Evan Spiegel on building products people love and leading creative teams

In this podcast, Evan Spiegel talks about entrepreneurship, innovation in tech (like AR and AI), the importance of improving products quickly, managing stress, and dealing with impostor syndrome.

Evan Spiegel, co-founder and CEO of Snapchat. (YouTube)

It started with one line: “I wish I could send a photo that disappears.” That’s what Evan Spiegel, co-founder and CEO of Snapchat, told Steven Bartlett on one of my favourite podcasts: The Diary of a CEO. Steven also happens to be one of the investors on Dragons’ Den, by far the best British TV show ever created if you’re into business and building products.

Evan had a feeling that maybe there was something better than Facebook’s feed. So he built a little app that opened straight to the camera. It was simple, glitchy and fun. His friends loved it, and the app went viral. It grew fast, and after reaching millions of users in just a few months, it ran into technical setbacks:

“We had a three-day outage and thought we were done. But when we turned it back on, users came straight back. That moment gave us confidence that people really cared about what we were building.”

He shares the challenges of growing the company, hiring the right people, building strong teams and facing competition from tech giants like Facebook, which tried to buy Snapchat and later copied many of its features. Despite all that, Evan credits his team’s determination, culture and vision as the real drivers of Snapchat’s success. His advice to founders is simple: care deeply about what you’re building and see change as a chance to get better. Success, he says, comes from passion and resilience, not just having a good idea.

The company’s culture and values

Snapchat’s core values are simple: Kind, Smart, and Creative. That mix of kindness, creativity, and intelligence creates an environment where people feel safe sharing ideas without fear of being judged.

“Culture isn’t something you write. It’s something you do.”

That’s why Evan only hired talented, creative people who also had humility and kindness. He promoted a flat structure where ideas could come from anywhere.

“At Snapchat, critique is normal. No drama, no bloated layers. People are expected to speak up, push ideas, and take ownership. Because when people trust each other, they make different and better things.”

Evan pushed for moving fast, learning from mistakes and staying focused on what really matters, even if it means saying no to distractions. He knows that growing a company means dealing with constant change.

Entrepreneurs who care about their work, their customers and their team are more likely to succeed. That kind of passion helps them push through tough times and make the right calls, even if it means changing direction or walking away.

Turning Snapchat from a dorm-room idea into a global tech company wasn’t easy. Evan had to make tough hiring calls, protect the company culture while growing fast, handle copycats like Facebook, and deal with the pressure of being a public CEO. Evan’s experience shows just how many pressures CEOs have to deal with, and why prioritisation and focus matter so much. Learning to say “no” is part of the job.

When Evan was 23, Mark Zuckerberg offered him $3 billion to buy Snapchat, but he said no. He believed in the product and wanted to build something different. He kept the team small, creative, and focused on innovation.

“Focus isn’t just about priorities. It’s about courage. Saying no, even when it hurts. We said no to a $3 billion offer from Facebook because we believed in what we were building.”

In the tech industry, simple features like “stories” are easy to replicate, but Snapchat’s investment in AI, AR and developer ecosystems creates durable competitive advantages. This strategic shift from product to platform is critical for maintaining a long-term market position against well-funded competitors like Meta.

Social Responsibility

Evan believes content should be moderated carefully. He wants people to express themselves, but also wants the platform to feel safe and supportive. He sees it as the company’s job to create a healthy online space. Elon Musk, for example, went the other way when he took over Twitter. Cutting back moderation and letting almost anything get posted, with fewer filters and rules.

The 10 commandments for entrepreneurs

These are a set of principles and lessons that helped make Snapchat what it is today:

1. Love your product:
   Passion fuels perseverance and innovation. Care deeply about your product, team, and users.

2. Rapid feedback and iteration:
   Build, test, and learn quickly to adapt. Quick product development and user feedback were crucial to Snapchat’s success.

3. Continuous improvement:
   Most ideas aren’t great at the start. What makes them work is listening to users and improving things along the way.

4. Go after big, meaningful opportunities:
   Build things that can grow and make a real impact, even if they take longer to pay off.

5. Don’t just build products:
   Focus on building complex, hard-to-copy platforms and ecosystems.

6. Fail, adapt and repeat:
   Adapting quickly and embracing failure are essential for entrepreneurial success.

7. Motivate your team:
   Celebrate milestones and successes to motivate teams.

8. Bet on the future:
   Think 2–3 years ahead. AI and augmented reality are central to Snapchat’s future innovation roadmap.

9. Create the right culture:
   Foster trust, creativity and psychological safety. The company’s culture fuels innovation at Snapchat.

10. Act with care:
    Chase big ideas, but make sure you’re thinking about how they affect people and the world around you, especially when it comes to what gets shared online.

Watch the interview

If you want to get a real feel for his thinking on product design and leadership, it’s well worth watching.