Most great ideas sound ridiculous at first.
Two Stanford students learned this the hard way.
Investors laughed. Friends warned them. Professors told them to quit.
But they kept going and built something that rewired how we talk to each other:⬇️ https://t.co/uxImdhnEOr
Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy weren't your typical Stanford students.
While classmates chased safe corporate jobs, they were obsessed with building products.
But there was one problem they couldn't solve: https://t.co/wXQlwcd176
While their peers landed Google and Facebook offers, Spiegel and Murphy burned through their savings.
Social apps. Utility tools. Productivity software.
By attempt #10, even their Stanford professors suggested they give up.
Yet they noticed something others had missed: https://t.co/l5LvN3d6Bd
The answer reveals something counterintuitive about innovation.
Each failed project taught them something critical.
Not about what users wanted.
But about what users actually did.
This distinction would eventually unlock everything: https://t.co/RZfMEY4KWX
Project #7 was a music discovery app. Users said they wanted better recommendations.
But analytics showed something odd:
People spent 80% of their time messaging friends about songs, not discovering new ones.
This pattern kept appearing across every failed attempt:
Future Place was their ambitious location-based service.
A check-in app to compete with Foursquare.
It flopped spectacularly.
But buried in the data was a curious behavior.
The few active users weren't checking in at all: https://t.co/VEKf9i1GCk
Instead, they were sending photos to friends.
Not polished Instagram-style photos.
Quick, silly, unpolished snapshots.
Photos they'd never want saved permanently.
This accidental discovery sparked the breakthrough:
What if photos could disappear?
In April 2011, Spiegel pitched this concept to his product design class.
The response was brutal.
Classmates mocked the idea of temporary photos.
"Why would anyone want pictures that vanish?" https://t.co/jHM5mqHmds
But Spiegel, Murphy, and Reggie Brown saw what Stanford MBAs couldn't.
Digital permanence was the problem, not the solution.
They built "Picaboo" in Spiegel's living room.
July 2011 launch: 127 users total.
September relaunch as Snapchat changed everything:
Within weeks, high school students were sending thousands of snaps daily.
Not the polished content of Facebook.
Raw, authentic moments that felt like real conversation.
The very impermanence Stanford students mocked became its greatest strength.
Each snap averaged just 3 seconds.
Here's what most people miss about Snapchat's success.
It wasn't about sexting or secrecy.
It was about creating the first digital communication that mimicked real-life interaction.
Temporary. Spontaneous. Pressure-free.
The opposite of every other social platform. https://t.co/GeMTRW9mfE
The Snapchat story reveals an uncomfortable truth about innovation.
Your biggest breakthroughs often hide in your biggest failures.
But only if you're watching user behavior, not user feedback.
Today's AI founders face this same challenge with even higher stakes:
Over the past decade, I've seen similar journeys in AI and emerging tech.
The difference between Snapchat success and another failed app is knowing what to watch for.
About me:
Built voice tech before Alexa or Siri.
Now I’m at https://t.co/61dXPLUHvs - powering real-time voice agents and cutting-edge TTS for over 1 million users every month.
If you’re exploring how AI can scale, automate, or replace human conversations, let’s connect.
Video & photo credits :
· MagnatesMedia: https://t.co/fYGGn1ZDmu
· TED: https://t.co/IBsTZsoulP
· @memfaultinc: https://t.co/txWanrWQvO
