Snapchat IPO: Evan Spiegel tries to sell investors on his top product – himself

As the messaging app company prepares for its initial public offering, its 26-year-old co-founder looks to build on talent, chutzpah and hard-heartedness

Evan Spiegel, Snap Inc's 26-year-old co-founder, has a reputation for playing nasty - but these days he is playing nice. If it works out, he's going to be a very rich man. Next month Snap, owner of the Snapchat app, will go public on the New York stock exchange, cementing Spiegel and co-founder Bobby Murphy's place in the ranks of tech billionaires.

Snapchat has the same backstory as many of tech's biggest names: started in a dorm room in Stanford, phenomenal growth, twentysomething college dropout founders, blah, blah, blah. It might sound like the same old, same old. But this share sale is different and could mark a turning point for tech sales of the future.