How to Turn Down a Billion Dollars: The Snapchat Story

About the book

David builds Episode 22 from Gallagher's reporting and later returns to the book for Snapchat's early selling, Zuckerberg's courtship, Spiegel's refusal to sell, and the influence of Steve Jobs and Edwin Land.

Why read it

Best if you want a reported company history of Snapchat's beginnings, product choices, Facebook conflict, and rejected acquisition offer

Evidence and original sources

The host says the episode is worth listeners' time and that he hopes the discussion makes them want to read the book.

• Claude Hopkins (A Life in Advertising) — David cites a book about early Snapchat as a modern parallel to Hopkins's door-to-door canvassing lesson.
• Georges Doriot (Birth of Venture Capital) — David references this book's account of Evan Spiegel refusing Facebook's acquisition offer for Snapchat and draws a parallel to Doriot's decision not to sell Digital Equipment Corporation.
• How To Turn Down A Billion Dollars: The Snapchat Story — The host explicitly identifies this as the episode's book by title and author, then proceeds through highlights and notes from it.
• No Better Time: The Brief, Remarkable Life of Danny Lewin, the Genius Who Transformed the Internet — David uses Gallagher's Snapchat book and its Zuckerberg emails as a comparison for direct, simple communication.
• The Story of Edwin Land and Polaroid — David identifies this Snapchat book as covered on Founders episode 22.