In-N-Out's billionaire heiress started out working kitchen shifts at the chain when she was a teenager because she didn't want 'special treatment'

• Lynsi Snyder, whose grandparents founded In-N-Out Burger, started working at the chain as an associate.
• "There's a stigma that can come with being, you know, the owner's kid," she told NBC's TODAY.

Billionaire In-N-Out Burger heiress Lynsi Snyder said she started out working shifts at the cult West Coast burger chain as a teenager because she wanted to be respected.

"I think that there's a stigma that can come with being, you know, the owner's kid, and just wanting to be respected, like others, doing it the right way, and not having the special treatment," Snyder said in an interview with NBC's Today of her application to work at one of the chain's restaurants in Redding, California. The interview also aired on NBC's Morning News Now.

Snyder started working at In-N-Out as an associate in 1999, the year she turned 17.

Her roles included serving customers and prepping food, she wrote in her book, "The Ins-N-Outs of In-N-Out Burger." By the time she was 24, Snyder was working as a manager at the chain, she told Orange Coast Magazine.

Snyder became president of the privately-run family business in 2010 aged 27, and she gained full control of the company in 2017. With this, Snyder became one of the youngest female billionaires in the country.

Forbes put her net worth at $6.7 billion as of April 2024.

Some of the world's biggest companies remain controlled by their founders' families, leading to recent discourse about "nepo babies."

Bernard Arnault, for example, has given his children important roles at his luxury conglomerate LVMH. His eldest child, Delphine Arnault, is the CEO of Dior.

But some business leaders have made it clear that their kids won't automatically inherit their parents' empires and success.

Mark Smucker, the CEO of J. M. Smucker, recently told Fortune that he had to earn his role and that members of the family wanting to work at the food company need to have experience working at another company "no matter what."

Lynsi Snyder became leader of the company following a series of deaths in the family

Lynsi Snyder's grandparents, Harry and Esther Snyder, opened the first In-n-Out location as a burger stand in Baldwin Park, Los Angeles County, in 1948. The restaurant's two-way speaker drive-thru system was seen as pioneering at the time.

"My grandparents, y'know, came from very humble beginnings," Lynsi Snyder told Today.

After Harry Snyder died in 1976, his son — and Lynsi Snyder's uncle — Rich Snyder took over the company until he died in a plane crash alongside another In-N-Out executive in 1993.

Guy Snyder, father of Lynsi Snyder, then took charge until his death from a prescription drug overdose in 1999. His death made Lynsi Snyder, then 17, the only direct blood relative left.

Esther Snyder died in 2006.

Business Insider previously reported that Lynsi Snyder's rapid rise to the top was largely caused by the series of deaths and internal legal drama at the company.

Since she became In-N-Out's president in 2010, she has brought the chain to new states but has changed almost nothing about the brand and its menu.

In-N-Out now has just over 400 restaurants across eight states: California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Texas, Oregon, Colorado, and Idaho.

It's announced plans to expand to Washington State, New Mexico, and Tennessee.