Snapchat CEO: Exact Formula Used To Build A $130 Billion Company! I Said No To $3 Billion From Mark Zuckerberg! It’s Time To Quit Your Job When You Feel This!

Steven Bartlett (0:00)

You became the world's youngest billionaire at the age of 25 You've got Mark Zuckerberg offering you $3 billion.

Evan Spiegel (0:06)

That was a fateful day for sure, but we decided that we'd rather go it alone.

Steven Bartlett (0:11)

Was there ever a day where you doubted that decision?

SPEAKER_3 (0:15)

Evan Spiegel is the co-founder behind one of the world's biggest social media platforms, Snapchat. He turned disappearing messages into a multi-billion dollar empire, redefining how we connect online.

Steven Bartlett (0:25)

Evan, you don't do many podcasts, do you?

Evan Spiegel (0:27)

I don't do much public speaking at all, but I want to share a bit more.

Steven Bartlett (0:31)

So let's go back to those early days.

Evan Spiegel (0:32)

So I was an introvert growing up and I loved to build stuff. At school, I had built my own computer and once you start realizing that things that look really complicated on the surface aren't that difficult, you start wondering what else you can build. So that led to building Snapchat at 21 I was an undergrad at Stanford and we'd raised $485,000 at a $4.25 million valuation.

Steven Bartlett (0:51)

What a fucking deal.

Evan Spiegel (0:52)

But back then, there were a lot of apps that would get popular really, really quickly and then sort of fade away. And a lot of people told us that we should sell it. They said, you're just sending photos back and forth. How is this going to grow for the long term?

Steven Bartlett (1:02)

But the growth of Snapchat was atypical, to say the least. It was like this virus and it was reaching 75 million users on a monthly basis. So I wondered if you had any advice on the fundamental principles of success.

Evan Spiegel (1:13)

How much people care about what they do and the ability to move quickly is the predictor of success. And at Snapchat, we have a really small design team. It's nine people who are constantly generating an incredible number of ideas and products and features because 99% of ideas are not good, but 1% is.

Steven Bartlett (1:30)

I want to know what they teach at Stanford because the success rate of creating some of the world's preeminent entrepreneurs is really, really high.

Evan Spiegel (1:36)

There were a lot of very good lessons. The first one is.

Steven Bartlett (1:45)

When you look back over your earliest years, and you try and make sense of the dots that connected in hindsight, I guess, as Steve Jobs once said, what are those dots?

Evan Spiegel (1:56)

There were a couple fateful choices that my parents made that I think had a huge impact. One was that they never let me watch TV. So they never let me watch TV, didn't want me to spend my time doing that, but at the same time would allow me to get whatever book I wanted.

And that was a really, I think, formative experience for me. And reading a book, you get to use your imagination a lot, to try to paint the characters in your own mind. And that was really helpful. And because I wasn't watching TV, I had a lot of time on my hands. And so I like to build stuff. I mean, when I was young, I would make a little fake hotel in our living room and have a guest experience where my parents could come and try to stay at our hotel. And I got to use my imagination a lot at home. And my parents never made me feel bad about turning the house upside down, moving chairs around to express myself and make stuff.

Steven Bartlett (2:48)

Did you feel like you fitted in when you were a kid?

Evan Spiegel (2:50)

No, not at all. No. I was more of an introvert growing up. So I think sometimes that made it harder for me to feel like I fit in.

Steven Bartlett (3:01)

And when did computers come into the picture for you?

Evan Spiegel (3:04)

I guess I was exposed to my first computer, gosh, probably kindergarten, first grade, maybe around that period of time. My godfather brought over one of the early Macintoshes to show our family. And I got to try out things like KidPix and stuff like that. And then I guess later on in school, I went to the computer lab a lot. I really wanted my own computer. So the big breakthrough was when my mom said, you know, if you build your own computer, you can have it. We won't let you connect it to the Internet. But if you build your own computer, you can have it to play with. And so that was probably by sixth grade. I had a teacher who helped me take all the different pieces you need and put them all together to build a computer. And I think this act of putting together these pieces, turn it on, getting windows up and running, just made me realize why it seems so complicated on the outside. When you're just looking at that tower, that box, right, and you haven't yet opened it up and seen what's inside, I think it can seem really confusing or complicated. But as soon as you realize it's not that hard to put it all together and to get started, I think there's something really empowering about that feeling.