Snapchat is a messenger app that makes sent pictures disappear after a few seconds. A simple concept, which, however, inspires millions of people and made Evan Spiegel a billionaire. From college dropout to successful businessman.
Snap
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• Son of successful lawyers
• Graduated from an elite university
• From a university project to a billion-dollar company
Grew up in luxury
SnapchatInventor and CEO Evan Spiegel became one of the youngest self-made billionaires in the world at age 26. Born on June 4, 1990 in Los Angeles, Evan Thomas Spiegel is the son of two successful American lawyers, Melissa and John Spiegel.
The later founder of Snap Inc. enjoyed a glamorous life without limits during his childhood. Evan grew up in a $ 2 million home in a posh area near Malibu, spending his free time at yacht clubs and golf courses.
Evan Spiegel went to school at the exclusive Crossroads High School in Santa Monica, which cost tens of thousands of dollars a year. Here, the young Evan, a technology-loving nerd, was often bullied by his classmates and was considered a shy contemporary. At that time he also attended design courses and worked as an intern Red Bull.
From university project to billion-dollar success
After Spiegel graduated from high school, he attended the elite Stanford University to pursue his passion for design and technology. It was in Stanford that the idea of Snapchat finally arose. Together with his fellow student and friend Bobby Murphy, Spiegel developed the “Snapchat” app as part of a university project. The development of Snapchat started in 2011, with Bobby Murphy leaving the project after just two months.
However, the project sparked such enthusiasm in Spiegel that he gave up his studies in order to devote himself to its further development. The company was founded by Snap Inc.
As early as May 2012, Snapchat was so popular that around 25 images per second were sent worldwide.
Murphy later demanded in a lawsuit to profit from the success of the app, which he finally succeeded. It is said that Murphy should have had the actual basic idea of Snapchat.
A short time later, the app also attracted a lot of attention from the competition, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg offered the young Spiegel several million US dollars for the rights to Snapchat in 2013. A deal that Spiegel refused.
A rapid rise
Belief in his project paid off just a year later, as the company was valued at around ten billion dollars as early as 2014. Snapchat continued to grow, and in 2016 the app topped the download charts in 28 countries. At that point, videos received 10 billion views daily through the app.
The IPO followed in 2017, with the company closing its first day of trading with a market capitalization of $ 33 billion. Today the stock trades for a good $ 40, which translates into a current market capitalization of roughly $ 62 billion.
Spiegel’s total estimated net worth is approximately $ 4.5 billion. Since 2015 Spiegel has been in a relationship with the supermodel Miranda Kerr, whom he married in 2017. In 2018 the couple had their first son Hart, followed by their second son Myles in 2019.
Henry Ely / finanzen.ch editors
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Bildquelle: Andrew Harnik / AP, Jae C. Hong / AP, Ray Tamarra / Getty Images
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