How Snapchat's CEO Got Mark Zuckerberg To Fly To LA For A Secret Hotel Room Meeting
Not Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel, apparently.
Last winter, just before Facebook released its Snapchat-clone called Poke, Zuckerberg sent an email to Spiegel. He asked Spiegel to come to Facebook's headquarters so the two of them could get to know each other better.
According to Forbes, which interviewed both Spiegel and his co-founder Bobby Murphy for its January 2014 issue, Spiegel responded:
"I'm happy to meet you...if you come to me."
The email started a chain of passive-aggressive interactions between the two founders. Zuckerberg emailed Spiegel the day Poke, his Snapchat copycat, launched. The email said something to the effect of, "I hope you enjoy it." Facebook put a big logo of the Poke app on the lawn of its campus, a subtle dig at the big Snapchat logo Spiegel had in front of his startup's house-office.
When Snapchat overtook Poke in the app store, Spiegel says "it was like, Merry Christmas, Snapchat!"
Eventually, Zuckerberg caved and flew to L.A. to meet with Spiegel. He even rented out a secret hotel room for the meeting.
Recently, Zuckerberg and Spiegel were back in touch. Zuckerberg reportedly offered to buy Snapchat for more than $3 billion in cash.
Spiegel said no.