Key Takeaways

  • Over 15 years, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel's job radically shifted from hands-on product design and operations (like answering customer support emails) to focusing entirely on leadership, people development, and culture.
  • At scale, a CEO's primary role evolves into being an "explainer-in-chief," a term Spiegel learned from President Clinton. This means translating vision, strategy, and business realities for the entire organization.
  • This explanatory function isn't just external for investors or the public; it's a core internal leadership responsibility to help teams understand the company's direction and their part in it.
  • Even if you're a reluctant communicator, like Spiegel was in Snap's early days regarding all-hands meetings and Q&As, actively embracing and enjoying internal communication is non-negotiable for staying connected and effective.

The Founder's Unrecognizable Future

If you're in the trenches, wrestling with product design, customer support emails, and legal filings, Evan Spiegel has a message for you: your future job as CEO will be unrecognizable. The co-founder of Snap, now 15 years in, reflects on how his role mutated from that of a hands-on builder to something far more abstract. In the early days, he and Bobby Murphy were deep in the weeds, tackling everything from product to fundraising. As Spiegel put it, “It's hard to comprehend how much the job changes over time. I mean, it's really quite extraordinary to go from, you know, my job, in the early days... I was, you know, helping design the product, but I was also answering customer support emails. I was, you know, trying to get our legal filings sorted out. I was trying to raise money, right?”

Today, that scrappy, all-encompassing role is long gone. For Spiegel, the majority of the job at Snap now revolves around leadership. This means intensely focusing on developing people, selecting the right talent, and cultivating the company culture. It's a seismic shift, trading direct output for exponential influence through others.

President Clinton's Core Insight: The Explainer-in-Chief

The core of this transformation, Spiegel shares, lies in communication. He recalls meeting President Clinton who offered a vivid description of leadership: “He was like, you know, it's very interesting, you know, being president is really like being explainer and chief and your job is actually to just explain stuff to people and help them make sense of the world and the company and their role in it.” This insight stuck with Spiegel, and he often revisits it.

At Snap's scale, the world is complex, the market is noisy, and internal priorities can feel scattered. Spiegel's job isn't just about making decisions; it's about clarifying them, providing context, and ensuring everyone understands the 'why.' He states, “So much of my job is to like is to explain things to our company and and, you know, to our shareholders, to the world in ways that that really make sense and and can inspire folks and and help us to all move in the right direction.” This isn't just presenting information; it's guiding perception and building collective understanding.

Communication Isn't Optional; It's the Job

Here's the kicker: many founders, Spiegel included, might resist the communication heavy lifting. He admits he initially avoided things like all-hands meetings or Q&A sessions, thinking an email would suffice. “I didn't want to do an all hands. I didn't want to do Q&A,” he said. But leadership, especially at scale, demands showing up. As he recounts, someone told him, “Too bad, Evan. Like, this is your job.”

This isn't just about sharing information; it's about active, visible engagement. It's about being present, answering tough questions, and letting your team feel your conviction directly. You can't delegate the emotional labor of inspiration and clarification. It's a muscle that needs to be built, even if it feels uncomfortable at first. For Spiegel, just doing it was the only way to embrace this unavoidable part of the CEO role.

What to Do With This

Stop viewing internal communication as an optional overhead. This week, schedule a mandatory "Explainer Half-Hour" with your team. Dedicate the first 10 minutes to explicitly explaining your company's highest-level strategic priority for the next month, detailing why it matters and how it connects to your long-term vision. Use the remaining 20 minutes for unfiltered Q&A, and commit to answering every question directly, even if it feels uncomfortable. Do this weekly to build your "explainer-in-chief" muscle now.