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Evan Spiegel

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Evan Spiegel is a businessman from Los Angeles. He is the co-founder and leader of a company called Snap Inc.

Evan Spiegel at TechCrunch 2
Evan Spiegel at TechCrunch 2

He is most famous for helping create the app Snapchat. This app uses ephemeral messaging. That is a way to send messages that do not last forever. This idea changed how many people talk to each other online. It makes digital talking feel more like a real moment.

Spiegel started with a simple idea in a classroom. In April 2011, he proposed a new app for a design class. He worked with two classmates named Bobby Murphy and Reggie Brown. They first made a prototype called Picaboo. Later, they changed the name to Snapchat. The app grew very fast. By the end of 2012, one million people used it every single day. Spiegel left Stanford University in 2012 to focus on his work. He later finished his degree in 2018.

Spiegel was born on June 4, 1990, in Los Angeles. His parents, John W. Spiegel and Melissa Ann Thomas, are both lawyers. He grew up in Pacific Palisades, California. He went to the Crossroads School for Arts and Sciences in Santa Monica. He also took design classes at Otis College and Art Center College of Design. Before his big success, he had many different jobs. He worked an unpaid internship at Red Bull. He also worked for a biomedical company and at a place called Intuit.

His success brought him a lot of wealth and fame. In 2015, he was the youngest billionaire in the world. Forbes said his net worth was $2.5 billion then. By 2021, his wealth reached $13.8 billion. Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in 2014 and 2017. He also became a citizen of France in 2018. He married model Miranda Kerr in May 2017. They have three sons together and one stepson.

Spiegel uses much of his success to help others. He and Murphy started the Snap Foundation. This group helps young people in Los Angeles find paths to creative jobs. He gave $3 million to help during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, he gave $20 million to Stockton Scholars. He and Miranda Kerr also paid off student debts for a graduating class. In the past, he faced trouble over mean emails from his college days. He said he was very sorry for those words. He said they did not reflect who he is today.

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