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Snap Inc

Social Media & TechnologyFounded 2011
Reviewed by Swet Parvadiya
Company data updated: October 2026

Founders

Who Founded Snap?

Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, Reggie Brown · Founded 2011 · HQ today: Santa Monica, California

Who founded Snap?

Snap was founded by Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, Reggie Brown in 2011. It is now led by Evan Spiegel.

Founders
Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, Reggie Brown
Founded
2011
Headquarters
Santa Monica, California
Number of founders
3
Current CEO
Evan Spiegel (since 2011)
Where was Snap founded?
Snap was founded in Los Angeles, California, United States in 2011.
When was Snap founded?
Snap was founded in 2011.
Who started Snap?
Snap was founded by Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy and Reggie Brown.
How old is Snap?
Snap is 15 years old as of 2026.

Founding Story

In 2011, Stanford students Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy and Reggie Brown launched an app called Picaboo that let photos disappear after viewing. It was renamed Snapchat later that year and spread quickly among high school students. In 2013, Facebook reportedly offered about $3 billion to buy the company, and Spiegel turned it down. Brown was pushed out early and sued. The 2014 settlement was later reported at $157.5 million.

Evan Spiegel

Co-founder 2011

Background

Evan Spiegel studied product design at Stanford University. He left before graduating to build Snapchat and completed his degree in 2018.

Role at Snap Inc

Evan Spiegel co-founded Snapchat in 2011 and has been CEO of Snap Inc. since its founding. He has led the company's major product bets, including Stories, Spectacles, Spotlight, Snapchat+ and the SPECS AR glasses, as well as the April 2026 restructuring that cut about 1,000 roles. He and Bobby Murphy hold voting control of Snap through Class C shares.

Evan Spiegel was born in 1990 in Los Angeles. Education: Otis College of Art and Design.

Evan Thomas Spiegel was born on June 4, 1990. In 2015 he was the youngest billionaire in the world.

Bobby Murphy

Co-founder 2011

Background

Bobby Murphy grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and studied mathematics and computational science at Stanford University, where he met Evan Spiegel. Murphy is widely described as the technical architect of Snapchat's early infrastructure, building the original iOS application and server backend while Spiegel drove product design and business strategy. Murphy's engineering background in computational mathematics informed Snap's early approach to image processing and compression, which would later evolve into the company's augmented reality capabilities.

Role at Snap Inc

Bobby Murphy co-founded Snap Inc. and is its Chief Technology Officer. He built the first version of Snapchat and has overseen Snap's technology, including the Lens AR platform and Lens Studio. Murphy rarely speaks in public. Like Spiegel, he holds Class C shares that carry 10 votes each.

Bobby Murphy was born in 1988. Education: Saint Mary's College High School.

Reggie Brown

Co-founder 2011

Background

Reggie Brown was a Stanford student and fraternity brother of Evan Spiegel when he came up with the ephemeral-photo concept behind Snapchat.

Role at Snap Inc

Reggie Brown proposed the idea of disappearing photos while at Stanford in 2011 and worked on the first version of Picaboo with Spiegel and Murphy. He was pushed out of the company soon after and sued for a share of it. The 2014 settlement was later reported at $157.5 million, and Snap credited him as a co-founder. (Exact birth year remains publicly undisclosed).

Snap Inc: CEO & Leadership History

Full timeline →

Evan Spiegel

Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer

2011 – Present

Evan Spiegel co-founded Snapchat and has served as its CEO since inception, driving every major product, strategic, and cultural decision in the company's history. His product philosophy prioritizing emotional authenticity and user experience over engagement metrics and data collection has defined Snapchat's design language and differentiated the platform from its more data-centric competitors. Spiegel's decision to reject Facebook's $3 billion acquisition offer in 2013 established Snap's independence and, in retrospect, was one of the most consequential decisions in the history of social media, precipitating Meta's decade-long campaign to contain Snap through feature replication rather than acquisition.

Bobby Murphy

Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer

2011 – Present

As CTO and co-founder, he built the underlying engineering infrastructure that allows Snap's camera to process complex AR lenses instantly, keeping the platform technically ahead of Meta's clones.

Keep researching Snap

Who Founded Snap? FAQ

Who were the founders of Snap?

Snap was founded in 2011 by Stanford University undergraduates Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, and Reggie Brown.

Who was Reggie Brown and what was his role in creating Snapchat?

Reggie Brown conceived the core concept of sending photos that disappear after a few seconds during a conversation with Evan Spiegel in the spring of 2011 at Stanford. Brown also drew the original iconic "Ghostface Chillah" logo.

Who was Bobby Murphy and what was his contribution to the prototype?

Bobby Murphy, a computational mathematics student at Stanford, was recruited by Spiegel to write the software code. Murphy single-handedly programmed the original iOS client and server architecture for Picaboo in a matter of months.

What previous startup did Spiegel and Murphy launch together that failed?

Before Snapchat, Spiegel and Murphy launched Future Freshman, an online website designed to help high school students, parents, and guidance counselors manage college admissions applications, which failed to attract users.

Where was the physical birthplace of the first Snapchat app?

The initial code was written in Bobby Murphy's student apartment near Stanford and subsequently developed in the dining room of Evan Spiegel's father's residence in Pacific Palisades, California, before moving to a boardwalk cottage in Venice Beach.

Why was Reggie Brown pushed out of the company in August 2011?

Following arguments over equity allocation and corporate hierarchy, Spiegel and Murphy changed administrative passwords and severed contact with Brown, leading to years of acrimonious litigation before settling for $157.5 million in 2014.

What is the story behind the Snapchat ghost logo "Ghostface Chillah"?

The ghost logo was sketched by Reggie Brown in Adobe Illustrator and named "Ghostface Chillah" after Ghostface Killah of the hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan, symbolizing the disappearing, ephemeral nature of the platform's messages.

How did the founders achieve early viral growth without marketing money?

Snapchat took off virally when Evan Spiegel's mother showed it to his high school-aged cousin in Orange County. The app spread like wildfire across Southern California high schools, where students used it to pass visual notes during class.

Who was the first venture capitalist to invest in Snapchat?

In May 2012, Jeremy Liew of Lightspeed Venture Partners tracked down the founders after noticing his teenage daughter and her friends using Snapchat, investing an initial $485,000 seed check that allowed Spiegel and Murphy to keep servers running.

What unique bond unites Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy?

Spiegel and Murphy have maintained an unbreakable partnership for over 15 years, with Spiegel serving as the visionary product designer and public CEO, while Murphy quietly oversees software engineering and technical innovation as CTO.

What philanthropic commitments have the founders established?

Prior to the 2017 IPO, Spiegel and Murphy pledged to donate over 13 million Class A shares to create the Spiegel-Murphy Family Foundation and the Snap Foundation to support arts, education, and youth nonprofits in Los Angeles.

What is the lasting legacy of the Snap founders?

The founders permanently altered global digital communication by proving that impermanence, privacy, and visual expression are vastly more human and liberating than permanent, public social media feeds.

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Content is for informational purposes only. Not financial advice. Data sourced from SEC filings, annual reports, and public records. See our full disclaimer and methodology.