Finally, a Tech CEO with Style: Snapchat's Evan Spiegel

Elle



Evan Spiegel doesn't look like the movie version of a college dropout (see: Seth Rogen, couch, bong) or the movie version of a pioneering tech entrepreneur (see: Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg in a hoodie and ill-fitting khakis). Still, he's all of those things in real life. He left school three classes short of graduation and lives with his dad indefinitely-"until he kicks me out," Spiegel told The Associated Press-but the dude's hardly the scrubby stereotype you might picture. That college he left was Stanford, and his motivation for doing so was to run the most popular image sharing app in the country. The 23-year-old Snapchat CEO is kind of a big deal, and along with company co-founder and CTO Bobby Murphy, he both looks and acts the part.

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You probably know that, though, because you've likely seen the news: the duo just reportedly turned down Facebook's $3 billion dollar offer to buy their company. (Instagram and Tumblr each sold for $1 billion to Facebook and Twitter, respectively, throwing that $3 billion bid into high relief.) The rejection is sending "Who dare spurn the great and mighty Mark Zuckerberg?!" shockwaves far beyond Silicon Valley, and it should shine a spotlight on Murphy and Spiegel for a while. Yet-and somewhat surprisingly, for tech start-up founders-the duo seem well-prepared to be public figures. These dudes are cute, they dress well, and they're comfortable with press (we're looking at you, shooting guns finger gestures).

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Plus, they're nice foils for each other, and that always adds something. Spiegel's genes are heavy on thin-nosed, perfect-smiled Dermot Mulroney-esque alleles (you know, Julia Roberts' debonair, smirking love interest in My Best Friend's Wedding). His jeans and button-downs and sweaters are not regular jeans and button-downs and sweaters. Instead, he favors premium, well-tailored denim (A.P.C., maybe), extra-soft, fancy-looking shirting (Steven Alan, probably) and classic, Superga-y sneakers. It's a clean cut, Kiehl's-using, gentlemanly aesthetic, and if you're into that, it's pretty great. (And sometimes, he gets a little more playful, like when he had himself photographed (above) in an intarsia knit tiger head sweater that seemed snagged from a Russian street style star's closet.)

Murphy, on the other hand, has more of a baby face to him, like one of those twenty-something actors starring in a Disney TV show. He's more adorable than Spiegel, and his style skews more American Apparel-casual. Yet he still tries, and like Spiegel, he looks good. They both do. Of course, time will tell if the pair's Facebook snub was wise, but in the meantime we can confidently assert one thing. Their decision to push back against the Zuckerberg hoodie-or-bust, anti-polish philosophy with an unabashed effort to look good? That's smart. Really smart.

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