The cult of Evan: What life is like inside Snap right now (SNAP)

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July 29, 2017 6:21 PM

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel will face a referendum on his absolute power when insiders get the chance to finally sell stock after the company's IPO lock-up is lifted.

Snap cofounders Bobby Murphy (left) and Evan Spiegel (right.)

CEO Evan Spiegel’s tight grip on Snap hasn’t let up since its hotly anticipated IPO six months ago. While employees have internally expressed concern over competition from Facebook, Spiegel has said that they should instead focus on delivering the best products and on innovating.
Sources told Business Insider about Spiegel’s polarizing leadership in the face of fierce competition and the secretive, contrarian culture that has come to define life inside Snap.
1.2 billion Snap shares owned by investors and employees will be available to sell for the first time this month, presenting the ultimate test of confidence in the young company’s future.

Snap has already changed in many ways in its short life as a publicly traded company: Q&As with Spiegel are more frequent, new products are tested in ever smaller and more secretive circles, early executives have been quietly replaced, and headcount has grown.

But one thing that hasn't changed is that Snap remains an Evan Spiegel project. His centralized, unfettered control has made Snapchat the millennial generation's preferred hub for communication and entertainment. The question now is whether the company has outgrown the arrangement.

Business Insider spoke with former and current employees along with people close to Snap to understand Spiegel’s leadership in the face of fierce competition and to shed light on the secretive, contrarian culture that has come to define the company.

Even in its hometown of Venice Beach, Snap strives to keep a low profile and to maintain a sense of normalcy.

No one knows what’s inside his head

The power and respect you possess within Snap is largely determined by one factor: How close you can get to the sun.

Like Jobs, Spiegel typically eschews business-related matters inside the company to focus on product design. People close to the company say that he spends most of his time with the close-knit group of product designers who dream up new features for the app and hardware projects, like last year’s Spectacles camera glasses.

Feeling disappointed

While Snap’s collection of offices scattered across Venice Beach are spare and utilitarian when compared to the “nap pods” and game rooms included with Google and Facebook’s utopian campuses, the company lavishes its employees with perks.

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