How to Turn Down a Billion Dollars: The Snapchat Story

by Billy Gallagher

In the fall of 2008, Evan burst onto the campus scene at Stanford. Known as “The Farm” because Leland and Jane Stanford founded the school on their old Palo Alto farm, Stanford has an idyllic 8,000-acre campus in northern California, just south of San Francisco. He lived on the top floor of Donner, a three-story all-freshman dorm. Evan quickly became friends with the guy who lived right across the hall from him, Reggie Brown. Evan could not possibly have imagined it at the time, but meeting Reggie would become one of the most important things he did at Stanford. Reggie was born on January 17, 1990, in Isle of Palms, an affluent coastal town just outside of Charleston, South Carolina. Reggie had a masterful way of making people feel welcome and comfortable around him, like he was genuinely interested in getting to know you. He could come across as a goofball at first, as he smoked and drank and made lowbrow jokes, but he was deeply intelligent and creative. Reggie knew from the day he got to Stanford that he wanted to be an English major and focus on writing. Reggie was a beefy, good-looking kid with shaggy blonde hair that was typically tucked under a backward cap. A wide, silly smile usually brightened his face. His Southern manners set him apart in Northern California, as he would frequently address professors and friends’ parents more formally.