# Spiegel turned down the offer because Snap had a path alone

Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/s/spiegel-turned-down-the-offer-because-snap-had-a-path-alone/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy.

- Speaker: [Evan Spiegel](https://realalpha.app/people/evan-spiegel/) · Co-founder & CEO, Snap Inc. · Co-founded Snapchat at Stanford and has led Snap as CEO since 2011, building Stories and the Specs AR glasses.
- Host: [Joubin Mirzadegan](https://realalpha.app/people/joubin-mirzadegan/) · Partner, Kleiner Perkins · Took Palo Alto Networks' cloud business from $2M to $50M+ ARR in a year.
- Show: Grit
- Episode: [How Snap Plans to Win the AR Race | Evan Spiegel on Spectacles](https://realalpha.app/v/Xkc5XOpbAq8/), Dec 15, 2025
- Moment: 43:23 to 46:23 of the episode (3 min), playing on https://realalpha.app/s/spiegel-turned-down-the-offer-because-snap-had-a-path-alone/; the episode from there: https://realalpha.app/v/Xkc5XOpbAq8/?t=2603

## Quote

> “we were clear that we wanted to **build an independent company**.”
> — [Evan Spiegel](https://realalpha.app/people/evan-spiegel/) at [44:11](https://realalpha.app/v/Xkc5XOpbAq8/?t=2651) · Grit

## Takeaways

1. They told investors early that they wanted an independent company.
2. Selling $10 million of stock each reduced personal financial pressure.
3. Snap’s usage and growth made independence feel viable.

## About this segment

Evan Spiegel explains why he and Bobby wanted to build Snap independently and why they could afford to turn down an acquisition. Their decision was shaped by both their values and the company’s potential.

From “How Snap Plans to Win the AR Race | Evan Spiegel on Spectacles”, Dec 15, 2025. [Watch the full episode](https://realalpha.app/v/Xkc5XOpbAq8/)

## Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

[43:30](https://realalpha.app/v/Xkc5XOpbAq8/?t=2610) it's like you have all of these pretty competing priorities in your business that I'm imagining like you know your friends like dropped out of school or like didn't go to other jobs to like join you on this thing and so when you get an offer like that I have to imagine that you're like okay is this just stupid for me to say like as much as I want to say no like is this just irresponsible a couple things that had happened that made it a lot easier to make that that decision. The first was that, you know, very early on in our conversations with investors, to your point, you know, when you raise money from venture capitalists, you are signing up to exit the business. So you can either take it public or you can sell it. But like that is essentially the agreement you are making with venture capitalists. And so going into that, you know,

[44:17](https://realalpha.app/v/Xkc5XOpbAq8/?t=2657) we were clear that we wanted to build an independent company. We had seen the Instagram thing. One of the conversations we'd had with the benchmark team because they had invested behind Instagram was like, hey, we think they sold really early. Like, we hope you agree because we're trying to build something like bigger here than, than Instagram. And we were worried that they had traded too early. So I think we had had some conversations around that, around the time that we'd raised money. We also, Bobby and I each, you know, were able to sell $10 million of stock at the time before, you know, there were any conversations about an acquisition. So Bobby and I felt like, like we're set. You know what I mean? You're living on house money. Yeah. Like, you know, okay. We, we each took $10 million off the table. We can buy a house. We can support our

[44:57](https://realalpha.app/v/Xkc5XOpbAq8/?t=2697) family like we'll be fine so that made the conversation a lot easier this was at the c the b or the c when did you take money off the table i probably c or b something like that yeah it's funny because it's such a contentious debate in the industry of usually vcs are like if if you want to go you want to go long if you want to play the long game you kind of have to make it possible i am but that's because a lot of entrepreneurs don't have that option right and so when they are having conversations about whether to exit the business or not. It really is about like, can I get a house for my family, put my kids in school or whatever it is? Like, I think people have to make a lot of decisions. Those decisions were sort of off the table for us because they had allowed us to sell some equity. But then you do have to go around to your other employees.

[45:42](https://realalpha.app/v/Xkc5XOpbAq8/?t=2742) And when they know that it's been passed up, you have a whole new leadership responsibility to get them re-fired up? Well, I think what was really fortunate for us was that businesses like Meta to some extent, you know, Google and YouTube had paved the way to show that, hey, if you've got a bunch of people using your service and engaging a lot. There's a company there. You can build a big business. And it was pretty clear, even with the rough math that like, you know, if we just continued on a modest trajectory, even assuming more competition and these sorts of things that we'd be able to build. So that wasn't a hard stress absorber, confidence builder with your