The Snapchat CEO has revealed the shocking real reason why he turned down an enormous $3 billion offer from Mark Zuckerberg.
The boss of Meta reportedly offered to buy Snapchat from Evan Spiegel when he was 23 years old.
Making an appearance on the Diary of a CEO podcast with host Steven Bartlett, Spiegel explained the reason why he turned it down.
Advert
Talking to Bartlett, Spiegel recalled speaking to Zuckerberg, saying: “I think it was an initial email and I think we met at some point.”
He continued: “There was a real conversation about what it would be like to join forces but ultimately when we talked with our board and investors we decided that we would rather go it alone.”
Spiegel made the decision not to take Zuckerberg up on his lucrative offer to buy Snapchat.
He explained that this was because he ‘believed in the future of it’ and that gave him the ‘confidence’ to turn Zuckerberg down.
And that wasn’t the only detail that the Snapchat CEO lifted the lid on during his interview with Bartlett.
During the chat, Spiegel also explained why he likes to put new recruits to the test on their first day of the job.
He said: “When you have no context for what the company is working on, no idea what’s going on, how on earth are you supposed to come up with a great idea? I mean, it’s almost impossible.”
However, he isn’t trying to get usable ideas from the new hires when asking them to put together a proposal, instead it’s about ripping off the bandaid of failure.
The CEO continued: “99% of ideas are not good—but 1% is. We really abide by the concept that the best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas.”
Spiegel also went on to explain the three values that he’s looking for in a potential new employee during the hiring process.
He wants his workforce to be kind, smart and creative.
Spiegel continued: “We learned over time that actually, wow, kindness is the essential ingredient if you want to have a creative culture.”
And he believes that when a worker is struggling, it’s even more important to be kind.
He added: “The nice thing to do is maybe just make them feel good about it: ‘oh don’t worry, I’m sure it’ll be okay’.
“The kind thing to do is really help them succeed.”