Snap CEO Evan Spiegel told employees on September 8 that the company will reorganize into small, fast-moving “startup squads” to reignite growth after a slowdown in advertising revenue.
Ad revenue grew just 4% year-over-year in Q2 2025, well below expectations. Snap’s 2025 revenue is projected at $6 billion, short of the $7.4 billion Fortune 500 cutoff.
Spiegel called the environment a “crucible moment,” with Snap squeezed between trillion-dollar competitors and leaner startups posting faster ad growth.
Squads designed to move like startups
The reorganization will create five to seven squads of 10–15 people. Each will have a single-threaded leader, weekly demo days, and 90-day mission cycles, designed to replicate the urgency of an early-stage startup. Platform teams will supply toolkits and guardrails, but accountability for outcomes will rest with each squad.
Snapchat+ as proof of the model
Spiegel pointed to Snapchat+, which launched as a small cross-functional squad and scaled in under three years to 15 million subscribers and $700 million in ARR. The service now drives more than half of Snap’s incremental revenue growth. Snap aims to reproduce that trajectory across new bets.
Parallel push in advertising and new products
While squads lead product innovation, Snap is also refocusing on medium-size advertisers, which remain under-penetrated but show high retention and nearly $6 million annualized spend per account. On the product side, Snap is preparing to launch Specs, AI-native glasses positioned as a long-term computing platform.
