What the sole heiress to the In-N-Out empire and one of the US' youngest billionaires' life is really like

Rachel Askinasi,Rachel Askinasi,Hayley Peterson

Feb 1, 2019, 20:38 IST

Thirty-six-year-old Lynsi Snyder became one of the youngest billionaires in the US after she inherited full control of the burger chain In-N-Out.

Lynsi Snyder is the billionaire owner and president of In-N-Out Burger. According to Forbes, she's worth $3 billion.
Thirty-six-year-old Lynsi Snyder became one of the youngest billionaires in the US after she inherited full control of In-N-Out in 2017.
In-N-Out Burger has remained a family business since Lynsi Snyder's grandparents, Harry and Esther Snyder, founded the burger chain in 1948.
Snyder, the sole heir to the burger empire, inherited 50% of In-N-Out's shares when she turned 30, and on her 35th birthday, she acquired most of the chain's remaining shares.
Snyder is well-loved by her employees. She has a 95% approval rating on Glassdoor from her employees and is listed as the fourth highest-rated CEO of 2018 on the site as well.
The famously reclusive heiress has been married four times and suffered through a spate of family tragedies, including the death of her uncle, followed by the death of her father when she was just 17 years old.
Snyder has only spoken to the media a handful of times over the past decade. Here's what we know about her family empire and her life.

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What the sole heiress to the In-N-Out empire and one of the US' youngest billionaires' life is really like

Lynsi Snyder's grandparents, Harry and Esther Snyder, opened the first In-N-Out restaurant in 1948.

The original was a drive-through stand in Baldwin Park, California.

After her grandfather died in 1976, her uncle, Rich Snyder, took over the company.

He was at the helm until 1993, when he died in a plane crash.

Today, if you take a look at the bottom of an In-N-Out soft drink cup, you'll find a Bible verse.

"JOHN 3:16" is printed on the inside lip of every cup company-wide.

Mark Taylor, COO of In-N-Out Burger, told KQED9 that it was something Rich did while he was running the company, adding, "Who are we to undo it?"

During his tenure, Rich also established In-N-Out University to train entry-level managers from all In-N-Out locations.

Lynsi's father, Guy Snyder, then replaced his brother.

Guy remained in charge until 1999, when he died of a prescription-drug overdose. Lynsi Snyder was 17 at the time.

In a video interview, Snyder said her father battled drug addiction and was in and out of rehab facilities from the time she was five years old.

Her parents divorced when she was 12 years old, she said. Her father had had an affair.

Despite everything, Snyder said she was very close with her father.

In an interview with I Am Second, she talked about how the death of her father affected her decision making as an adult.

"My world shattered," she said. "After my dad died there was no way I was going to be alone." She said that she would jump from one man's arms right into the next — she has been divorced three times.

After her father's death, Snyder married her first husband. She was 18 years old.

"It wasn't right," she said. "I paid the price with a divorce and jumped right into the arms of someone else." Then, she said, she started smoking pot and abusing alcohol.

Drug and alcohol use was something she had always wanted to stay away from because of her father's addiction, but she found herself using as an adult.

Snyder said she worried she would "meet an early death" like her father, and she eventually married again, had two children, and later had an affair. The marriage dissolved within six years, she said. "I couldn't feel like a bigger failure at that point," she said.

She married a third time and had another child with a man she said married her for money and cheated on her for nearly four years before they divorced. "The first time he cheated on me, I thought, 'Well I deserve it,'" she said. "It was terrible."

Snyder married a fourth time in 2014 to former In-N-Out employee Sean Ellingson. She told an audience at Azusa Pacific University that she met him on the dating app Tinder.

She said the first conversation they had was about their mutual experience with addiction, politics, their spiritual lives, and what their goals were at the time. They both say they have finally found peace through religion.

Snyder credits her faith in religion with turning her life around — she said she ultimately decided to "spend time with" God and Jesus and that faith still guides her today.

Now, she and her husband run a foundation called Army of Love. Their mission is to "enlist, train, and equip an army of love" to help anyone in need of support.

The couple also started another foundation together called Slave 2 Nothing, which focuses primarily on issues of human trafficking and drug abuse.

Snyder now owns this Los Angeles home that she bought for $17.4 million in 2012.

The home features 10 bedrooms and 18 bathrooms ...

... a tennis court, basketball court, and indoor batting cage ...

... a putting green and sand trap ...

... a movie theater, infinity pool, and an eight-car garage.

The pool sits next to a pool house equipped with a barbecue, eating area, and sitting area with a fireplace.

The house is currently for sale with an asking price of $19.799 million

Snyder calls herself an "organized, careful leader," though she admits that she's also a thrill-seeker.

"I'm a lot like my dad, a little bit of a daredevil," she told Orange Coast Magazine. "I like an adrenaline rush. My dad took me to the racetrack for the first time when I was two or three. … Anything with a motor, that was in my blood."

In her free time, Snyder says she enjoys drag racing — a hobby she started when she was 18 years old. "I just love muscle cars," she told NHRA about why she races. "I love the whole sport. I think that it was kind of an escape and a hobby that was a lot of fun and a connection to my dad."

Snyder named her racing car the "Flying Dutch Fox" in a tribute to her father, who had a car named the "Flying Dutchman."

She said she used "fox" because when she was little, her father called her that. "He told me I was a little fox because I was always climbing on everything and getting into everything," she told NHRA.

Her love of cars goes beyond the racetrack.

She's got quite the collection of vintage cars, including this unique 1941 Willys Coupe with a horse power of about 1,000, which used to belong to her dad. A coupe like this can cost upward of $130,000.

Lynsi even appeared on "Jay Leno's Garage" to talk about it — and to talk about burgers, of course.

Around the time that she started racing, Lynsi said she was the victim of two attempted kidnappings. The first kidnapping attempt happened when she was 17 and still in high school. The second time, she was 24 and working as a manager at In-N-Out.

"I ran across the highway," she told the Orange Coast Magazine, adding that she knew her would-be kidnappers were suspicious because "they had a van with boarded-up windows."

Lynsi also revealed to Orange Coast Magazine that she has a couple tattoos, one of which says "hated" in Hebrew. "It references John 15:18, where Jesus says — this is paraphrased — 'Do not be surprised when the world hates you, for it hated me,'" she told the magazine.

When asked about her future plans for In-N-Out, she told CBS she would "never" take the company public or franchise its restaurants.

"The only reason we would do that is for the money, and I wouldn't do it," Lynsi said in the interview.

Since taking the position as president of In-N-Out in 2010, Snyder has opened restaurants in Oregon and Texas, expanding In-N-Out to six states from four.

But she has changed almost nothing else about the brand, which prides itself on offering a simple menu of burgers and fries.

Patties, buns, potatoes, vegetables, and everything else you can order from the restaurant is delivered to each location via trucks from its distribution centers like this one. The company says nothing is ever frozen or microwaved.

"My heart is totally connected to this company because of my family, and the fact that they are not here — I have a strong tie to keep this the way they would want it," she said.

The company's mission is "about the quality, the friendliness, and the cleanliness," she told CBS This Morning. "We keep it simple."

Despite the buzz around Snyder — she is the face of 2018's Forbes 400 list and the youngest woman in the group ...

... she has been known to shy away from interviews — something Snyder acknowledged as intentional.

The reason? "We want to do what we do best, and that's serve some good burgers to our customers," she told "CBS This Morning." "It's not about us here, it's about this," she said, pointing to the restaurant behind her.