Evan Spiegel is 27 years old and has been named the youngest self-made billionaire in the world for the past two years. He has an estimated net worth of $4 billion. This young, exemplary entrepreneur co-founded Snapchat in September 2011. The fact that he could come up with an idea that spread so quickly reveals how innovative and creative he is as an entrepreneur.
Spiegel was born to wealthy parents in Los Angeles, California and attended Stanford University in a product design program. In one of his classes, he started a prototype based on the idea he had for creating a disappearing pictures app. While his classmates made fun of his final project, it evolved into an image messaging and multimedia mobile application. By April 2016 it was the top downloaded app in 28 different countries.
This idea of creating a disappearing picture app is a great business idea because not only does it represent real innovation, but it also has a social and cultural impact. Snapchat allows people to communicate locally with friends as well with people around the world. Spiegel has added multiple changes to the app over the past few years. The introduction to snapchat filters as well as the “snap map” have added variety to the application. This reveals how the app has been updated multiple times to make it more efficient and applicable to more people. Whether it be video chatting, looking at the news, or watching what others are doing, snapchat allows people of all ages to stay in contact with each other and the world around them.
Spiegel had to exhibit multiple traits as an entrepreneur to come up with this brilliant idea. He was both innovative and creative, and was willing to alter his idea to make it better. For example, he originally called the idea “Picaboo.” However, he developed a different name that was a better fit. Spiegel also was determined and confident. Although people were not fond of his idea at first, he still never gave up on it. He was not afraid of failure and was not afraid to take risks.
This determination and confidence was what drove Spiegel to never give up on this idea. His privileged life conditioned him to never take “no” for an answer. While at Stanford, Spiegel sat in on a graduate level class on entrepreneurship and venture capital, where he talked with the Google CEO and YouTube co-founder. Talking with other entrepreneurs most likely inspired him through his journey of ideation.
Like Spiegel was inspired by other entrepreneurs, I am also inspired by his idea. The fact that he has become so successful has made me eager to also think of new ideas that can make life better. There is a significant impact that business ideas can have on both social and cultural aspects of the world. The principles of adapting, discovering, and perspective are important principles that I have taken into consideration after researching Evan Spiegel.
Sources: www.businessinsider.com / www.entrepreneur.com
I had never heard the history of Snapchat, so this was interesting to read about. When you consider the bare bones of the app, there doesn’t necessarily seem to be anything appealing about it, and yet look at its success! Spiegel saw something I would not have been able to see, and you are right, he is successful despite what others had told him.
This is such an interesting story! Spiegel really is inspirational, especially considering how no one supported his idea but he still persevered and was greatly rewarded for it! I also think it is really neat how he continues to innovate and update the app all the time!