Evan Spiegel: Turning Down a Billion Dollars

[upbeat music] Super excited to talk to you. Uh, we've been talking a bunch before we started recording. I did a podcast on you, like almost 10 years ago. It's episode, I think, 22 of Founders based on this book on How to Turn Down a Billion Dollars. The thing that stuck out to me the most that w- when I read that book, 'cause a lot of that story takes place when you're just like still in college, and you're talking about two of your entrepreneur heroes. And Steve Jobs, makes sense, my entrepreneur hero too. But you mentioned this guy named Edwin Land, and I'm reading this, I'm like, "How the fuck does a 21-year-old kid even know who Edwin Land is?" I've done like-

[laughs]

... 10 podcasts on him, read every single biography. Tell me what, like how you discovered Edwin Land, and what you admired about him.

Yeah. I, I think, you know, he's so central to the history of photography, and so, you know, as we've set out to try to reinvent the camera and how people express themselves with the camera, we studied a lot, you know, about the evolution of the camera over time. I mean, one of the funny stories that we found out, the first selfie ever was taken by a guy named Robert Cornelius, and the c- my co-founder, Bobby, his name is Robert Cornelius Murphy. So like we [laughs]

[laughs]

... we found just like by un- unpacking like the history of, of photography, a lot of interesting, you know, similarities and parallels, and we've learned a ton from founders like Edwin Land, who transformed photography really by focusing on building amazing products, and thinking about, you know, how to make sure those products fit into people's lives and uplifted humanity. I think, you know, if you look at instant photography and the role that that played in people's lives, Edwin thought of the camera as something that was incredibly personal, right? And, and I think, um, as we've looked at the, the sort of trajectory of technology, over the long arc of time, technology gets more, and more, and more, and more personal. And so I think as technology gets more deeply interwoven in our lives, the founders who are thinking about making technology more personal, uh, and how it, you know, how the, how the things they're inventing like fit into and support humanity, I think that's a real advantage.

But how does a 21-year-old kid decide, 'cause you even said it in the book, that you're like, "I wanna build a company at the intersection of technology and liberal arts." What was happening that you were interested, like, in doing that?

Part of it was my background growing up. So I went to school, uh, in Santa Monica here, uh, you know, and, and, uh, at a, a school called Crossroads. Uh, Crossroads, you know, it's like the, the full name for Crossroads is actually Crossroads School for Arts and Sciences. So it actually is, you know, the intersection of science and, and art together. And actually, a lot of what the school is focused on is developing empathy, building empathy, and they have this thing called council, for example, where you sit with about 12 other students and, you know, speak from the heart, uh, and take turns expressing yourself. And the school is really oriented on, on how you build strong relationships, build empathy with other people. And so I, I literally, I, I grew up at a school that was so focused on the intersection of art and science, but then also wrapped all of it in, you know, a commitment to humanity, to understanding one another, to building relationships, you know, to giving back. I mean, the school is very anchored in community service. Uh, our, our ki- three of our kids go there, uh, now, which is fun. Uh, some of the teachers are still there. But I think a lot of it was from my upbringing and that being a real focus. And then, you know, as I, as I got a bit older and I got, you know, into things like graphic design and I built my own computer, I was always sort of working at that intersection of, of art and, and technology.