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One of the youngest American billionaires, Evan Spiegel is the co-founder of one of the most widely used social media app – Snapchat. While you must know a lot about Snapchat, there is only a little that we all know about the man behind the most popular app of Gen Z. Read this blog to get insights into the mind behind Snapchat- Evan Spiegel and discover more about his life.
Evan Spiegel’s Early Life and Education
Evans Spiegel was born in Los Angeles, California on 4th June 1990. He was born into a family of lawyers and is a member of Kappa Sigma fraternity. He completed his formal schooling from Crossroads School of Arts and Sciences in Santa Monica and then went on to complete his further studies from Stanford University.
While still in school, he took special design classes at the Otis College of Art and Design and Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. As a student, he did a paid internship for a biomedical company in Cape Town, South Africa and at Intuit on the TxtWeb project. He also worked as an unpaid sales intern at Red Bull.
A Sneak Peek into Evan Spiegel’s Personal Life
Evan Spiegel likes and tries to keep most of his personal life private. In 2015, Spiegel began dating Australian model Miranda Kerr and then, later on, got engaged on July 20, 2016. They got married in a private ceremony on May 27, 2017, before which he bought a 7.164 square foot and a $15 million house. The house was previously owned by Harrison Ford. In 2018, he became a father to a son. He named his son Hart Kerr Spiegel. In 2019, he had his second child, Myles Spiegel. In 2016, Forbes 400 ranked him at 854 with $4 billion in wealth. In 2017, Spiegel became one of the youngest public company CEOs and he is also a member of the Berggruen Institute’s 21st Century Council.
Career Roadmap and Building Snapchat App
While studying product design at Stanford, in April 2011, Evans proposed the idea of an app with the concept of ephemeral texting. This, however, was ridiculed by his classmates. Later on he worked with his classmates Bobby Murphy and Reggie Brown and launched a prototype known as “Picabbo” which was eventually renamed as Snapchat.
Snapchat became popular with time and finally in 2012, Evans left Stanford to focus completely on the app. The end of 2102, witnessed Snachat accounting for 1 million daily users. Spiegel and Murphy then created the ‘Snap Foundation’ which is a non profit organisation that aims at helping in areas of arts and education. They even donated $3million during the pandemic.
The Wall Street Journal reported in January 2017 that after Snap Inc.’s expected March 2017 IPO, Murphy and Evan Spiegel would own more than “70 per cent of the voting power” in the company, as well as approximately 45 per cent of the total stock.
The Guys Who Founded Snapchat
Fun Facts Time
Now let’s read some interesting and fascinating facts about Evans Spiegel.
Changed his app name from ‘Snapchat’ to ‘Snap’
In september 2016, Evans renamed ‘Snapchat’ as ‘Snap’. He called it a camera company that went public on 2nd March 2017. The company even witnessed a 44% raise in its shares. This added $1.6 billion to Evan’s net worth. At present, the company is valued to be of nearly $33 billion.
Similarities with Zuckerberg
Spiegel shares a lot of similarities with the co-founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg. Both were school dropouts – Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard while Spiegel was a Stanford dropout. They dropped out of their respective schools to focus on the app they were developing.
Spiegel since the beginning has been a fan of parties. He likes to socialise and isn’t shy about spending money to live an extravagant life. He also has had connections with women in Hollywood – Taylor Swift and model Miranda Kerr to whom he eventually got married. LA Weekly profile reports that he used to throw large parties in high-school. This practice continued on into college, where he was social chair of Stanford’s Kappa Sigma fraternity.
He owns a 15 million dollar house
Before getting engaged to Miranda Kerr, he bought a 7,164 square feet house worth 15 million dollars. The house previously belonged to the famous American actor and film producer, Harrison Ford.
A lawsuit was filed against Spiegel by Reggie Brown
Reggie Brown filed a lawsuit against Spiegel for forcing him out of the company. He reported that Spiegel did not give him his share of equity. The lawsuit was eventually settled and Reggie received $158 million to leave the company.
So, this is all you need to know about the founder of Snapchat, Evans Spiegel. For more such insightful stories about great personalities and business tycoons, stay connected with Leverage Edu! You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Leave your comments below for our valuable feedback.
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