Snap CEO Evan Spiegel has taken an unorthodox approach to developing creativity and resilience in new hires: giving them a nearly impossible task on their first day. The idea is to promote early failure, thus removing the fear that comes with it and creating a culture of innovation at the company.
In a recent appearance on “The Diary of a CEO” podcast, Spiegel described how new designers at Snap are asked to pitch an idea on their first day without much context or preparation time. He recognized the intrinsic challenge of doing this, and he said, “When you have no idea what the company is doing, no clue what’s happening, how in the world are you supposed to have a great idea? I mean, it’s basically impossible.”
The reasoning behind this approach is to expose new employees to their worst nightmare—offering a poor idea—immediately. By going through this initial failure, workers are able to overcome the fear of failure, which Spiegel feels is essential for freedom of creativity. He stressed, “Ninety-nine percent of ideas. —but 1% is. And the best way to have a.”
Spiegel’s philosophy emphasizes the need for an ongoing stream of ideas, understanding that though numerous may not work, a few can bring huge breakthroughs. This approach argues against perfectionism in startup culture, which suggests that striving for perfect ideas could be an impediment to movement and innovation. He said, “People who think the game. —those are people who’ve never built one.”
This method of onboarding is only one aspect of Snap’s wider culture of experimentation, one which Spiegel attributes to the company’s innovative successes. Snap Inc., Snapchat’s parent company, has been acknowledged for bringing new things like disappearing images and videos and the Stories format to the table—features that have also been copied by other major players like Instagram and Facebook.
Established by Spiegel in his time at Stanford University, Snap has expanded enormously since its inception. The company went public with its initial public offering (IPO) in 2017, valued at around $24 billion. As of March 2025, Snap’s market capitalization is $15.65.
Spiegel’s focus on accepting failure tracks with his sense that every comment is helpful and that the way people react to comments is where the magic lies. Through implementing this kind of thinking as a part of Snap’s company culture, Spiegel hopes to be able to build a workplace that employees can work in with impunity, testing out new things and taking chances while not living under the paralyzing shadow of failure.
