Brian Nichols is the co-founder of Angel Squad, a community where you’ll learn how to angel invest and get a chance to invest as little as $1k into Hustle Fund's top performing early-stage startups.

Most people know Evan Spiegel as the co-founder of Snapchat. But here's what fewer people talk about: how Spiegel thinks about investing in other companies and what his approach reveals about building platforms that actually last.

After digging into Evan Spiegel investments and his public statements about technology, I've found patterns that every early-stage investor should understand. This isn't about copying a billionaire's portfolio. It's about understanding how someone who built a massive consumer platform thinks about where technology is heading.

Who is Evan Spiegel, really?

Spiegel co-founded Snap Inc. in 2011 with Bobby Murphy while they were students at Stanford. What started as a disappearing photo app became one of the defining social platforms for an entire generation.

But here's what makes Spiegel interesting from an investment perspective: he's been consistently right about major technology shifts before they became obvious. He saw that people wanted more private, ephemeral communication years before everyone else caught on. He bet on augmented reality and camera-first interfaces when most investors thought it was gimmicky.

That track record of seeing around corners? That's exactly what makes studying his investment approach valuable.

What does Evan Spiegel actually invest in?

Unlike many tech founders who become prolific angel investors, Spiegel has been relatively selective with his investments. But the companies he has backed reveal a clear philosophy.

Camera and visual technology companies: Spiegel has consistently invested in companies advancing camera technology and visual computing. This makes sense given Snap's positioning as a "camera company," but it goes deeper than that. He believes the camera is replacing the keyboard as the primary input method for technology.

Creator economy platforms: Several Evan Spiegel investments focus on tools that help creators build businesses. This aligns with Snap's Spotlight program and their broader bet that content creation will become more democratized.

Privacy-focused technology: Given Snapchat's early positioning around ephemeral content, it's no surprise that Spiegel backs companies building privacy-preserving technology.

The pattern here? Spiegel invests in infrastructure that supports the future he's already building at Snap.

How Spiegel evaluates technology trends

What separates Spiegel from other tech investors is his willingness to bet on trends that seem counterintuitive or even regressive at first.

The disappearing content thesis: When Snapchat launched with disappearing messages, most investors thought it was backwards. Why would anyone want their content to disappear? Weren't we supposed to be building permanent digital records?

Spiegel saw what others missed: people wanted lower-stakes communication. They wanted to share moments without building a permanent public record. He was right, and now every major platform has copied this feature.

The camera-first approach: While other platforms were optimizing for text and links, Spiegel bet that the camera would become the primary interface. He saw that taking and sharing photos would become as natural as typing. Again, the entire industry followed.

The AR glasses timing bet: Spiegel has been investing in augmented reality technology for years, even when it seemed premature. Snap released Spectacles, their camera glasses, way before the market was ready. But they've continued iterating while building the underlying technology platform.

Was this too early? Maybe. But Spiegel is playing a longer game than most investors.

What Spiegel gets right about consumer behavior

Here's what studying Evan Spiegel investments has taught me about consumer technology: the best consumer investors don't follow trends, they understand human behavior at a fundamental level.

People want to present different versions of themselves: Spiegel understood early that people don't want one unified digital identity. They want to be silly with friends, professional with colleagues, and authentic with family. This insight drove Snapchat's design and informs how he evaluates other consumer companies.

Visual communication is more natural than text: Spiegel has been consistent in his belief that cameras and visual content are more natural forms of expression than text. This seemed wrong when text messaging was king. Now? It's obviously correct.

Younger users drive platform adoption: Every major social platform started with young users and aged up. Spiegel understood this pattern and built specifically for young users, even when advertisers and investors wanted broader demographics immediately.

The infrastructure layer strategy

Here's where it gets interesting for early-stage investors. Many of the Evan Spiegel investments aren't in flashy consumer apps. They're in infrastructure that enables the next generation of applications.

Computer vision and AR technology: Spiegel has backed companies building the underlying technology for augmented reality experiences. Not the end-user applications, but the tools that other developers will use to build AR experiences.

Creator tools and monetization platforms: Rather than just backing individual creators, Spiegel invests in platforms that help creators make money and manage their businesses.

Privacy infrastructure: As privacy becomes more important, Spiegel has invested in companies building privacy-preserving technology that other applications can integrate.

This is the Andreessen Horowitz approach applied to consumer technology: invest in the picks and shovels, not just the gold miners.

What went wrong (and what we can learn from it)

Not everything Spiegel touches turns to gold. Snap's stock has been volatile. Some product bets haven't worked out. The Spectacles hardware has struggled to find product-market fit.

But here's what's instructive: Spiegel hasn't backed away from his core thesis. He's still betting on cameras, AR, and visual communication. He's just adjusting the timeline and the execution.

This is important for early-stage investors. The best investors don't abandon their thesis when they hit obstacles. They adjust their approach while staying committed to the underlying trend.

How Spiegel thinks about timing

One of the most interesting aspects of Evan Spiegel investments is his willingness to be early. Snap launched Spectacles in 2016 when the market clearly wasn't ready. They've continued iterating through multiple versions despite limited adoption.

Most investors would call this stubbornness. But Spiegel is building toward a future where AR glasses are ubiquitous. He's willing to lose money for years to be positioned correctly when the market inflection point hits.

For early-stage investors, this raises an important question: how early is too early? Spiegel's answer seems to be: if you're building fundamental infrastructure, there's no such thing as too early. But you need the capital and patience to keep iterating.

What should early-stage investors learn from Spiegel's approach?

After studying Evan Spiegel investments, here are the tactical takeaways:

1. Invest in infrastructure for trends you believe in: Don't just back end-user applications. Look for companies building the tools and platforms that enable those applications. The infrastructure layer often has better unit economics and more defensibility.

2. Be willing to be contrarian on timing: Some of the best investments look too early. If you have conviction in a trend, being early means you can invest at lower valuations and build relationships with the best founders before everyone else sees the opportunity.

3. Focus on fundamental human behavior: The best consumer investments aren't about predicting the next feature. They're about understanding unchanging aspects of human behavior and building products that serve those needs better.

4. Build concentrated conviction: Spiegel doesn't spray and pray. He makes focused bets in areas where he has genuine expertise and insight. For angel investors, this means investing in industries where you have unfair advantages in evaluation.

5. Think in decades, not years: The best Evan Spiegel investments are playing out over 10+ year timeframes. That requires patient capital and a different evaluation framework than most early-stage investors use.

The camera platform thesis in practice

Spiegel's biggest insight is that the camera is becoming the new keyboard. This isn't just about taking photos. It's about the camera as an input device for augmented reality, visual search, and ambient computing.

What does this mean for early-stage investors? Look for companies building:

• Computer vision APIs and tools
• AR development platforms
• Visual search technology
• Camera-based interfaces for existing applications
• Tools that help people create and edit visual content

These are all infrastructure plays on Spiegel's camera-first thesis.

Where Spiegel might be wrong

Let's be real about this. Spiegel could be wrong about several things:

AR glasses might never reach mass adoption: Google Glass failed. Magic Leap struggled. Maybe people just don't want to wear computers on their faces. If that's true, years of Snap's R&D and many Evan Spiegel investments will look foolish.

The camera-first interface might have limits: Yes, visual content dominates social media. But text is still the primary interface for most productivity applications. Maybe the camera revolution has a ceiling.

Privacy concerns might not matter as much as Spiegel thinks: Despite Snapchat's privacy-focused positioning, the most successful platforms have been the ones that maximize engagement, not privacy.

These are real risks. But understanding where an investor might be wrong is just as valuable as understanding where they're right.

The bottom line for angel investors

Evan Spiegel's approach to investing comes down to a few core principles: invest in fundamental infrastructure for trends you believe in, be willing to be early, and focus on unchanging aspects of human behavior rather than temporary features.

For those of us writing smaller checks, we can apply the same principles. You don't need Spiegel's capital to invest in infrastructure companies. You don't need his access to bet on contrarian timing. You just need conviction and patience.

The companies that succeed are the ones building tools and platforms that other companies will depend on. That's true whether you're investing at Spiegel's scale or making your first angel investment. If you're looking to join a community of investors who think about these longer-term platform opportunities and get access to companies building real infrastructure, Angel Squad brings together early-stage investors who focus on fundamental technology shifts rather than chasing hype.

The real lesson from studying Evan Spiegel investments isn't about copying his portfolio. It's about developing the conviction to back trends before they're obvious and the patience to wait for those trends to play out.