Snapchat CEO's Job Seems Safe Despite His Sleazy College Emails

Yesterday, derogatory college emails sent by Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel were published by Valleywag, but it doesn't seem like Spiegel needs to worry about his job.

A source close to the company justified the emails to Business Insider:

"He is 23 now. Then, he was a kid, a frat boy kid ... everyone sent stupid emails and did stupid things when they were 19."

Spiegel's emails were sent in late 2009 and early 2010 while he was social chair of Stanford's Kappa Sigma fraternity. They reference binge drinking, cocaine usage, and offensive comments about women.

Spiegel isn't the first Greek life member to be put on blast for sending horrific emails. There was the "deranged sorority girl" who asked if her sisters were "f---ing retarded" last year, and the Georgia Tech fraternity brother who wrote about "luring rapebait." But those people weren't running multi-billion-dollar companies. Mark Zuckerberg's leaked college IMs were bad too, but they didn't objectify women or talk about urinating on them, as Spiegel's did.

Over the past two years, Spiegel has earned a reputation as the ultimate frat boy. Texts made public by a lawsuit filed against him by former fraternity brother Reggie Brown are scattered with terms like "dawg" and "dude." His parents' divorce papers painted him as a spoiled brat in high school, who begged to drive a $75,000 BMW and threw temper tantrums.

While running Snapchat, Spiegel has made a few missteps. He didn't apologize when four million Snapchat accounts here hacked until the media started asking for his head to roll. Spiegel also fibbed about the way he first met Mark Zuckerberg to Forbes to sound more macho.

People can change, and Spiegel says he has. He told Business Insider in a written statement that he was "mortified" by his "idiotic emails" and that they don't represent the person he is today, or his views towards women.

While Snapchat's investors may be patient as the young founder grows up, other tech CEOs haven't been as lucky. Gurbaksh Chahal, founder of adtech company RadiumOne, was recently fired by his board after criminal charges against him were made public. Police alleged that Chahal beat a former girlfriend multiple times but felony charges were reduced. The board initially supported Chahal but changed its mind after Chahal pled guilty to lesser charges - and found himself in the middle of a media firestorm.

This past weekend, Rap Genius co-founder Mahbod Moghadam was fired after he made distasteful comments about the Santa Barbara shooter's memoir. The comments, which he wrote on his company's site, included: "My guess: his sister is smokin' hot."

The Snapchat insider we spoke with didn't feel either scenario was comparable to Spiegel's old college emails, because the other incidents occurred when those executives were running their businesses. That's not to say Spiegel couldn't get himself fired if he did something truly horrible.

"Rap Genius wrote stupid things as an executive of the company, in the company's product," this person said. "I think that the actions of Gurbaksh Chahal are completely horrendous and incomparable. "If Evan did what Chahal did, I for one would be disgusted and seek to take action."