple photo-messaging tool into a full-fledged multimedia platform. The company introduced video messaging, filters, lenses powered by augmented reality, and a "Discover" section featuring curated content from media publishers. These innovations attracted hundreds of millions of users and positioned Snapchat as a competitor to established platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.

In September 2016, the company rebranded itself as Snap Inc. and described itself as a "camera company," signaling Spiegel's broader ambitions beyond the Snapchat messaging app. That same year, Snap Inc. released its first hardware product, Spectacles—sunglasses equipped with a built-in camera that could record short video clips and upload them to Snapchat.

Snap Inc. went public on the New York Stock Exchange on March 2, 2017, in an initial public offering that valued the company at approximately $24 billion. It was one of the largest technology IPOs since Facebook's in 2012. Spiegel and Murphy structured the offering so that the publicly traded shares carried no voting rights, allowing the co-founders to retain complete control over corporate decisions. Spiegel received a one-time stock bonus of approximately $637 million tied to the IPO, one of the largest executive compensation packages in history at the time.

Challenges and Competition

Following the IPO, Snap Inc. faced significant challenges. Facebook's Instagram launched a competing "Stories" feature in 2016, which closely replicated Snapchat's core functionality and drew users and advertisers away from the platform. Snap's stock price declined substantially from its IPO highs as investor confidence wavered amid slowing user growth and mounting financial losses.

In 2018, a controversial redesign of the Snapchat application drew widespread criticism from users, including a petition on Change.org that garnered over a million signatures urging the company to reverse the changes. The redesign contributed to a decline in daily active users, and Snap's stock price fell further. Spiegel acknowledged the difficulties but defended the redesign as necessary for the platform's long-term evolution.

Despite these setbacks, Spiegel continued to invest in augmented reality technology, content partnerships, and international expansion. Snapchat's user base eventually stabilized and resumed growth, particularly in markets outside the United States. The company also improved its advertising technology, which helped narrow its financial losses.

Augmented Reality and Hardware

A consistent theme of Spiegel's leadership has been Snap Inc.'s investment in augmented reality (AR). The company has developed sophisticated AR features within the Snapchat application, including "Lenses" that overlay digital effects on users' faces and surroundings in real time. Snap has positioned itself as a leader in consumer-facing AR technology, and Spiegel has articulated a long-term vision in which AR overlays become a fundamental part of how people interact with the world.

The company has continued to iterate on its Spectacles hardware line. By 2025, Snap was preparing for the public release of a new generation of Spectacles designed as full augmented reality glasses. In a November 2025 interview with Bloomberg, Spiegel discussed his bet on smart glasses and the company's hardware ambitions in depth. However, the effort faced a setback in February 2026 when a key executive on the Spectacles project departed the company at what TechCrunch described as "a critical moment" for the product's development.

Public Policy and Industry Engagement

In his role as CEO, Spiegel has increasingly engaged in public policy discussions relating to technology and social media. In September 2025, he delivered the Bernard L. Schwartz Lecture at the Council on Foreign Relations, where he discussed the growth and evolution of Snap Inc., the implications of technological innovation on data privacy, and the responsibilities of social media companies.

In February 2026, Spiegel authored an opinion piece in the Financial Times critiquing Australia's social media ban for users under 16 years of age, which had been implemented approximately two months earlier. Spiegel described the policy as "a high-stakes experiment" and questioned its efficacy. Reporting by the Australian Financial Review quoted Spiegel as stating that the ban was "backfiring," with the Australian government nevertheless doubling down on its regulatory approach.

Leadership and Internal Company Communications

Spiegel has periodically communicated his vision for Snap Inc. through internal letters to employees. In September 2025, on the occasion of Snap's 14th anniversary, Spiegel sent a note to team members reflecting on the company's journey since its founding.

In a December 2025 interview with Business Insider, Spiegel discussed his personal approach to managing the pressures of leading a public technology company. He stated that he had improved at managing stress over time and suggested reframing stress as "a gift" and an "opportunity," asserting that this perspective shift can have "a huge impact on your ability to manage it."

Criticism

Spiegel's leadership has drawn criticism over the years. In 2014, emails Spiegel had written as a member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity at Stanford University were leaked to the media. The emails, which dated from his college years, contained language described as sexist and derogatory. Spiegel publicly stated that he was "mortified and embarrassed" by the contents of the emails and that they did not reflect the person he had become.

In December 2025, Yahoo Finance named Spiegel as a candidate for "Worst CEO of the Year," citing Wall Street concerns about the future of Snap Inc. and the company's ongoing challenges in competing for advertising revenue against larger technology firms.

Personal Life

Spiegel began dating Australian model Miranda Kerr in 2015. In July 2016, the couple announced their engagement. They married on May 27, 2017, in a private ceremony at their home in Los Angeles.

The couple have three children together. Their first son, Hart, was born in May 2018. Their second son, Myles, was born in October 2019. Kerr also has a son, Flynn, from her previous marriage to actor Orlando Bloom.

Spiegel holds both American and French citizenship.

Recognition

Spiegel has received attention as one of the youngest founders and CEOs in the technology industry. In 2015, he became the youngest billionaire in the world, a distinction that drew significant media coverage. His leadership of Snap Inc. from its founding through its IPO and subsequent public market evolution has been a frequent subject of analysis in financial and technology media.

In September 2025, Spiegel was invited to deliver the Bernard L. Schwartz Lecture at the Council on Foreign Relations, a forum typically reserved for prominent figures in business, government, and international affairs. His appearance underscored his growing role as a public commentator on issues beyond social media product development, including data privacy, technological innovation, and government regulation of the technology sector.

Spiegel's public profile has been shaped by both the commercial impact of Snapchat—which introduced ephemeral messaging and popularized features later adopted by competitors—and by the scrutiny that accompanies leading a publicly traded technology company. Media coverage of Spiegel has ranged from profiles emphasizing his product instincts and design sensibility to critical assessments of Snap Inc.'s financial performance and competitive position.

Legacy

Spiegel's influence on the technology and social media industries is closely associated with the introduction and popularization of ephemeral messaging. Snapchat's core concept—that shared content could be temporary rather than permanent—represented a departure from the prevailing norms of social media when it launched in 2011. The feature was subsequently adopted in various forms by competitors, most notably Instagram (owned by Meta Platforms), which introduced its own "Stories" feature in 2016.

Beyond ephemeral messaging, Snapchat popularized augmented reality filters and lenses as a mainstream consumer technology. The platform's AR features, which allowed users to overlay digital effects on their faces and environments through their smartphone cameras, helped establish consumer expectations for AR experiences and influenced product development across the industry. Spiegel's stated long-term vision for Snap Inc. positions augmented reality as a fundamental technology for future computing, a strategy embodied by the company's continued development of Spectacles smart glasses.

Spiegel's decision to structure Snap Inc.'s IPO with non-voting public shares was notable and controversial, sparking debate about corporate governance standards in the technology sector. The move ensured that Spiegel and Murphy retained full voting control over the company, a structure that has been both praised for allowing long-term strategic vision and criticized for limiting shareholder accountability.

As of 2025, Spiegel continues to serve as CEO of Snap Inc., leading the company through an evolving competitive landscape that includes challenges from larger rivals and shifting regulatory environments around the world.