Tech

Here Are Stanford's Billion-Dollar Fraternities And Dorms, Where Famous Tech Founders Started Out

By Alyson Shontell
Read in app
Sigma Nu Stanford fraternity
Stanford University's Sigma Nu fraternity house, where Clinkle started and Instagram's Kevin Systrom was a member.  Business Insider/Alyson Shontell

Last week I visited Stanford University for the first time.

My mission: to find the billion-dollar spots around campus where now-famous entrepreneurs began their careers.

Clinkle, Snapchat and Google all began at Stanford. Marissa Mayer and Instagram's Kevin Systrom also attended.

Here's how my billion-dollar hunt went.

My UberX driver dropped me off one mile from my destination. There weren't cabs around, just a red campus bus. So I had to hike through the quad to start my adventure.

stanford map
Business Insider/Alyson Shontell

The first thing I noticed were all the bikes. I was dodging bikers left and right. Many had character to them, like home-made bike seats, fake flower add-ons and baskets.

stanford bikes
Business Insider/Alyson Shontell

Really, they were everywhere.

stanford biker
Business Insider/Alyson Shontell

I walked through a small quad, past the engineering center and to the other side.

stanford quad
Business Insider/Alyson Shontell

Past a strange park with totem poles.

stanford totem pole
Business Insider/Alyson Shontell

And caught my first sign of Greek life, Greek letters on a dorm.

stanford fraternity
Business Insider/Alyson Shontell

I kept on going, winding to the left and up some steep hills.

stanford university
Business Insider/Alyson Shontell

And I started hitting the frats. Many of the fraternities look like this. They're low, flat gray buildings that are deceivingly large inside.

stanford university fraternity
Business Insider/Alyson Shontell

A red solo cup and bails of hay. I wonder what frat brothers do with those?

stanford2 fraternity
Business Insider/Alyson Shontell

Gold lions greeted me at SAE, which is near Kappa Sigma. Fun fact: actor Fred Savage (The Wonder Years) was a member here.

stanford sae fraternity
Business Insider/Alyson Shontell

You can also follow the trash trail. Everything from bottles of ketchup to beer cans to pizza boxes were strewn in yards. Pretty typical.

stanford trash outside kappa sigma
Business Insider/Alyson Shontell

There it was, Kappa Sigma. The fraternity that housed Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel, Snapchat CTO Bobby Murphy, and the friend they ousted who is now suing them, Reggie Brown. It's the same house they pledged at, even though the frat was kicked off campus while they were at school. It's since been reinstated.

stanford Kappa Sigma
Business Insider/Alyson Shontell

A red and gold flag hangs outside. Inside there are rooms with red doors to the left and a cafeteria to the right. There was a Christmas tree with ornaments made of cut-up beer cans and a piano. Lacrosse gear was strewn on the back porch; many of the brothers play for the club team. I met with the fraternity's president but out of respect for the guys, I didn't photograph inside.

stanford university Kappa Sigma
Business Insider/Alyson Shontell

After lunch I wandered down the road to Sigma Nu, where Lucas Duplan started payment company Clinkle and raised $25 million — the largest seed round of financing in Silicon Valley history.

Sigma Nu Stanford fraternity
Stanford University's Sigma Nu fraternity house, where Clinkle started and Instagram's Kevin Systrom was a member. Business Insider/Alyson Shontell

It's also the fraternity of Instagram co-founder, Kevin Systrom. Out front there were picnic tables and a hammock.

stanford university's Sigma Nu fraternity house
Stanford University's Sigma Nu fraternity house, where Clinkle started and Instagram's Kevin Systrom was a member. Business Insider/Alyson Shontell

I snuck around back and found a full-length basketball court, as well as a golf cart.

stanford kimball hall basketball court
A basketball court sits next to Kimball Hall Business Insider/Alyson Shontell

And a pretty clean back porch.

stanford sigma nu back porch
Sigma Nu's back porch at Stanford University Business Insider/Alyson Shontell

Last on my list was Kimball Hall.

stanford kimball hall
Approaching Kimball Hall at Stanford University Business Insider/Alyson Shontell

Kimball Hall is where Reggie Brown and Evan Spiegel once lived and where Brown first shared his billion-dollar idea, Snapchat, with Spiegel.

stanford university Kimball Hall
Evan Spiegel first heard the idea for Snapchat in Stanford University's Kimball Hall, where he was a resident. Business Insider/Alyson Shontell

Like what you see? Then you should take this quiz to see if you're good enough to get in to Stanford.

stanford university
Flickr via Adam Elman

Are You Smart Enough To Get Into Stanford Business School?

Read next

极速168赛车官方网站图片

Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know

极速168赛车官方网站图片

Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know

极速168赛车官方网站图片

Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know

极速168赛车官方网站图片

Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know

Alyson Shontell Business Insider
Alyson Shontell
Alyson is the Editor-in-Chief and CCO at Fortune.  She was previously a co Editor-in-Chief overseeing Business Insider's tech and business coverage.She joined Business Insider in July 2008 as the company's sixth employee. She started as a sales planner before joining the editorial team in 2010, where she became a startup reporter and was first to cover some of today's largest tech companies, including Pinterest, Tinder, Instagram, Uber and Snap. Alyson rose to become a senior correspondent, then Executive Editor.She was appointed Editor-in-Chief of Business Insider in 2016, at which point she became the youngest and only woman to run a global business publication. Under her leadership, the business division has grown to hundreds of  millions of monthly readers.Alyson was a host of  Insider's conferences and launched a podcast, "Success! How I Did It," where she interviewed influencers ranging from Sheryl Sandberg to Steve Ballmer about their career paths (subscribe on iTunes here).She has appeared on ABC, Good Morning America, Al Jazeera, MSNBC, CNBC, CNN, and CBC, and she has interviewed media personalities such as Megyn Kelly, technology leaders like Fred Wilson, political leaders like John Brennan, and sports star LeBron James. She is a judge for the prestigious Gerald Loeb Awards in business journalism, and has been named one of Min's Rising Stars in Media, as well as Folio's 2017 Top Women in Media.She graduated from Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Public Communications, where she majored in psychology and advertising.You can read some of her investigative articles here:— Leaked videos reveal the true founding story of Snapchat— The founder who dumped Jared Kushner: Inside the phone call that left the White House star in a fit of rage— The downfall of billion-dollar startup, Fab— How a startup that raised the largest seed round in Silicon Valley history blew itself up before it even launched— The dark side of Facebook, where people lie, cheat, and make millions— A profile of Uber's controversial CEO, Travis Kalanick— The mystery of Jody Sherman, a founder who was driven to suicide and left behind a shocking business disasterDisclosure: Alyson owns bitcoin and Snap. She is also an investor in The Spun, a sports-media startup founded by her husband.
HOME Subscribe Read in app