[researcher88]

Evan Spiegel is clearly smart but it's weird to hail him as some visionary when someone else came up with the concept and someone else coded the app.

When an app takes off like that, is it even possible to fail running the company? You get funding, all types of input from experts and all you need to do is guide the rocket you are attached to.

[sparkzilla]

I don't know anything about Spiegel, but have you ever tried to guide a rocket you are attached to? I can't imagine it's all that easy.

[droidist2]

It's kind of like riding a cat and trying to tell him where to go. He either ends up stopping to clean his bollocks or he brings you into the litter box.

[sparkzilla]

That's a big cat.

[researcher88]

As a metaphor, it will get you to outerspace but you may miss your target. You don't actually need to guide it, there's so much thrust/traction that you'd have to be super talented and purposely trying to sabotage it for it to fail.

That being said, Snapchat has made some incredibly good decisions, new products and so forth.

[ryan90]

No app just takes off like that. Even so, you have to deal with the challenges associated with it.

I'm a huge cynic when it comes to Snapchat and in no way agree with it's valuation, but they've made some pretty big moves and Evan has shown to be more than competent.

[nailer]

Do you have a link for that? Wikipedia has Spiegel listed as a developer (but that's unreferenced too).

[godzillabrennus]

See Digg for a case study on how bad execution post launch during iterative stages can crush a business.