Tiger Sisters - Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel: Creativity, Love, and the Future of Tech

Episode Date: May 25, 2026

Thank you to OneSkin for sponsoring this video. Get 15% off OneSkin with the code TIGERSISTERS at https://www.oneskin.co/TIGERSISTERS #oneskinpodSign up for our newsletter here: https://cherieluo.substack.com/subscribeMost conversations about tech focus on what’s already happened. Today, we’re talking to Evan Spiegel, co-founder and CEO of Snapchat, to discuss the future. From Gen Z consumption habits, to Snapchat’s constant evolution, to the repeatable processes behind creativity and design, this episode explores the tension between innovation and humanity in our changing world.Tune in for lessons on: ✅ The impact AI has on Gen Alpha & the future of learning ✅ The future of AR, wearables, and human computing✅ Creativity as a repeatable process (and how to become more creative) ✅ The hidden tension between technology and human relationships ✅ Evan’s practical dating advice (hint: skip the game-playing)✅ Why Evan believes America needs to think in 100-year timelines againThis episode is funny, thoughtful, deeply optimistic, occasionally chaotic, and packed with ideas about where technology and humanity may be headed next.Follow Evan: @evanspiegelLearn more about Snapchat & SpecsListen to Founders PodcastTimestamps:01:35: Introducing Evan Spiegel 02:20: What does Gen Z really want? 06:40: How do we create products for Gen Alpha?08:05: How AI is changing Gen Alpha10:54: What was Evan doing on the Internet growing up?12:30: Should there be a ban on social media for young people?15:30: How to set up rules and regulations as a parent for social media21:20: Evan’s thoughts on Human Computer Interaction (HCI)26:52: The future of Augmented Reality (AR) in our daily lives30:15: The role of creativity in Evan’s everyday life 31:42: Breaking everyday routine to foster creativity 35:20: Evan’s experience at the Met Gala 38:36: How Evan met Miranda Kerr 40:17: How Evan navigates the public eye in his relationship44:05: The #1 thing in building relationships 46:48: The difference between design vs. art 48:30: Building the Snapchat design and interface50:52: How Snapchat differentiates itself via wearables and specs 54:00: What is the market missing that Snapchat brings?59:04: Snapchat’s early days and innovating against the grain1:02:50: What will Snapchat be doing differently in the next 5 years?1:03:00: Rapid fire questions 1:05:18: If Evan had a podcast, what would he talk about and why?1:07:48: Evan’s thoughts on the importance of long term thinking 1:10:00: Evan on American healthcare 1:12:20: Closing thoughts🐯👯‍♀️ We’re the Tiger Sisters — your Wall Street & Silicon Valley big sisters Decoding Money • Power • Love✨ New episodes every Monday | Shorts all week ✨💌 Want to partner with us? Sponsorships: [e-mail] trust us?▫️ Cherie Brooke Luo — 100M+ views demystifying tech, finance & MBAs▫️ Jean Luo — ex-Goldman Sachs, ex-Snapchat exec, 50+ AI patents, startup investor▫️ Together: 4 Ivy League degrees • built billion-dollar products • two startups — decoded for youWhat you’ll get (and keep):▫️ 🚀 Ivy League cheat sheets — no $250K tuition▫️ Personal finance playbooks (salary, investing, negotiation)▫️ Networking scripts behind $100M+ deals & job offers▫️ Real conversations with CEOs, operators & investors▫️ Mindset resets — clarity without the pricey coach▫️ Systems for career, money, and long-term growth💛 LET’S CONNECT~ CHERIE ~Instagram — /cherie.brookeTikTok — /cherie.brookeSubstack — cherieluo.substack.comLinkedIn — /cherie-luo~ JEAN ~Instagram — /jeanluo_LinkedIn — /jeanluo👉 Hit Subscribe & tap the 🔔, then leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review on Spotify & Apple Podcasts. It takes 10 seconds and makes a massive difference in helping new people discover Tiger Sisters.🛍️ Items:🍵 Sisters Matcha — www.sistersmatcha.com🌀 Everything else — https://amzn.to/3z0dx5b

content in and of itself is social. It is a point of connection. It's funny. I think back to the early days of Snapchat, nobody thought Snapchat could work. I mean, our early investors we went to talk to were like, yeah, good luck. Try competing with Facebook. They've got it locked down. Your wife Miranda is so involved in fashion. You kind of like learn this new vantage point through her. You know, I wear the same thing every day. So I, um, I hadn't noticed. Our first date, which was to a yoga class. Now we're really going down memory lane here. Anyway, wait, that's so brave. Were you even flexible? I called my sister and I was like, what do I do? It's like not just like the sex talk.

It's like the tech talk too. Oh, shoot. That was good. Was it? Did I eat? Yeah, you ate with that. You wait with that. I'm Sheree.

I'm Gene. I'm Evan. And we're the Tiger Sisters. We are your Wall Street and Silicon Valley Big Sisters. And we're a top 10 business podcast bringing late night sister talk meets boardroom strategy. So we are here today with Evan Spiegel, the CEO and co-founder of Snapchat. Snap has shaped how people communicate around the world. Snap has 1 billion monthly active users and AR lenses in the Snapchat camera, which I helped develop

with Evan, aka Filters while I was at Snap, is used more than 9 billion times a day. Evan famously turned down a $3 billion offer from Mark Zuckerberg when Evan was just 23 years old, because he believed so deeply in the vision and future of Snapchat. There are many podcasts out there of Evan sharing Snap's origin story and his philosophy for scaling to a multi-billion-dollar business. Those topics dive into the past. We are here today to discuss the future. Is Gen Z cooked? Evan Spiegel, welcome to the Tiger Sisters podcast.

Thanks so much for having me. I've really been looking forward to this. Lots to cover. It's so excited. Okay, so the first topic that we really want to talk about is Gen Z, because I feel like when I was working here at Snap with you, we were obsessed with Gen Z, right? Like, we were obsessed with understanding them, empathizing with them, and building the best possible product for them. So I think let's start with just a really open-ended question. What do you think about Gen Z?

Well, I think first of all, you know, young people in general have always been most reset. to Snapchat as a new technology. Young people are open to learning about new things. They're naturally curious. And so starting Snapchat out of school, of course, you know, we kicked off the growth of Snapchat with our friends who just, you know, started using it to communicate with, you know, we all were using it to communicate with one another. And then over time, obviously, it grew across the world, across the nation, as, you know,

now reaches nearly a billion monthly active users, as you mentioned. So I think for us, so much of what we do here at Snap is actually not oriented around a specific generation or a demographic. It's more about inventing fundamentally new technology that, you know, empowers people to express themselves or live in the moment or use a new augmented reality tool or lens. But we find that new technology is just most readily adopted by young people in general. I think as I look at Gen Z specifically, and we've got a Gen Zer at home, Flynn is 15, you know, I think it's a generation of realists. I think they've grown up in a really challenging environment. You know, and you contrast that with millennials or my generation where growing up

in the 90s, I think there was a very, it was a very optimistic, peaceful period of time. There was a huge amount of economic growth and opportunity. And then obviously, millennials, you know, hit a bunch of speed bumps along the way with 9-11 or the financial crisis, the pandemic. But, you know, that means that millennials went from sort of this optimistic and peaceful frame to hitting these speed bumps, right? And I think millennials still retain that optimism, but it's been, shaped by reality. I think Gen Z grew up in that reality. And that's a very different frame, especially when you look at how Gen Z is positioned relative to boomers and the, you know, the environment that they grew up in, where education was actually affordable, where you could

afford to buy a home, where, you know, job prospects weren't necessarily shaped by AI as they are today. And so what I see when I talk to Gen Z or, you know, Flynn, friends, for example, is just a realistic perspective that they've got to do the best they can with a really complicated world today. Yeah. Does that resonate with you? Cherie is on the opposite end of the spectrum of Gen Z. Yeah. Well, now that I'm kind of thinking about it, because Flynn is 15 and I'm 30, I'm like, can I even claim Gen Z at this point? She's a millennial. The cusp. Yeah, I'm on the cusp. Yeah. Yeah, I think I'm trying to claim Gen Z because I am on the cusp. but I'm zillennial. So squarely like 1995 baby. And so I'm like, I get the best of both worlds.

So I totally hear you. I think from the millennial side, I was just like, yeah, I was there when MySpace was a huge thing. And here on the Gen Z side, I totally understand the new ways of internet adoption and being more fluid in how social media works. I put her on the spot. I don't usually ask her questions. I want to ask you, Evan, what does Gen Z want from technology? that you feel that millennials don't want or didn't have? I'm not sure there are major generational differences. Like, I think at the end, you know, a lot of this stuff comes down to what we really want as humans, right? And that is connection with other people.

Fundamentally, what makes us human is our desire for relationships. And I think people want to express that through technology because we can't always be in the same room together with our friends. Sometimes we're halfway around the world or we're at home when our friends, you know, playing sports or something like that. And technology helps us stay in touch with the people that matter most to us. So I don't necessarily think there's a generational difference there. And I think we have a huge number of millennials that use our service in Gen Z or boomers, even Gen Xers on Snapchat. So I think what I see cut across every generation is that real desire for human connection, human relationships. Yeah. I totally feel that, but also in the same vein when I'm

somehow put into contact with Gen Alpha or I come across content that Gen Alpha is making. It feels like a completely different language. Does it feel that way to you or how do we break through and either speak to, you know, the youngest generation, Gen Alpha and or create products for them or is it very similar to creating products for millennials? Is Gen Alpha old enough to make content? What's it? What's Jen Alpha? Yeah, they're 13 now. Oh my goodness. Like Skibbitty toilet Riz. Like you've heard that. I'm like, What is that? You know, I need someone to, you know, define that for me and also translate. Well, it's interesting you mention that because I do think at its heart, right, at its core, content is social in nature, right? Whether it's, you know, older generations who grew up with television shows and talking about those shows together or now, you know, on the internet, I think, you know, different generations or friend groups are finding different pieces of content and sharing that content.

And it can go viral socially in different ways. I think what really you're pointing out is that content in and of itself is social, is a point of connection. And so I do think that's going to differ based on friend group or based on generation in some ways because, you know, when you're growing up, a lot of your friends are also, you know, from school and there's similar ages to you. And so I do think we end up generationally being attracted to different types of content or different sorts of memes. But again, I think the cross-cutting, you know, undercurrent through all these generations is that desire for human connection. And content is part of how we relate to one another.

One thing when I think about Gen Alpha that's different is that similar to the way that we were the first generation to grow up with the Internet, they're the first generation to grow up in an AI native world. So like how do you think that affects or changes Gen Alpha? I've been thinking so much about this. So you know, it's really interesting because one of the biggest game changers, as you mentioned for millennials, was the Internet. It actually allowed millennials to, in many ways, in my opinion, leapfrog Gen X, right?

And in fact, I've talked to a lot of people who said, you know, it's so crazy. I went to school to learn photography. And while I was in school studying film photography, everything changed to digital. And I felt like I was leaving school with a skill set that wasn't relevant anymore. And that was really frustrating for me. And I had to learn something totally new. And I, you know, and I think millennials in the workplace, you know, and certainly even in the home dynamic, you know, young people became the folks who knew how to hook up the Wi-Fi router and could figure out how to

help their parents log into the school email, right, to know what was going on. And so I think, you know, millennials through their use of the internet, were really able to just accelerate their growth and development as a generation. And I think it reinforces the optimism that millennials still have, right, which is that they really believe in the power of these technological tools. And I think, you know, millennials are generally the parents of Gen Alpha. And so I actually think millennial parents and certainly the parents I talk to want young people to adopt AI tools, want to see how easy it is for them to build things and express themselves and create. And that to me makes me so optimistic about Gen Alpha because I think if they can grow up adopting

these tools, use them to build things, to create businesses, to try new things to learn way faster and in a personalized way, I think it'll be really, really meaningful and impactful. And I mean, there's probably no better technology to accelerate learning than, than than AI. And I think it's arriving at such an interesting and critical time for Gen Alpha when they're in that phase of just extraordinary learning and growth. Yeah, I feel like when I reflect upon my own childhood, like growing up on the internet, I just like think back on things that I was doing. I remember in the third grade, I remember those AOL chat rooms that were. I stayed away from those. Which I not remember those. Okay, there were these, there's this message word that I remember.

Sometimes I'm like, was this a fever dream? But they had this message board that was all about horses. And I love horses. And it was basically this everyone just owned horses. And you would raise horses and sell them to each other. And there was no, there was no like set currency. You just invented the currency. And you would like, so there was a ton of inflation.

So you would buy and sell horses. And then you would train them. And then you would also breed them with each other. And then you would race them against each other. And now we think back on it, I was like, like, what was I doing like in these messages? Learning about inflation. Yeah.

Yeah. I was like, I was doing the most. So I'm just like, what were you doing on the internet when you were young? Like, do you have a memory that's similar to that where you were like, wait, was that real? Did that happen to me? For me, it was less about the internet and more about all the graphic design tools. So I was obsessed with graphic design really starting around middle school. You know, and I worked on my school yearbook and my school newspaper doing the layout.

and all that kind of thing. You know, and Adobe Flash making my own little animations and little games and things like that. So for me, computers in that period of time just represented like incredible, you know, tools for creativity. And that's what I love the most growing up. Yeah.

That reminds me of you. Yeah. I was on, I don't know, it wasn't the internet, but I used a lot of creative tools as like a third or fourth creator, like remixing my own songs and designing like garage, band, like clips and stuff that I'd share with Gene and I'd be like, wait.

Should you like burn these CDs for me of like 30 minute long songs? Then I would like listen to the whole thing. It was, well, looking back on it now, it sounds horrible. But it was like creative outlet for me. Yeah. And it was like a precursor to all the creation that you do today. Oh yeah. The reason why I'm like I can edit, well, I think one of the reasons why I can edit our

podcast and, you know, create the audio for it and like audio mix and all that stuff is because I've been doing it since like the third or fourth grade through those tools. Thank you, Apple. That's awesome. Yeah. Well, it's interesting that we're talking about, I guess, like our early days with technology because we had Rahm Emanuel on our podcast maybe around three weeks ago and we were talking to him about technology and obviously social media came up. And there's a ton of people like

Rom that are saying that we should ban social media for young people, people under 16 years old. There was also a New Zealand article about this. What are your thoughts on that? I think there's like a huge, I guess, new wave and maybe new drumbeat of people saying this. Yeah. Well, I think first and foremost, like the safety and security of young people in online services is paramount. And I think folks are right to be concerned about that and right to prioritize that, right? So I think that that's critical. At the same time, and I've certainly experienced this myself as a parent, I think young people and their maturity depends less on their age than it does.

on who they are as an individual. And there are certainly some teenagers that might be ready to use Snapchat to communicate with their friends and their family. And there are others who may not be ready for that responsibility yet. I think for us in our home, we feel comfortable with Felennie's 15 using Snapchat.

We know that he's using it to stay in touch with his friends and family. And we think that's something that's actually really important for him. We know that relationships are key to mental health and well-being. That's certainly been reinforced by the research. And so I think for us and our family,

like an under 16 ban doesn't make sense because we see how much value Flynn gets from communicating with his friends and his family. So I guess I would say, you know, rather than arbitrary bans, I think the more thoughtful approach here is to actually develop clear rules and regulations for how social media is provided, especially to young people, but in general more broadly. And, you know, I would really advocate that the government does the work to develop those rules. I mean, one of the things, for example, on Snapchat, that's unique to our search. relative to text messaging, for example, is that two people have to add each other before they communicate. And that adds a layer of safety. You have to double opt in to a conversation, right? Whereas if,

you know, someone has my phone number, they can just shoot me a text, right, and start, you know, start bothering me even if I don't want to, even if I don't want to get that message. And so I think those sorts of precautions and things like, you know, not having a public friends list on Snapchat, right? It makes it much harder for people to figure out who someone's friends with or, you know, otherwise bully them because of that. So I think things like privacy, things like the protections of people double opting into conversations are really important ways that we can help protect young people, in addition to all the work we do to find bad actors and remove them from our service. So overall, I would say, like, I think a really just thoughtful

approach to making sure there are, you know, rules and regulations in place, I think will help everyone feel more comfortable with providing these communication services to young people, which are so important to their well-being. And I think, you know, as I mentioned, that's certainly been proven out by independent research on Snapchat specifically, but also more broadly. You know, when social media is used in moderation, the research actually shows it's correlated with overall well-being. Visit BetMGM Casino and check out the newest exclusive. The Price is Right Fortune Pick.

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That's right. Yeah, let's do it. I love how you were talking about for your approach to Flynn. It was more so on a personal level, right? It's like assessing individually, do I think my child is ready for social media, for these messaging apps, for Snapchat. So I think a lot of parents who are watching would be interested in your like discrete approach to that. Like what are the factors and like the features that you're like thinking through of your individual child to be like, okay, are they ready or do they need a little bit more time? Is it a checklist? Yeah.

Like how do you think about it? Well, it's so interesting, right? because teens in particular, and we were just having this conversation with Flynn and his mom the other day, where teenagers are at a point in their lives where they want a lot more freedom. And part of, I think, the conversation with teens is saying, with that freedom comes great responsibility. And so let's talk about, you know, okay, you want to stay out a little bit later, then you need to really stay in touch with your mom and let her know where you're going and whose friend's house you're at. And what is the phone number of the parent who's there so we can get in touch with them?

and you need to come back home when you say you're going to come back home. And that helps us build trust. So when you demonstrate that responsibility, then we feel more comfortable giving you more freedom. And I think, you know, that doesn't just pertain to social media, it pertains to all aspects of a teenager's life. And we want, you know, Flynn to be able to go out and have fun with his friends and begin that journey of independence, right? At 15, he's three years away from being an adult, right, and leaving our home entirely. That doesn't just happen when he turns 18. That's a gradual process of growth and development. So for us, I think in our family, depending on what he wants to do or how he's, you know, how he wants to spend his time, it's always a conversation of balancing

that sort of freedom with the real responsibilities of growing up. Yeah. So it's like an ongoing conversation. I think it has to be. Yeah. Wait, I love that because I am now realizing in real time, I've never had a conversation about technology with, you know, like, you know, when parents sit you down and they have a conversation with you about things. I never had one about technology and like how to use it in a safe and thoughtful way. I know. It's like the new conversation to have now. It's like not just like the sex talk. It's like the tech talk too. Oh, shoot. That was good. Was it? Did I eat? Yeah, you ate with that. You ate with that. And this is actually a great opportunity for me to share the keys, which if you go online,

it's a program that we put together that's all about online safety that teens can do together with their parents. And so I think sometimes parents don't even know where to start that conversation. And also, you know, sometimes a conversation isn't focused enough on the real risk, serious risk online, like extortion or drugs. These are things that can have a really serious impact and negative impact on people's lives. But oftentimes they're not talked about or people don't know enough about them. And schools aren't, you know, spending time educating young people about these risks. So we built out our own program called the keys that parents can do together with their teens. It even has like a little pop quiz in there too, as you can follow along. But I think it's a really good way

to anchor the conversation and make sure it's hitting the most important online safety topics. Yeah, I feel like it should be covered in health class. It probably should. This should be curriculum. It should be included in health class. I mean, this is a whole other conversation about it's school in general and what we should be teaching young people. But certainly I think online safety is a big part of that. Well, I have a confession and also like a memory kind of unlocked. Right now? Yeah, right now where I think I was like maybe like 11 or 12 and I was in like a kid's chat room. Where's this going?

And you're not supposed to there's like rules around this chat room. You're not allowed to like reveal like personal information about yourself. But someone's like where is everyone from? And then I said where I was from and then I was banned from that chat room. And then my like AOL account was taken down and I had to like get it back. This was, you know, when I was a preteen. So like I feel like there should be, I mean with that conversation like what should you and should you not say online? what can you and can you not post online for safety reasons?

And what are some really quick and easy ways to get help? On Snapchat, if you're being bullied, you can press and hold, report the message right away, get help from our trust and safety team in seconds or minutes. And I think that's a really big deal when it comes to online safety. I do think that technology and the advancements here are so profound. And I think it's going to mean that online services like Snapchat continue to get safer and safer. So as you guys know, we do so much research for Tiger Sisters and so much work goes into figuring out what are the best topics, what are the best guests. And we feel similarly about our skin care.

And that's why we are so excited to partner with one skin because it's not just pretty packaging. It's female founded, built by PhD scientists and rooted in longevity research. Yeah. And what I love about it is that it's totally simplified my routine. I'm someone with very sensitive skin, so I'm extra picky about what I put on my face. and when you find something that actually works, all you want to do is talk about it. And what I'm really impressed by is their OS1 peptide, which is the basis of all of their skincare and is the result of all of their research, which targets aging at the source.

Yes, exactly. Born from over a decade of longevity research, One Skin's OS1 peptide is proven to target the visible signs of aging, helping you unlock your healthiest skin now and as you age. For a limited time, try One Skin with 15% off using COVID. code tiger sisters at oneskin.co slash tiger sisters. That's 15% off at oneskin.com with code tiger sisters. And after you purchase, Oneskin will ask you how you heard about them. Please tell them that the tiger sister sent you and please support our show. I think we're both futurists. Like I am just so optimistic about the future and I genuinely think

that tech has a role in shaping the future and society for the better. I think you're you're the same, I'm pretty sure. And I guess one of the topics that I'm personally interested in, I think you're also interested in, is HCI, so human computer interaction. Is that something that you are actively thinking about? Is that something that you think is part of our future? That's something you're building towards?

Like, tell us a little bit about that. Our mission with specs is to make computing more human. I think if you look at the history of computing interfaces, right, The most fundamental way to break them down is basically into an input and an output. And the first big sort of revolution was the keyboard and the mouse. I'm skipping a few revolutions. But I think in terms of personal computing, the keyboard and the mouse as inputs were a really, really big deal. And then obviously, the graphical user interface as an output.

I think then you sort of had another big leap around the iPhone, although in many ways resembled the personal computer. it combined the input and the output into one touchscreen, which I think was another really big leap forward in terms of the way that we use computing. But I think, you know, as I look, and I think it certainly made computing more natural, right? I mean, you know, even if you look at a young child, they can pick up an iPhone and immediately figure out how to swipe around and move around. Because, you know, I think, whereas it might have taken a little while to learn how to use a keyboard, right? So I think we're certainly, you know, these interfaces are becoming more natural. the next big step for us with specs, which is our intelligent eyewear that overlays computing in the world around you, is that rather than having a screen as an interface, computing is

actually embedded in the world around you and you just use your hands and your voice and you interact with computing the same exact way that you would interact with a friend or with the world around you. And I think that's sort of the next evolution in terms of the way that we just remove more of this friction from computing. And then to put it in sort of in my input and output kind of framework, the big step change there, the big difference there is that computing output happens through see-through lenses and the glasses. And the input is just your natural hands and your voice. So that's certainly something that we're really excited about. And then, you know, we can talk futuristic sensors and all this kind of thing. But I think that's sort of the next big step

as it pertains to computing and interfaces. So that's the next step. And then do you remember that episode of Black Mirror where they had the grain? That's my favorite episode. I never saw it. Oh, so it's basically this like microcomputer that is implanted in your head so that you can actually record and save everything that you, you know, experience day to day and then you can play it back. And so the premise of the episode is that this couple, they have this big fight. And so they're like, well, let's play it back. Like, let's look at the grain. Anyway. Sounds terrifying.

Well, I guess that's my question is that would you, would you opt into that? Like, do you accept that future or do you reject that future? Well, if you go back to the founding of Snapchat, I mean, one of the fundamental things we question was why is everything saved forever online? It makes no sense, right? The world that we live in is largely ephemeral, right? Almost all of our conversations except for this one and, you know, maybe a few here and there are, they're not recorded at all.

And in fact, a lot of the way that the internet worked at the time and the online world worked at the time saving and storing everything was distorting human relationships because people feel less comfortable expressing themselves or less comfortable sharing a, you know, and a photo where they think they don't look their best, or a photo of maybe a more intimate moment like they're in the hospital and they don't want to save or save that or post that publicly. They just want to share it with a friend. And so I think that was one of the first things we did 15 years ago to say technology should actually resemble the way we interact in the real world, not create this whole other paradigm

just because we can with technology. So I would say overall, you know, I would be concerned about that sort of future where everything is recorded. I think privacy is so foundational to human expression. I think it's so foundational to creativity. I think it's the way that you can try out a bad idea without feeling embarrassed. I think it's so important to a healthy functioning democracy. So, you know, broadly speaking, I don't think that a future where everything's recorded, save forever, would be constructive or healthy for humanity.

Maybe for a scary autocracy or something, but certainly not the world that we'd like to. see. But would you be open to something being like incorporated in your body? In my body? Yeah. Like inside my body. Yeah. Like just under the skin. Yeah, no. No, no. Just under the skin. Like a little like a piercing. I mean, I don't even have a tattoo. You know what I mean? I'm not. No, a belly button ring. Like an AI belly button ring. I think open AI may be working on that. Their next product launch. They're going to hardware. Belly button ring. She almost got a belly button ring when she. What? I stopped her from it. This was freshman year of college. I don't have one.

He doesn't have one. He doesn't have one. Isn't she so lucky that I stopped her? This is what sisters are for. That is what sisters are for. Wow. Put on blast with Evan. If it's a clip on, I might, I might. Okay, you heard it here. Evan's going to try on a clip on belly button ring. Only if it's an AI clip on belly button. Wait a minute. coming soon.

Coming soon. So, Evan, as you were talking about the world in front of you and also experiencing that world with also specs on, we want to talk about AR and your conviction in AR. You believed in augmented reality long before it was obvious to anyone else. What did you see in AR and how it fits into our daily lives that other people didn't see? I love the real world. I think the real world is great. I think it's incredibly beautiful. I think there are so many wonderful things to experience. I think that relationships with friends and family are like what make life worth living. And I think so much of computing for so long has said, you have to actually leave that world and go sit in front of a desktop or stare down at a tiny screen to get the value of computing. And that tradeoff has just always felt so unfair to me. I mean, I remember growing up, you know, and to use a computer, I had to go in the computer lab at lunchtime, right? Everyone else is playing at recess and I had to go in the computer lab to work on the yearbook and put it all together. Now, today it's a little more convenient.

You can carry your computer with you in your pocket. But then I think, you know, you're sitting at the dinner table and someone's staring down at their phone instead of, you know, finding a way to connect or play a game together or have fun. And that just breaks my heart. Like, I don't think that that's good enough when it comes to technology and when it comes to the future of computing. And so very early on when we were experimenting with augmented reality and we saw the power of lenses that people were using on their phones, it just seems silly that people were interacting what they are in this tiny little screen, right? I mean, it almost looks like, you know, staring through like a paper towel tube or something, right, at the world when you're holding up your

phone to interact with augmented reality. It just seems so limiting. And it requires you to use your hands to hold the phone. And so, you know, we're humans. We love using our hands for other things. We want to be able to multitask. And so this idea that computing requires so much from us that it takes us out of the real world and out of the moment just feels so limiting and unfair in terms of, you know, the capacity of technology to change the world. So, you know, quite a long time ago now, I mean, 12 years ago or something like that, we started working on specs and with the idea of making a computer that's totally different, a computer that fits into a pair of glasses, that allows you to put computing in the world around you, that allows you to share those

experiences. So if you're sitting across the table from someone having dinner and you're wearing specs, you can actually build something together or play together or learn together. And so it takes computing from being this really single player experience that it has been for decades. And and turns it into something that's shared. And I think that's really inspiring and exciting to me. Yeah. I think the thing about lenses is it decreases the barrier to being creative. Like you can just easily, you know, throw on a lens and use that to not only interact with people,

interact with the world, but you feel like you're doing something fun and creative. I think that that origin of lenses is so helpful and powerful to Snapchat. In the early days of Snapchat, people said, why would I take a selfie? That doesn't make any sense. But as soon as you gave people a new way to express themselves or vomit a rainbow or put on funny dog years or whatever, people wanted to share those moments with their friends. And it became an opportunity to connect or to share that folks otherwise didn't have. And so that real invitation to create, I think, was so important in the early days of lenses and in terms of building that foundation to the platform we have today. Yeah. And I feel like that tenant of creativity, obviously, It's a core pillar of Snapchat.

And I think it really, it very much stems from you. Like, I think that creativity is very important to you personally. So, I mean, can you just talk a little bit about that? Like, what is the role of creativity in your life? Like, how do you tap into being creative? And why is it so important to you? At Volvo, safety is not a feature. It's our purpose.

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Yeah, that's funny. I just can't turn it off. You know what I mean? I just, I'm constantly, I feel like I'm constantly inspired by all sorts of stuff, primarily by other people, right, and the people who use our service. or our team members who've got great fun ideas. I really love coming up with new ideas and playing around with different ways of seeing the world.

And I just find it endless. I was in the car this morning, and I came up with a new idea that I'm very excited about. So it really put a little bounce in my step coming into the office. Belly button AI. It's going to be big. It's going to be big.

We're launching it in collaboration with the Tiger Sisters is going to take off. Co-marketing, the whole thing. We've got to figure out. I don't claim that, actually. I rebuke that. So, yeah, so I don't know. It is something that just brings me so much joy.

And I think the most fun part is like doing it together in a team, right? Because you can take something that's a little seed of an idea and so quickly build on it and iterate when you've got other people who you can be creative with. Do you get inspiration, I guess, very tactically from going to museums or art or architecture, reading magazines, like, what do you do to get inspired by the world around you? Is it consuming movies or, like, what do you, yeah? What a great question. So the reason why going to a museum can be inspiring or traveling can be inspiring is just that it breaks your regular routine. I think that to me is like one of the most important things for creative people, but also just for myself. I think every now and then it's so important. And I'm a very like routine oriented person. Like I like to get up at the same time,

do the same thing, you know, the, like, you know, I really operate my life that way. So for me, it becomes so important to break that up with, you know, a trip to the museum or travel or something like that just to change that mental space. And, you know, for some reason, just just changing the frame of reference or breaking the routine can generate so many new ideas. But, you know, I also have ideas when I'm exercising. So I, that's what I mean. It's just, it's a nonstop kind of thing, you know. It doesn't stop. Yeah. Yeah. I think. like having a creativity practice is something that's just really important that we don't talk about enough in society. Like I feel like it changes a person to have that. And then in changing a person,

it changes society at large. I really love that you said that. And the thing that really inspired me the most, you know, when I was at Stanford, I was in the product design program. And what I love the most about the product design program is that their fundamental thesis is that everyone is creative, but it is suppressed by fear and by the events you go through, you know, as you get older, you look at young people all the time. They're constantly creative and building things and drawing whatever. And then as we get older, right, we suppress that and we don't share our new, new crazy ideas and we don't, you know, make that time, you know, our space to be creative. And what the product design program did was to say every single person is creative.

And in fact, rather than waiting for lightning to strike or the apple to like fall out of the tree and bop you on the head, what we think is most important is that you have a repeatable process to be creative. And so the product design program teaches this repeatable process where you start with need finding by talking to people and understanding things that they don't like or things they wish they could improve or that kind of thing. You then iterate on a bunch of different ideas and, you know, solutions to those problems. You take them back to those people and say, what do you think? You iterate some more and get more feedback. You test, you prototype. And then ultimately you end up at the end of that process with a really cool new product or idea. And I think by taking that that sort of,

amorphous or scary part of creativity away by creating this structured, repeatable process. They empower so many people to be creative. Yeah. I think it's like learning the process, but then it's a lifelong journey to continue to learn and like exercise it, right? Because you took that, uh, Sheree took an improv class when she was at Stanford. Was that a good use of my tuition money? I don't know, but we'll, to be taught by a professional clown.

It was. I was in the Stanford theater department. This is when I was a business school student. But it was like mixed with you with grad students, undergrads. Yeah. And it was a good way to be creative. And like going from, you know, my public speaking communications class at the business school, like walking over to the theater department, like, okay, improv class time.

They are kind of tied and related. But it was a great space to feel creative. And one of our friends, Jim Keys, says creativity is intelligence having fun, which I absolutely love that. Stanford Business School seems so awesome. I got a chance to like audit a business school class as a, what, sophomore in college. And I was just like, wow, this seems like, I mean college, but like way better and more fun. And less stressful than like, you know, you don't have to worry about your GPA and you're learning for the curiosity of it all. It was a fabulous experience.

That's great. On this thread of creativity, we wanted to talk about the Met Gala that you went to recently. This is probably the first podcast that you've been on that asks you about that. No one has ever asked me. You know? Well, I mean, you know, from the outside since we haven't been yet. Yet, yet. But, I mean, the Met Gala is iconic.

And iconic in its fashion history, in its use of creativity. And so we just wanted to ask about your experience there. Is it as magical as it looks from the outside? It's pretty magical. Yeah. It's really cool. It's such an amazing. Yeah, it's not going to lie.

It's pretty magical. It's an amazing celebration. of fashion. And I'm not sure, like, too many people know the history of the gala, right? Which is that when that costume collection was created, it had to be funded separately from the museum's endowment. So they created space for the collection, but they said, if you want this collection here, you're going to have to self-fund this, right? You're going to have to raise the money to fund the collection on an ongoing basis because back then, fashion wasn't viewed as art in the way that it is, you know, so widely appreciated as art today. And so I think the history

and what that celebrates is so meaningful. And to me, obviously, the designers, the creativity is incredible, but the seamstresses, the people who put together this just exquisite, exquisite piece of fashion. I mean, it's really impressive. It's so cool, so cool to see. Yeah. I mean, I can tell that you are genuinely interested in it and you're genuinely, like, you love it. Like the details that go into it.

Is that partially because, you know, your wife and Maran, you know, your wife and her in? is so involved in fashion, you kind of like learn this new vantage point through her? Yeah, I mean, I, you know, I wear the same thing every day. So I, um, did she give you a lull up? I hadn't noticed. She was like, honey, what do you think about me wearing the same thing every day? I was like, I don't know. I mean, you could try it, I guess.

Um, this, uh, she's really passionate about fashion. And, and that's something that inspires me and like, you know, uh, so yeah, definitely. And I think, you know, she knows so much about it. And, um, she's got great taste. So, yeah, it's something that I've definitely, like, grown to know more about and, you know, appreciate more, you know, being together. But I think where we sort of our point of connection, I think, is that, like, appreciation of the creativity and of the design, you know, whether that's fashion or anything else. But it's been so much fun to learn from her. And, yeah, she's certainly brilliant in that space.

Yeah. I mean, I think it's so cool and impressive and kind of aspiration. that both of you are founders and you like, you know, live together, you grow your businesses together. I guess what, what is that like? And like, what do you learn from each other? What have you learned from her? Oh my goodness. It's like, it's endless. So, you know, to kind of take a step back, I think I was 24 when we met. Yeah. Flynn, I think was three at the time. We were sat next to each other at a dinner our friends were hosting in New York. And how old was Miranda then?

Oh, gosh. I thought I'm never supposed to say. It's important for me personally because I'm single, so, you know. She's seven years older than me. Okay. So we were sat next to each other at this dinner and, you know, we really kind of connected and we're having fun. She was like eating dinner off my plate.

I'm like, you can have it if you want. And the woman who was sitting next to her, Glenda Bailey, who's editor of Harper's Bazaar, like, turns to Miranda. I didn't know this at the time. Turns from Miranda. It's like, I think, I think you guys are going to get married. And Miranda's like, what? And we, you know, we exchanged contact details and ended up, you know, talking again like a month later or something like that. You know, the spark was definitely there, but I thought I had no chance. So I was like, I'm not, you know, I don't really want to get heartbroken here. So you, did you message her a month later?

No, she messaged me a month later. And that's when I was like, okay, maybe I do have a chance. And, you know, we went on our first date, which was to a yoga class. Now we're really going down memory lane here. Anyways, my first ever, our first date, my first ever yoga class. Wait, that's so brave that you agreed to a yoga class, having never gone before. Were you even flexible? I called my sister and I was like, what do I do in a yoga class? Like, this was before AI.

Like, you couldn't ask. Like, what do you do? Like, what do I? I literally was like, what do I wear? What do I do? It was crazy. And I like, I like, I'm, I like to be. punctual. So I was like, you know, early. I was like, maybe 15 minutes early to the yoga

class of some famous like Kundalini yoga teacher or something. And I sort of befriended like this elderly guy who was there with his wife, whatever. And Miranda comes like 30 minutes late. So I was like deep into this class. I'm like doing it with my new buddy over here. Like or the chanting. Like it was a whole, it was great. It was great. It was I learned a lot. Anyways. So back to back to our relationship. I think, you know, one of the things that was so helpful is that she had grown up in the public eye from such a young age. And so she was so used to that pressure and the scrutiny and everything that comes along with that. And so at a time in my life when I was going through a lot of that change,

and I'm a naturally very private person. Miranda's very open and comfortable in those sorts of environments. I was not. I was worried about public speaking. I didn't like the attention. And it was so incredible to see her grace and poise in all of these words. wild, you know, public situations and to, you know, really learn from that was amazing. And then, you know, the other thing that was so clear from the very beginning is she's a great mom.

And that was something that was really important to me. And so to see what a great mom she was with Flynn really, really inspired me. And, you know, I, I, we've got four boys now. And I really wanted a big family. So I knew from a young age, like I wanted a big family. I wanted to get married young. My parents had me when they were quite a bit older and I really wanted to have the energy to chase our kids around. And so yeah, it's been just amazing building our family and learning so much more. And I think as you point out, it's great that we met each other when we'd already created our companies. We already both had a ton going on. And so from the beginning, we figured out how to really build a strong family together, even with all the chaos of running businesses and, you know,

living life in, you know, maybe a more public way than I had expected I would growing up. What do you think she learns from you? Oh, gosh. We'll have to ask her when she's on our podcast. Yeah, there you go. That's a great idea. That's a great idea. I would love to hear her thoughts on that. Gosh, I don't know. You're allowed to compliment yourself. We give you, we give you permission. Well, I think, you know, it's always helpful to have someone else's perspective who really cares about you and wants you to succeed to give you their point of view. So I don't know if it'd be one thing I've offered, but I think I'm always there and available as like, you know, a coach who's not willing, you know, who's not like

unwilling to say the tough thing or to, you know, push on something that I think will help her business or her as a leader or help her, you know, succeed. I think it's just so important to have friends and family that care about you that are not afraid to keep it real. Miranda keeps it very real with me. So I try to, in a gentle way, do the same with her. Yeah. I mean, you've said before that she's brutally honest with you. Yeah, it helps. Sometimes it hurts, but it helps. What's an example of something that she's brutally honest with you about? Like, did she give you like a glow-up skincare routine when you guys first? Well, for sure. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. She's like, what is wrong? Like, my skin is so dry. Actually, that's like a really great thing because I have this like vivid memory of second grade.

I was like standing in line and the teacher had us all like hold hands. And I like held hands with the girl next to me. And she was like, your hands are so dry. And I like have this like moment, this like scarring. That'll stick with you. And so like I think it's like hilarious. I like ended up with someone who has like this amazing skin care. My like hands are softer. You know what I mean? I'm like I've I've made it, you know, in terms of my hand. Your skin is much better now that it used Because you used to get sunburned a lot. Very dry. Yeah.

All sorts of problems. So things have definitely gotten better in that regard. And I'm grateful for that. I mean, on this topic of love and also relationships, we wanted to ask you, since this is Tiger Sisters, what is your most practical dating or relationship advice, specifically for people who are single? You know, I think there's nothing more important than really clear communication. I think it's so valuable in any relationship and certainly in dating. I think the more that folks can be upfront and clear about what they're looking for and what they want, I think that just forms a really strong foundational relationship.

And I think it also gets rid of like the game playing, which I think is so unproductive and a waste of people's time. And so I think, you know, sometimes it's scary to be clear about like, hey, this is what I'm looking for. You know, with Miranda when we had met early on, she was like, hey, like, you know, she has, had just gotten out of a marriage. She'd been single for a year or something like that. And she was like, hey, like, I'm just kind of figuring it out. And I was like, that's cool, but like, I'm actually looking for something serious. So like, if you're not interested in that, then like, this isn't the right fit for me, you know.

And so I think just being clear from the beginning, she was like, oh, okay, like I wasn't expecting that from a 24 year old, but like if that's what you want to do, like, you know, let's see how this goes. And I think it was really important for me to just say that up front and be clear, clear about that. So I just think the more people skip the games and get straight to like actually what they're looking for, what's important to them and can communicate that in like a loving and positive way, I think that forms a foundation of a strong relationship. Right after that yoga class, you were like, I'm looking for something serious. Yeah. After Frivasana, I'm looking for something serious.

Communication is a topic that applies to so many things, whether it's small talk, presenting, networking, and Matt Abrams is the best to do it. So he was actually Cherie's Ted Talk Coach, and he is also a renowned professor of communications at Stanford's Business School. Check out his podcast, think fast, talk smart, wherever you get your podcasts. Okay, so let's talk a little bit about aesthetics and sort of your design sensibility. So I feel like that's always been very important to you and very much an innate part of your design thinking. How do you know when something feels good to you design-wise? I think it really depends what we're talking about, right? I think there are so many

different parts of design at the core of design is really like the way that something works, right? And the foundation of the way that something works, in my opinion, is really the philosophy behind it. Like, what are you trying to achieve? And I think that's what makes design different than art, right? Like, art is, you know, whatever I want it to be. It's, it means, it me expressing myself, right? But design is really expressing a point of view or expressing an idea or trying to provide a service. And so design really has an objective in a way that art doesn't necessarily. Some art certainly may.

But design, I think there's almost always a real objective behind it. And so for me, it's about understanding what is a product or a service or a new icon. What is it really trying to achieve at the end of the day? What is really the purpose of whatever it is that we're making? If I can understand that very, very clearly, the design almost like reveals itself from there. It becomes obvious, right? So you think about Snapchat at the core of Snapchat was the idea of sending an image very, very quickly, right?

Snapchat, like picture, chat. And in order to message visually, sending images back and forth super fast was the foundationally the most important thing. So we made very specific design choices. We opened to the camera, which was different, I think still is different than almost every other app out there. We made it really easy to pick your friends on the Send 2 page, you know, and then send your message. And then we did a bunch of work on the engineering side, and Bobby invented a new way of sending images very quickly, which at the time was like a big breakthrough because sending an image at the time took a minute or something on your phone.

And with Snapchat, it took seconds. So I think when you can really understand what something is trying to achieve and understand its purpose, then the design kind of flows from there. This episode is brought to you by Activia. You might already be eating yogurt, but not all yogurts are created equal. Activia contains over one billion probiotics per serving to survive and reach the gut alive. When it comes to gut health, Activia is the number one family doctor-recommended probiotic yogurt brand. Choose Activia, feel good from the inside out. Visitactivia.ca for more details.

I love that because I can feel that in the app. I used to work at LinkedIn prior to going to business school. I was there for five years designing products. And I would say Snapchat's app feels very alive. As much love as I have for LinkedIn. Like I wouldn't call the LinkedIn app. It doesn't feel alive. Professional would be a good word.

It feels very professional. Not alive. Proficient. And I mean this in the best way. Like Snapchat has felt always less polished, but like more alive. than other platforms. Was that an intentional choice? It's so important for people to feel comfortable expressing themselves on Snapchat. And if you take yourself too seriously, it's very hard to feel comfortable sending an image in the moment, right?

And one of the things that we were trying to do with Snapchat has fundamentally changed the nature of how people thought about photography. So prior to Snapchat, every photo you ever took was designed to be saved forever. So you actually didn't take them very often. You only took photos at special events. I mean, it's hard to imagine that this was the case, you know, 15, 20 years ago, but photography was really about saving life's most important moments, right? And that meant that the tools for photography were really different. You really needed great lighting and the perfect framing and maybe a portrait effect or something like that.

And with Snapchat, we were trying to change the entire nature of the camera and what its core purpose was. And in fact, the majority use case of the camera today is communication, which is crazy to think. In a 15-year period of time, people went from mostly using cameras to save. important moments to mostly using their camera to talk with other people. And part of that transition was creating an app that didn't take itself too seriously so that you didn't feel like you were in a portrait studio, like a normal camera, that you felt like

you were in a place you could just talk casually with your friends, which is really what Snapchat is all about. So a lot of the design choices and the playful colors and those sorts of things are about creating a more casual atmosphere where you feel comfortable being creative, not that you have to pose for the perfect photo. Yeah. And I also feel like Snap has been on the cutting edge of this. I get to brag about Gene now through Snapchat.

She has over 50 AI patents with you guys. Wow. I love that. That's a lot, actually. Yeah. Right? And it's also, it's like a fraction of what we actually invented. It's just what we ended up submitting, like had time to submit it.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. It's expensive to submit those. Well, it's funny because maybe y'all should submit more because Y'all are on the cutting edge. And I think especially with specs too and wearables, like over the face, glasses, over the last few years, there's been a lot of advancements with competitors. How do you think about SNAP in general with competitors? You've talked about this in the past too, how you guys lay a lot of the foundation for other companies to build on and also potentially steal those ideas. But also with the wearables, I think it's been really heating up over the last few years. And where do you see SNAP differentiating with the wearables compared to the hot new competitors? Yeah. What a great question. So I think one of the things that actually makes me so excited about specs and our work on glasses in general is that we've been focused on it so clearly for such a long period of time that we have really compounded our technical advantages in so many different ways.

And I think it's hard to talk about it now because people haven't seen the next generation product. But what I think people will realize is that it reflects our ownership of the full stack. So everything from the developer tools to the rendering engine, to the operating system itself, to the optical engine, which we have designed and built ourselves to be the highest, you know, most performant optical engine in the world. And then a bunch of other stuff we haven't announced yet. All of that together means that we are going to be able to deliver a product experience. that will be unmatched. And I think that that is something that's really exciting to me and very, very hard to replicate because the technical advancements and the problems we've solved are so hard to solve.

They're such difficult problems. And we've been focused on investing these areas for such a long period of time. And then when you layer on the ecosystem with the developer tools and all this other proprietary technology, I think it becomes something that you can't just copy paste like a software feature, right? And that's one of the things that was so appealing. to us about investing in the hardware space and on building our own developer ecosystem, because we realized over time that if it's just a new software feature, it's super easy to copy. And it's never been more true today with AI.

I mean, now you can copy almost any piece of software in a couple minutes. So I think it's really illustrating for folks that if you want to differentiate long term and build a business with a real moat, it has to be an ecosystem like our augmented reality ecosystem or our content ecosystem or have network effects like our messaging business. So very early on, because we were so and are so relentlessly copied by competitors, we've thought about how to build those more defensible motes over time. Yeah. Sheree has a computer science degree, so she got excited when you said full stack. Well, that's, I mean, that's the moat, right? It's being able to touch every part of the process and also create these network effects over time that is extremely hard to rest. I think that might be LinkedIn's maybe like, I don't mean to be railing on them.

I love my time there. But like one of their like claim to fame is like their network effect, which is really hard to replicate. Yeah. I mean, I feel like Evan, your vision is and has been so clear for so long. Like I don't know if you fully expressed it to the world as much like in previous years. I wonder, like, what do you think it is that the market is missing versus like what you know and what you see about the company and the future of the company?

Well, I think if you look at like investors today and what they're really asking of SNAP, they are looking at us through the lens of a social media company, like a meta or something like that without really understanding the attributes that make Snapchat unique. I think one of the things people do understand and appreciate is that we, We have a huge, highly engaged audience of nearly a billion folks using our service. But I think the area where we're falling short today is on converting that huge audience and engagement into higher rates of advertising revenue growth. And I think when you dig under the hood, you know, really what we've been doing over the past

couple of years is transitioning from a business that was highly dependent on large customers in North America, primarily focused on brand advertising to lower funnel performance advertising with small and medium customers, which is a much more diverse. diversified advertising business. But that transition has been challenging. Oh, really? Yeah, it's been challenging. And I think investors are, it's super challenging and hard to do. And, you know, really only meta and Google have developed a very large performance oriented businesses. TikTok to some degree. Yeah. And is that you think the benchmark that the market is like holding you snap against? I think they're still overly focused on advertising revenue. I think our

advertising revenue will reaccelerate over time because, as I mentioned, we have this very fast-growing, you know, small, medium customer business. And, you know, generally speaking, our large customer business outside of the United States is very strong. So it really just comes down to now this legacy, U.S. sort of brand-oriented advertising that needs to re-accelerate. And I think if we can make some progress there, investors will be pleased with the ads product. But the thing they're really missing is that we've also taken, you know, this huge amount of engagement and passion for Snapchat and built other revenue. streams, like our direct revenue business, which is, you know, over a billion run rate business

now growing 87% year over year in the prior quarter. And so I think people are not yet appreciating that Snapchat is, you know, increasingly diversifying its revenue, you know, in ways that I think are much stickier and durable for the long term. And then, you know, I think people really have a question mark around specs and the future of our glasses business, mostly because they haven't seen anything yet. And so I think it's really hard to underwrite. huge long-term investment in something you haven't seen yet or haven't been able to use or haven't been able to try. So I think, you know, as we get through the year and people are able to actually put the next gen of specs on their face or in their hands, they're going to be able

to see, you know, what's possible with the product and why we have such a high degree of conviction. And so I think, you know, for investors, it's hard to underwrite slower ad growth and then huge long-term investment. But I think if ad growth can recover a little bit, people will be more willing to appreciate the direct revenue story. And then when they see specs, they'll understand what we've been investing billions of dollars into over the last 12 years. Yeah. Do you think it's like your mindset because it's so long-term oriented is maybe just like a little bit off, like not really a total fit with like public markets? I think you raise a good point, which is that investing in the long-term is very, very hard

in public companies. And it's, you know, it's compounded by the fact if you look at like the average tenure for public CEOs now, I think it's like four years or something. How do you do something really meaningful in technology if CEO-tube? 10 years so short, how do you see through these really important long-term investments? And you look at any of these profound technology shifts. They don't happen in a couple of years. It takes a really long time. I mean, that's certainly the case, obviously, with the latest breakthroughs in LLMs, right?

Decades of research to get to that point, or the smartphone, for example, which everyone views as an overnight success. But the iPhone was shipping hundreds of thousands of units in its first year. And that was building on so much progress that Apple had made over the prior decade. So I think it's always really easy in technology to look at these developments and call them like overnight successes. But I think the folks who really inspire us, the Jensen's of the world, or you look at what Bezos was able to accomplish or look at Elon. I mean, he saved Tesla from bankruptcy, right? You know, not too long ago.

And so I think it's really easy for folks to forget that like the defining characteristic of all these incredible entrepreneurs is, actually that their pain tolerance was incredibly high. I mean, people were just constantly criticizing and ridiculing Jensen or Jeff or Elon for their vision and what they were trying to accomplish. And so I think, you know, that's part of building something for the long term. That's part of innovating. Acknowledging that up front so you're not surprised when people are criticizing you or calling your idea stupid. That's really important because you have to be able to build the resilience to execute through all that sort of doubt or public pressure or, you know, short-termism that pervades public markets today.

And then stunt in on the haters. That too. I think that's the technical term? Yeah. Did I get there? I mean, it's funny, I think back to the early days of Snapchat, nobody thought Snapchat could work. I mean, our early investors we went to talk to were like, yeah, good luck. You know, try competing with Facebook.

They've got it locked down, right? And so I think, you know, that's been one of just the themes of building our business, that there is, of course, constant doubt, especially when you're innovating. Because in order to innovate, you have to do something that's not obvious, right? That cuts against the grain that's different from the way that people see the world today. And so that's why this combination of innovating over the long term is so difficult because you're working on something that's fundamentally misunderstood. Otherwise, it wouldn't be innovation. Yeah. Do you think that that's like a intrinsic trait to you, the kind of self-belief, pain tolerance, and then kind of like a little bit of, like a little

bit of like I'll show them. I don't think that's unique to me. I think that is in every single entrepreneur. To be able to endure the challenges of building a business, to be able to invent something takes incredible resilience. And I think actually what you just described is the common thread through almost any meaningful success story I can think of. Yeah. Yeah. And I think a lot of, I mean, even thinking back to Sheree's been a creator for a long time. And she was pretty much the first of her genre where she was doing like, oh, this is what I'm doing at work. This is what it's like as a product manager. This is what it's like to work in tech as a woman. And like I remember at the beginning, people were kind of like, this is cringe. People were like, what is this? But then

don't film in the office. I mean, I did that way before there were any like really social media conducts. Yeah, they made the rules around her. Well, not me specifically, but because the genre I created where they're like, okay, now we need to talk about social media at work. But I think I think like when I did it in like 2020 slash 2021, it was kind of like a new. Yeah, she was the first of her kind. Of like sharing with people and also educating while making it entertaining of like this is what it's like to be a product manager at a big tech company. She would like do a dance and be like, DAU.

I'm like, what's a DAU scan for? Seriously. Seriously. And I think we laugh at it, but like people were like, oh, I didn't know that's what that meant. Yeah, exactly. So it's really cool. Yeah. Yeah.

So it just reminded me of it like the kind of persistent. and ability to like see something through over many, many years. But even harder because it involves making content. Yeah. And doing dances in public. You soon. In like, you know, 15 minutes. Quick pause, Tiger fam.

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Now back to our show. This entire conversation has been about, I think, the future of Snap with specs and also the future of where we see, I think, the next generation and how people are using your product. If you can summarize what Snap will be doing in, like, one sentence for the next five years, how do you think about it? Snap will be making computing more human. All right. He had that one ready. Okay, cool. Let's do rapid fire.

Okay. So we have a fun game of rapid fire questions. This is like some of the lingo that we wanted to ask you about. So it's kind of like this or that, but also we'll have different variations of that. Okay. So first question, what's more important? IQ, EQ, or aura? EQ.

EQ. Yes. You can say why elaborate. Why? Well, I think one of the biggest shifts right in the world today is with AI intelligence is being democratized in a pretty radical way. Everyone in the world is going to have access to incredible levels of intelligence far higher than average intelligence, right?

And so I think what's most important, what I see over and over and over again is that people who are able to build strong relationships, who are able to connect and collaborate and work with others. who are able to reflect on themselves and understand their own opportunities for growth and improvement. Those are the sorts of things that are just massive superpowers in the modern workplace. And in order to do anything interesting in the world today, you have to do it with other people, right? The technical problems to solve out there are so complex. It's very hard to sit on your own and do that.

And so that actually means that EQ and the ability to work with other people is almost like the most important. differentiator in terms of being able to do hard and interesting things. And what about having aura? I mean, does that matter? Is that a thing? I don't know. It's what the kids are talking about these days, aura farming, aura points. I mean, gosh, it would be nice if it was that easy, right? If you just had aura. I mean, some people do, I guess. Some people do. I, you know, God bless them. That's great. And also wanted to ask you, since we have a podcast.

You're on the podcast. Now, what is a podcast that you've been listening to recently? I think Founders is such a great podcast. I think, you know, whether it's like the historical icons or, you know, some of the modern day leaders, to me, the connections that Senra is able to make across sort of his deep analysis of founders is really, really interesting. And then a follow-up question. If you were to have a podcast, who would be your dream guest that you'd want to talk to? I guess this is the new version of like if you were to have a dinner guest dead or alive, if you were to have a podcast. That's a great question. So I basically have like not a podcast sort of been like privately working on a project to just ask people about the next 100 years in America. Wow. And to ask people to think long term about what American success over the next 100 years. And the most of the most. important inputs to that and just talking to leading experts across like every domain. So like education or healthcare or whatever it is. So I think for me it would be another guest who could speak to long term success in our country. Yeah. So what have you learned so far? Oh my gosh,

I've learned so many things. It's insane. Tell us everything. Well, I'm trying to like synthesize it. And now with AI, I'm like more convinced I'll be able to synthesize all these conversations into to something that like actually makes sense. But to me, I think what's so important is actually to root the next 100 years in the values that I think have animated the founding of the country. So like freedom and quality of justice, like life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, and take those and overlay them on different parts of our society, right? So like in education, what does freedom, equality, and justice actually look like in practice?

What does that actually mean? And how would we, you know, the education system we have today was created a hundred hundred years ago, really for the industrial era in America. And so, you know, the factory work, everything from the school bell to everyone, you know, learning how to do these individualized things and getting A, B, and C, you know, grades, all of those things were really oriented around a career path that's not a common career path in America today, right? And so if we had to rethink our education system aligned with our values, but with an eye to what we think young people will be doing in the future, I think we would

design education completely differently for the next 100 years. So I don't know. There's so much in there. This is a whole other. It's a podcast, really. Yeah. Wait, this is this is really interesting. Or a documentary? Like, what is the format that you're creating? I'm trying to figure out what to turn it into, to be honest. Like, it really just started out as a journey to like learn and to, you know, begin to kind of put the pieces together. Because my general concern is just as a society, we are not spending any time talking about our long-term success. And in fact, if you look at all of the ways that our government makes decisions, almost all of them are inherently short-term. So if you look at, for example, the budget that Congress approves, right? Our budget window is a

10-year budget window. What's really interesting about that is that any meaningful long-term investment, and the most obvious one is investments in young people, look negative in 10 years. So if you make an investment today in health care for young people, preschool for young people, food for young people, putting a roof over young people's head if they don't have one, over 30 years, the returns on those investments are so profitable. I mean, there's no more profitable investment, really, that our government can make than in young people. But when you look at those same investments over a 10-year time horizon, they look terrible. They look super negative. You're spending all this money to educate young people or to feed them or to provide them health care. And you're you're not yet seeing it show up in earnings later on. And so we're just constantly making these terrible decisions where we're, you know, distributing a huge amount of money to older folks in America, which is not necessarily the wrong thing to do. The problem is that we're just not distributing a lot of resources to young people.

And that means as a result that we're just short changing our future every single day. And so to me, what I, what really drew me to this was the realization that like, I'm just not hearing leaders talk about the next 100 years, what we need to do differently to set America for success over a longer time. time horizon. And unfortunately, the government is best positioned to invest long term, right? That's what's so surprising and frustrating about the whole thing. Who better to invest than the government, which is basically a legal monopoly in our country. I mean, they're so well positioned to invest long term, but none of the incentives are set up around that. Right, because the longest tenure you can

have at the executive level is eight years. So, like, how do you reconcile that with, like, having a multi-decade long goal? Well, I think part of it is reframing the conversation in the measurement, right? So I do think if Congress, you know, had the tools to look at their budget over 30 years, for example, it would show very clearly that investments in young people are very profitable. And so I think part of it is just starting to shift that narrative and to create the tools to do that and to ask people, yeah, okay, I see how your budget performs over five years or 10 years, but what does this mean actually over 30 years? And are there opportunities we're missing out on because we're just not looking at this over the appropriate time horizon?

What's another sector or industry that you would want to apply, what is it, equality, justice, and freedom to outside of education? Like, what do you think is also really high importance? I think you could apply that frame to almost any part of America today. But I think one that would be ripe for that conversation, although, you know, in my learnings, in my research, it seems like absolutely the hardest problem to tackle is health care. You know, if you look at the state budget here in California, health care is eating the state budget. And that's true, you know, in America as well, healthcare costs have just absolutely exploded. And, you know, part of that's a good thing. Like if you look at overall our ability to provide really advanced care and, you know, create all this new technology.

It doesn't surprise me that that's where some of the cost growth has been because it's important, right, to be able to extend people's lives or have people live in healthier and more productive ways. But I think unless we're really able to innovate there, it's going to create a huge drag on our future as we reallocate more and more resources. resources to health care. So I think, you know, a lot of this ties back to, and I think this is very common today, you know, a lot of times government is focused on, you know, where they're spending money. I don't think they're as focused on the cost side of that equation. And actually, the history of America would say that we've done an amazing job at productivity growth, at innovating to actually drive costs down and to make things more accessible to more people. And that that's really been one of the huge miracles of America's success over the last 250 years, that we've made a lot of stuff that previously was really expensive and only accessible to a very small number of people, really cheap and really widely available. And as a result, everyone's quality of life in America has improved, but also around the world. So I think we need to apply that sort of innovators mentality to a lot of these big problems. And health care seems like one that is absolutely intractable, but is not going away as a huge issue.

for us to work on. Evan for a senator? No, thank you. I got four kids in a day job, so I appreciate it, though. Thank you. Thank you. And an upcoming documentary series, perhaps. Yeah, I want to see this.

I want to see it published. I know, I got to, I don't have time to work on this right now, but that is one of the things. I was like thinking maybe I should take this on as my like, uh, side quest. Yeah, or just try to take a week this summer and like knock it out. I got to just like focus and get a, done. Is it on, is it recorded or is it? There's a, yeah, there's copious notes. So I got to, I got to kind of synthesize it into something that actually makes sense. Well, I look forward to seeing

it soon. Yeah, send it this way. You can send us the draft. Yeah, we'll preview it. Yeah. Awesome. Evan, thank you so much for taking the time and chatting with us on Tiger Sisters podcast. Thanks so much for having me. I've had a blast. Yay. Usually we ask our guests to give their, their handles on social media. Should people add you on Snigms? app? I'm just Evan on Snapchat, so easy to find. The original Evan. Awesome. Thank you so much. Thank you.