2014
Evan Spiegel says Snap has worked on Spectacles since about 2014, and recalls that Google Glass came out in 2013.
“We've been working on specs probably since 2014. I think Glass came out in 2013, I want to say.”
Topic
Snap Inc.
11 facts from 2 episodes, in date order. These are what speakers said on the shows, each linked to the moment it was said. They aren't independently verified.
2018
In February 2018 Benchmark sold almost half its Snap stake, realizing about $1 billion in gains.
“February 2018, Benchmark sold almost half of its stake in Snap and realized a billion dollars in gains.”
2026
Spiegel says more than two-thirds of Snap's new code is now written by AI.
“Now more than two-thirds of, you know, new code is written, you know, by AI at Snap.”
2026
Snap has a calendar app called Saturn, whose team replaced a roughly $100,000-a-year enterprise bug-report service with a tool they built in a day.
“we have a calendar app called Saturn, which is really cool.”
2026
Snap announced 25 million Snapchat Plus subscribers and a direct revenue business running at over $1 billion a year.
“We just announced we had 25 million Snapchat Plus subscribers, over a billion run rate on the direct revenue business.”
Undated
Spiegel says Snap built a ground-up Linux-based operating system for Specs because it performs better than repurposing Android.
“building a ground-up operating system on Linux was really difficult to do, but it's way more performant than trying to repurpose Android.”
Undated
Spiegel contrasts Specs with Google's Aura glasses project, which he says needs a large external compute pack.
“Aura has a huge compute pack, right? We just don't think it's realistic for people to carry around a compute pack to use glasses.”
Undated
Spiegel says Snap owns the whole Specs stack, including the Lens Studio developer tools and the Lens Core rendering engine.
“we actually own every single piece of the stack, right? So everything from the developer tools called Lens Studio to the rendering engine called Lens Core”
Undated
Spiegel says camera glasses sell for roughly $150 to $200, one reason Snap sees the market as small.
“So if you look at camera glasses today, little low hundreds of dollars, maybe $150, $200 to buy camera glasses.”
Undated
Spiegel says AI tools let Snap build a new service with about half a person's time and distribute it through Snapchat, supporting a multi-app strategy.
“Now, with, you know, half a person's time, half a team member's time, we can build a totally new service and distribute it through Snapchat.”
Undated
Spiegel says Snap builds some of the most important Specs components in-house in the US and UK, next to its R&D teams.
“we build some of the most important components for specs in the US and in the UK.”
Episodes