Post: #1

Confirmed: Snapchat’s Evan Spiegel Is Kind Of An Ass by Jordan Crook

Quote:I’ve known Evan Spiegel, Snapchat CEO and co-founder, for a while now. We have had more than half a dozen in-person conversations, far more phone calls, and even shared twenty minutes together on stage at Disrupt SF. And try as I might, I’ve had a hard time liking him. Now, after reading emails sent by Evan Spiegel during his undergrad time at Stanford, I clearly understand what my instincts were telling me.

Dude’s kind of a dick.

You can see the whole swath of leaked emails at ValleyWag, but I can summarize them all pretty easily for you with the above paragraph. Here’s a typical example:



Like Zuckerberg with his infamous IM leak, Spiegel was in college when he sent these emails, which describe peeing on women, doing blow, drinking underage, getting his friends laid by wasted “sororisluts”, and shooting lasers at “fat chicks.” The emails are disturbing, in content as well as spelling and grammar, and wear away what little hope is left for the younger generation.

Spiegel has released this official statement to TechCrunch in response to the leak:

"I’m obviously mortified and embarrassed that my idiotic emails during my fraternity days were made public. I have no excuse. I’m sorry I wrote them at the time and I was jerk to have written them. They in no way reflect who I am today or my views towards women."

And he’s right to be embarrassed, the emails display the worst of the ‘bro’ mentality that continues to contribute to the marginalization of women in Silicon Valley.

The emails also imply that Speigel’s father, a highly esteemed lawyer, condoned underage drinking.

All in all, these emails are bad news bears for Snapchat and Spiegel, but they don’t surprise me in the least. I’m not going to relay anecdotes from my personal conversations with Evan, as I promised him long ago. However, when you separate Evan the person from Evan the co-founder, what you get isn’t a lovable kid who drew a ghost and built an app. You get a desperately unassured, lanky kid who covers up his insecurity with unabashed cockiness.

He’s savvy enough to never have said such racist or sexist things around me, a member of the press, but the tone of most of our conversations centered around how smart he was for building something as cool as Snapchat, and everything else can go screw itself. These emails, while sent from an even more immature version of the boy king, still have the same tone paired with different, more disgusting imagery.

To be fair, we all say things that are meant to be private, and when Spiegel sent these emails to his Kappa Sig bros, he probably never imagined that they’d be paraded out for the world to see. That said, we can’t possibly comment on them without pointing out the deep irony: Evan is his own ideal user.

Spiegel and Bobby Murphy, who was allegedly very high at some point during the writing of these emails, built something that is meant to protect against this very situation. Snapchat is an app that sends self-destructing messages, so even if you’re too drunk to have sex and end up urinating on some poor girl named Lily, your correspondence about those events never reaches the light of day.

Snapchat itself has had very few snafus since its inception. Aside from a sexting ‘scare’ (which actually brought the company more publicity), the only real obstacle in the way of Snapchat has been the handling of a malicious attack that exposed user data. The company didn’t apologize until harassed into doing so by the internet.

The only other obstacle in Snapchat’s way, from a corporate standpoint, is Evan himself.

The 24-year-old is a smart cookie. There’s no denying that. Talk to him for five minutes and you’ll discover a perspective you’ve never seen before, laced thoroughly with feigned confidence. And I’m not the only one who feels this way. Only yesterday, Satya Nadella was praising the wunderkind onstage at re/code.

In an interview with Forbes, Spiegel apparently lied when he told the story of Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg offering to meet with him and discuss an acquisition. His version of the story includes a warm, and slightly desperate, invitation from Zuck to come visit, as well as a cold rejection from Evan telling Zuck to come down to LA.

When Spiegel was called on it, he showed the real email correspondence, which reads more like a high school freshman trying to play hard-to-get with the quarterback of the football team.

Other founders in the LA area, whose ventures don’t compete at all with Snapchat, haven’t had the nicest things to say either. One friend of mine, who doesn’t call Spiegel a friend but does have pretty regular interaction with him, called him “deeply insecure” and “unbearably cocky.”

To be honest, I wanted to like Evan. I really tried. I wrote off his cockiness as immaturity and even slightly deserved. After all, he did build a $2 billion business at the age of 21. But eventually, the more you get to know someone who you’ve respected, a time comes when the part you respect separates itself from the actual human being behind the respectable accomplishments. And to me, these emails are a final delineation between the man who is running an incredibly interesting business and the boy who never learned to respect women, or other human beings, for that matter.

Not only is the rhetoric in these emails downright disgusting, but it describes illegal activity, drug use, is incredibly sexist, and borders on racist. That’s a big deal, and a headline risk.

We’ve recently seen the immaturity of founders backfire for other companies, most notably Rap Genius who just this weekend fired a co-founder over an insensitive annotation he posted to the website.

Spiegel, having been 18 when he wrote these emails, might not receive a fate so harsh. After all, if the same rule applied to all founders and VCs about their private correspondence and youthful indiscretions, most of them would be out, too. (To be perfectly honest, SV is full of weirdos and youthful indiscretions.)

However, Snapchat is in a pivotal moment. The kids who use the app obsessively won’t care about Spiegel’s shenanigans, current or former. They probably don’t even know who he is.

But as Snapchat moves towards monetization, which could very likely include partnerships with big brands, the collegiate douchebaggery of the CEO may make that process much more difficult. And while I’d like to think that Snapchat’s board and VCs will react with shock to this, chances are they will remain silent and hope this blows over in time for Snapchat to live up to its $2 billion valuation.

Mo’ money, mo’ problems.

Post: #2

I was wondering why it sounded like it was written by a jealous woman...

Post: #3

A jealous, faggy little journalist mangina wants to tear down a successful guy? I'm shocked. Shocked, I tell you!





He looks like a lesbian.

Post: #4

^^gotdamn, that's a dude?!

Post: #5

So he called girls bad names, did drugs, and participated in hooliganism?

So basically he behaved like every other frat guy in the country?

Post: #6

Nah, it's a she. http://techcrunch.com/author/jordan-crook/. She writes "To be perfectly honest, SV is full of weirdos", and that feels like self-identification more than anything.

Cracks me up that she writes about his "disturbing" spelling and grammar. If your argument has no substance, nitpick the spelling.

Post: #7

I always wanted to pee on some sluts... I'm jelly

Post: #8

(05-29-2014 12:14 PM)Cr33pin Wrote:  I always wanted to pee on some sluts... I'm jelly

It seems really weird, but I have this thing about wanting to piss in them... like cumming inside only without the pregnancy. It may be a bit unsafe but meh I dont particularly care about their health.

Post: #9

(05-29-2014 12:01 PM)RockHard Wrote:  Nah, it's a she. http://techcrunch.com/author/jordan-crook/. She writes "To be perfectly honest, SV is full of weirdos", and that feels like self-identification more than anything.

Cracks me up that she writes about his "disturbing" spelling and grammar. If your argument has no substance, nitpick the spelling.

Oh, and she takes innocent selfies and vines nudes... how innocent and cute...

Post: #10

Does anything he has said or done negatively impact the business? No? Then it isn't newsworthy.

Post: #11

How did these emails get released?

Post: #12

(05-29-2014 11:22 AM)TheWastelander Wrote:  He looks like a lesbian.

Definitely the first thing I noticed about the writer when I read the article earlier today, was her (?) profile picture on the article:



The most ambiguous being since "It's Pat!", right down to the name Jordan, which can go either way.

And of course - short hair. I expect nothing less from shit articles like this these days.

(05-29-2014 12:59 PM)assman Wrote:  How did these emails get released?

I'd put my money on former brother, now jealous hater. Just need one mangina to ruin things for everyone.

Post: #13

Society is such an illusion of politeness. I have to admit when I see the emails I kinda cringe myself, especially if I think what if I was in his shoes, not only your business repuation but parents, sister, grandma etc seeing those emails. It even comes off as kinda sleezy to me and I'm pretty sleezy.

That said this is exactly how I talk with my friends or have talked with my friends, I think we all do but to have it put in print to polite society and not just wile having some beers and joking with buddies makes it seem different. Just think thats interesting.

Post: #14

I'm still trying to figure out what Evan Spiegel was doing that could be considered so morally offensive. It sounds to me some people are just fishing for ammo to sabotage his business plans.

There are Hong Kong billionaires who literally have executive fuck chambers and staffed harems in their corporate office buildings. The rich Sheikhs in Dubai import barely legal girls from EE and rent out entire hotel floors while they party with drugs, whores, and orgy out with their bros.

Doing a little blow in college and fucking some sorority slut is pretty low on the universal scale of moral offenses for the super rich. It's honestly like running a red light.

Post: #15

(05-29-2014 11:16 AM)CarCrashKid Wrote:  I was wondering why it sounded like it was written by a jealous woman...

americanwoman.jpg

Post: #16

(05-29-2014 01:01 PM)Last Parade Wrote:  Definitely the first thing I noticed about the writer when I read the article earlier today, was her (?) profile picture on the article:



The most ambiguous being since "It's Pat!", right down to the name Jordan, which can go either way.

And of course - short hair. I expect nothing less from shit articles like this these days.

Like others here, I assumed "she" was a "he" too. Feel like there was a pic of another feminist-journalist here recently (can't remember her name) and "she" looked the same. Like an androgynous 12-year old boy.

EDIT: Found it - the other "she" was Amanda Hess.



Am I the only one who thinks these two look like they could be brothers?

Post: #17

I think the author is a woman.

https://vine.co/v/h111TtpFjHe

https://vine.co/v/hJFqr6nPxlX

Post: #18

We have actually already seen such a news report a few centuries ago...

Tomas de Torquemada Wrote:I’ve known Juan de Spiegeli, local banker and merchant, for a while now. We have had more than half a dozen in-person conversations, far more exchanged letters, and even shared twenty minutes together at the royal audience. And try as I might, I’ve had a hard time liking him. Now, after reading letters sent by Juan de Spiegeli during his youth time at Zaragoza, I clearly understand what my instincts were telling me.

This man is possessed by the Devil.

You can see the whole swath of leaked letters at The Inquisition Archives, but I can summarize them all pretty easily for you with the above paragraph.

Like Girolamo Savonarola with his infamous heresy, Spiegeli was in college when he sent these letters, which describe unholy rituals, consuming meat on Friday, corrupting his friends by introducing them to Satanic teachings, and sacrificing chickens to "Baphomet". The letters are disturbing, in content as well as spelling and grammar, and wear away what little hope of remaining Christian and pure there is left for the younger generation.
...
Not only is the rhetoric in these letters downright disgusting, but it describes heretical activity, unholy rituals, is incredibly blasphemous, and borders on sacrilegious. That’s a big deal, and a headline risk.

We’ve recently seen the heresy of famous people backfire for other institutions, most notably the French, who just this weekend had their leader Joan of Arc excommunicated because of her heretical teachings.

Post: #19

(05-29-2014 01:55 PM)Handsome Creepy Eel Wrote:  We have actually already seen such a news report a few centuries ago...

Tomas de Torquemada Wrote:I’ve known Juan de Spiegeli, local banker and merchant, for a while now. We have had more than half a dozen in-person conversations, far more exchanged letters, and even shared twenty minutes together at the royal audience. And try as I might, I’ve had a hard time liking him. Now, after reading letters sent by Juan de Spiegeli during his youth time at Zaragoza, I clearly understand what my instincts were telling me.

This man is possessed by the Devil.

You can see the whole swath of leaked letters at The Inquisition Archives, but I can summarize them all pretty easily for you with the above paragraph.

Like Girolamo Savonarola with his infamous heresy, Spiegeli was in college when he sent these letters, which describe unholy rituals, consuming meat on Friday, corrupting his friends by introducing them to Satanic teachings, and sacrificing chickens to "Baphomet". The letters are disturbing, in content as well as spelling and grammar, and wear away what little hope of remaining Christian and pure there is left for the younger generation.
...
Not only is the rhetoric in these letters downright disgusting, but it describes heretical activity, unholy rituals, is incredibly blasphemous, and borders on sacrilegious. That’s a big deal, and a headline risk.

We’ve recently seen the heresy of famous people backfire for other institutions, most notably the French, who just this weekend had their leader Joan of Arc excommunicated because of her heretical teachings.

Post: #20

Who would have thought the creator of a sexting rationalization app would be a dude who loves pussy.

Post: #21

(05-29-2014 12:34 PM)LaCobra Wrote:  

(05-29-2014 12:01 PM)RockHard Wrote:  Nah, it's a she. http://techcrunch.com/author/jordan-crook/. She writes "To be perfectly honest, SV is full of weirdos", and that feels like self-identification more than anything.

Cracks me up that she writes about his "disturbing" spelling and grammar. If your argument has no substance, nitpick the spelling.

Oh, and she takes innocent selfies and vines nudes... how innocent and cute...

I know, writes an article about somebody's moral failings - OMG, underage drinking! Drug use! The horror!

Then posts selfie on vine with the title "drunk". https://vine.co/v/hJFqr6nPxlX

Post: #22

(05-29-2014 02:26 PM)RockHard Wrote:  I know, writes an article about somebody's moral failings - OMG, underage drinking! Drug use! The horror!

Then posts selfie on vine with the title "drunk". https://vine.co/v/hJFqr6nPxlX

Post: #23

Any responsible fraternity gentleman knows not use listserve. BBM back in the day, upgraded to imessenger. So this shit doesn't happen.

These emails are pretty tame compared to the stuff that goes down regularly.

Racial jokes, gay jokes, whale jokes, anything not PC pretty much is thrown down. Drug use was so common, although I never dabbled in it. Our top floor was the weed floor, a certain wing of our 2nd floor was notorious doing cocaine. Underage drinking is amazing.

Ah college, freshman pussy was easy as hell. Hey, do you want some shots in my room?

This girl looks like the type who is just butt hurt no sorority would ever consider bidding her. Even bottom tier.

Post: #24

Sheeeeet...underage drinking and sex crazed? Oh no.....

Post: #25

(05-29-2014 11:22 AM)TheWastelander Wrote:  A jealous, faggy little journalist mangina wants to tear down a successful guy? I'm shocked. Shocked, I tell you!

He looks like a lesbian.

That's a man???

EDIT: Saw the clarification. Wow...Seriously could have gone either way on that one.

At least the readers aren't fully on board. The top voted comment is from this dude:

Quote:We as a society really need to stop airing people's private communications and judging them on it. Regardless of what Donald Sterling, Brendan Eich, or Evan Spiegal has said I don't believe that any of them deserve to have their private emails or conversations put on display for the entire world to judge them on.

I think you would be hard pressed to find a single person who hasn't at one time or another said something that when taken out of context would be terribly reputation harming.