What is Evan Spiegel’s superhero back story? The Snap co-founder & CEO joined Guy Raz on a recent episode of the iconic How I Built This podcast. The two discussed some lesser-known Snap lore, which we’re featuring for the latest in our XR Talks series (embed below).

So what were the biggest discussion points? Few people know that Snapchat was first germinated out of a design project when Spiegel was a Stanford undergrad. After formalizing the company, it only took two years to inspire a multi-billion-dollar offer from Mark Zuckerberg.

The rest is more recognized Snap history, including Spiegel turning down the offer to continue building and growing Snap’s to what he clearly saw as outsized potential. And its disruptive force since then can’t be denied, as it invented a new subcategory of social media and defined AR.

Fast forward through years of milestones and challenges, and Snap is worth $13 billion+ today. So what’s next in its evolutionary trajectory? Spiegel continues to double down on AR as a central component of Snapchat’s UX and revenue model, especially as it converges with AI.

See the full episode below for greater depth and dimension. And as a sidenote, it’s becoming clear that Spiegel is on sort of an unofficial press tour. This appearance follows his recent Diary of a CEO interview, and he’s set to headline AWE USA in June to amplify Snap’s narrative further.

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