The Accidental Burger Princess

Hello! This is Deep Pockets #17.

In December 1999, a teenage girl was living an unremarkable life in a very remote part of Northern California. She lived with her mom and two step-sisters in a tiny town called Shingletown. Population 2,000.

Outwardly, Lynsi Snyder’s life was very average, but there were a few hints that there was something else going on.

First off, in stark contrast to the other Shingletown kids, Lynsi lived on a 170-acre ranch. Her mother received the ranch in a divorce from her father two years earlier.

Speaking of her father, when he visited, which was rare at this point, he would arrive by private jet just outside of town.

And then there was the school she attended. A private Christian-based school set up in one of the buildings on the family ranch. It was essentially an elaborate homeschool built for Lynsi personally. Roughly ten local kids also attended, and they were all taught by one teacher who was recruited, relocated, and funded by Lynsi’s mom. When Lynsi graduated eighth grade, the school shut down.

The school was initially set up to protect Lynsi because, at a previous school in Southern California, Lynsi was teased incessantly with the nickname…

“Burger Princess.”

Unfortunately, on December 3, 1999, tragedy struck. On that day, 600 miles south in Southern California, Lynsi’s father died from an accidental overdose of painkillers. He was 48 and had battled drug addiction for years.

Upon his death, this unremarkable, anonymous 17-year-old inherited 100% of her family’s business. Today, that family business makes Lynsi one of the 30 richest women in the world. How?

Because after her father’s sudden death, that unremarkable, anonymous teenager inherited…

.

.

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In-N-Out Burger

DEEP DIVE: The Accidental Billionaire Burger Princess

Our story starts with Harry Snyder and Esther Johnson.

Harry Snyder was born in Vancouver, Canada, on September 9, 1913. He was drafted to serve in World War II, but a perforated eardrum disqualified him from going overseas. Instead, he spent the war years working desk jobs at various Army and Navy bases up and down the West Coast.

When the war ended, Harry moved to Seattle, where he got a job at a catering company that delivered pre-made boxed lunches to the cafeteria at a local Army base called Fort Lawton. One day, Harry met the cafeteria’s manager. Her name was Esther Lavelle Johnson.

Esther was born in Sorento, Illinois, on January 7, 1920. She joined the war effort in 1943 through the US Navy’s newly launched “WAVES” program - “Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service.” The WAVES program allowed women to join the Navy for the first time. At the peak of the war, 86,000 WAVES officers performed dozens of crucial functions on Navy bases, mostly on the mainland and in Hawaii, not overseas. Esther spent three years in the Navy working as a surgical nurse and pharmacist’s mate.

When the war ended, Esther and a girlfriend moved to Seattle, where she enrolled at Seattle Pacific University to study zoology. For money, she held down two jobs. The first was a night shift at a laundromat. The second job was as a waitress at the Fort Lawton cafeteria. She was eventually promoted to manager.

Harry and Esther met in 1947. They married a year later. He was 35. She was 28. After marrying, they moved to the town of Baldwin Park, California, about 30 minutes east of downtown Los Angeles.

A Burger Shack Dream

During his time working for the catering company, Harry learned everything one could ever need to know about packaging large quantities of takeaway food. These lessons inspired a dream to apply some of these same concepts to a burger stand… with an innovative, car-friendly twist.

The post-war years were an explosive boom for the automotive industry. Perhaps nowhere on earth embodied this transition more than Southern California. By the late 1940s, there were nearly as many cars as there were people in the greater LA area.

To accommodate hungry drivers on the go, countless roadside food stands sprung up, selling burgers, hot dogs, tamales… you name it. Customers at these food stands either parked their cars and walked up to a window to place orders OR “carhops” would take orders from the parking lot and deliver the food when it was ready (sometimes on roller skates).

Harry’s idea of creating a burger stand was not revolutionary, but the way he wanted to sell his burgers was very revolutionary.

First off, at Harry’s burger stand, there would be no seating anywhere. His 10×10, 100-square-foot burger shack would only be used to receive orders and make food.

Secondly, Harry invented a two-way speaker system where a unit in the driveway would be connected to a matching unit inside the shack. In his vision, customers would drive up, place orders via the speaker, and then drive “through”… the restaurant to pick everything up. After receiving their food, customers would not stop and park. They would drive away.

Harry wanted his customers to be “in and out” as quickly as possible.

On October 22, 1948, at 4:15 pm, Harry and Esther Snyder opened their revolutionary “drive-through” burger shack in a lot across the street from their home in Baldwin Park. They called it “In-N-Out Hamburgers.”

According to the In-N-Out biography “In-N-Out Burger: A Behind-the-Counter Look at the Fast-Food Chain That Breaks All the Rules,” Harry and Esther sold 57 burgers on their first day. In the first month, they sold 2,000 burgers, generating around $1,100. That’s the same as around $13,000 in today’s dollars.

Here’s a photo of the first In-N-Out from those early days:

The actual original location is now under a massive freeway. In 2015, In-N-Out opened a replica version of Harry and Esther’s first location for fans to visit, just a few hundred yards from the true original spot:

But back to our story…

Believe it or not, Harry and Esther’s In-N-Out Hamburger shack was the very first “drive-thru” restaurant in the United States… and likely the world.

If you’re thinking, “Wait, what about McDonald’s? Surely they had a drive-thru before In-N-Out?!”

Nope. Though McDonald’s was founded eight years earlier than In-N-Out and only an hour away in San Bernadino, they did not have a drive-thru until… 1975!

Harry and Esther opened a second location in 1951 in Covina, California, and very slowly added more locations.

Over the next two decades, In-N-Out developed a cult following and became an iconic part of Southern California’s image and culture.

Succession

Unfortunately, Harry Snyder, a lifelong smoker, died of lung cancer in 1976 at the age of 63. At the time of his death, Esther was 56. She was still relatively in the prime of her life to take over the business, which now had 18 locations. Esther ended up living another 30 years exactly, dying in 2006 at the age of 86.

Esther decided to give control of the company to one of her sons. Not both. Just one. The choice of which son was obvious.

Rich Snyder was exactly like Harry. A dedicated, natural, and ambitious entrepreneur. He began working at In-N-Out as a teenager and regularly put in seven-day workweeks. He was organized, responsible, and well-liked among the employees.

Older brother Guy, on the other hand, was more of the prototypical first-generation rich kid. He wasn’t particularly interested in the family business, preferring to focus on motorcycle and drag racing. He also was a partier, known to enjoy drugs and alcohol more than occasionally. At some point in the mid-1970s, Guy was seriously injured while racing a motorcycle. He was hospitalized for weeks. Even after several surgeries, Guy was left with severe damage to his right arm, which permanently hampered his ability to race gear-shifted cars. More significantly, the aftermath left Guy addicted to painkillers. An addiction that would be constant for the rest of his life.

So, in 1976, Rich Snyder became President and CEO of In-N-Out Burger. He was 24.

Guy Snyder was named executive vice president, a largely ceremonial title that didn’t have many expectations but did provide a healthy salary.

Esther made a good choice. Rich ended up exceeding everyone’s grandest expectations. He took a literal mom-and-pop business and ran it with a modern corporate playbook. For example, in 1981, Rich opened In-N-Out’s first corporate headquarters to house the newly established human resources, finance, and advertising departments. In 1984, he opened In-N-Out University to train future managers.

By the end of the 1980s, In-N-Out was generating $60 - $70 million per year in revenue.

During his years running the company, Rich expanded In-N-Out from 18 to 93 locations. He also became a born-again Christian in the 1980s, and that’s why there are Bible verses subtly printed on its packaging today.

Meanwhile, Guy used his seven-figure “executive vice president” salary to live the good life away from the family business. In 1981, he married Lynda Lou Perkins, a divorcée with two daughters. In 1982, Guy and Lynda welcomed their own daughter. They named her Lynsi Lavelle Snyder.

Guy bought a mansion in Glendora, California, not far from Baldwin Park, and a 170-acre ranch in Shingletown, California. He collected cars and traveled the country on hunting and fishing trips. He also continued to struggle with drugs and alcohol. Pardon the pun, but he would be in and out of rehab centers for the rest of his life.

In 1992, 39-year-old Rich Snyder married 26-year-old Christina Bradley. They lived in his $3.5 million Newport Beach mansion. Christina came to the marriage with a daughter.

As the years went on and the Snyder brothers established families of their own, Esther Snyder created a trust that made it so only the direct biological heirs of Harry and Esther Snyder could inherit shares in the company. All these new spouses and stepchildren were very intentionally cut out.

Her trust also established that, upon her death, 89% of In-N-Out’s stock would go to Rich, and only 11% would go to Guy.

Tragedy Strikes

On December 15, 1992, Rich Snyder and a group of company executives, including his mother, flew on a private jet to Fresno, California, to celebrate the opening of their 93rd location. After a full day of glad-handing, the group boarded the jet for the trip back to Southern California. They would make two stops. The first stop was Brackett Field in La Verne, California, to drop Esther off close to her home in the town of Glendora. Next, the jet headed for John Wayne Airport in Newport Beach.

As the jet approached the airport, the pilots ignored ground control warnings that it was getting too close to a Boeing 757 that was landing two miles ahead. Less than a minute from the airport, the private jet got caught up in the 757’s turbulence wake. The jet rolled upside down and then crashed nose-first just short of the runway. Three passengers and two pilots died instantly. Rich Snyder was 41. One of the deceased passengers, Chief Operating Officer Phil West, was not supposed to be on the plane. Phil was the #2 executive at In-N-Out. He was also Rich’s best friend since childhood. In-N-Out had a policy that prohibited the CEO and #2 to fly on the private jet at the same time. So, Phil was supposed to take a commercial flight home that day, but when he found out his flight was delayed, he headed over to the private airport and boarded the company jet.

Upon his brother’s death, despite all of his troubled personal history and lack of interest in the family business, in January 1994, Guy Snyder became the president of In-N-Out.

Guy had plenty of doubters, even some who predicted the inevitable destruction of In-N-Out. But went on to manage the company fairly responsibly. During his first year as president, In-N-Out added seven more locations for an even 100 total and generated $140 million in revenue.

Guy’s personal problems continued to bubble up periodically. In August 1995, he and Lynda separated after she discovered he was having an affair. Four months later, at 3:30 am on Christmas Day, police found Guy Snyder passed out at the wheel of his parked 1968 Dodge Charger. After searching the car, police found a briefcase full of drugs, $27,000 in cash, and a loaded 9mm Glock semiautomatic handgun.

Against all odds, Guy Snyder’s escalating drug problems did not seem to have a negative impact on In-N-Out. By the end of his life, In-N-Out had expanded from 93 to 140 locations and was generating well over $200 million per year in revenue.

Tragedy Strikes Again

Guy would continue to struggle with drugs for the rest of his life. In his final three years, he had at least three drug overdoses and a heart attack. He was picked up by the police again, this time while wandering the streets of a rough part of town wearing sweatpants and an In-N-Out t-shirt. Police assumed he was a run-of-the-mill homeless drug addict. Little did they know he was actually the head of a major corporation with a paper net worth in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

At the end of his life, Guy Snyder was living in a motorhome outside of a friend’s house. And as we revealed at the beginning of this story, Guy Snyder died on December 3, 1999, at the age of 48. His death was attributed to congestive heart failure brought on by an accidental overdose of prescription painkillers.

Teenage Burger Billionaire

Rich Snyder did not have any children. When he died, his shares went to Guy. When Guy died, full ownership of In-N-Out passed directly to Guy’s only child, 17-year-old Lynsi Snyder.

Esther Snyder and the In-N-Out management team were not oblivious to Guy’s problems, and they had actually taken action to prepare for this outcome.

Lynsi would not technically receive shares in the company until her 25th birthday in 2007. At that point, she would inherit 1/3rd of In-N-Out’s equity. On her 30th birthday in 2012, she received half of the remaining amount. And, finally, on May 5, 2017, her 35th birthday, Lynsi received the remaining shares to give her full control.

On her 30th birthday, Lynsi’s inheritance made her a billionaire for the first time. At that point, she was the youngest female billionaire on the planet.

Today, In-N-Out has around 400 locations. The company is still 100% privately owned by Lynsi Snyder. Using conservative industry comparable valuations, In-N-Out is worth at least $8 billion.

That is why Lynsi Snyder’s net worth is $8 billion today. And that’s enough to make her one of the 30 richest women on the planet and roughly the 400th richest person in the world overall.

She continues to manage the day-to-day operations of the empire and has no intention of selling. That means someday, the company will go to her children. Hopefully she breaks the cycle of her predecessors and sticks around for many decades to come.

As of this writing, Lynsi has four children from four marriages.

She is a devout evangelical Christian and has spoken publicly many times about her faith. Like her father, she has a passion for adrenaline sports. She is a drag racer. She owns a $10 million helicopter, which she is licensed to fly. She plays in a band, does acrobatics and, at one point, even trained to be a boxer.

From its humble beginnings as a revolutionary drive-through concept to becoming a multi-billion dollar empire, In-N-Out's journey is a testament to the Snyder family's resilience and innovation. Despite facing personal tragedies and challenges, the company has remained true to its roots. And maybe that’s why the brand is still so beloved today as it was in 1948.

FINAL WORD

On the next edition of “Deep Pockets,” we’ll tell the story of the third richest person in the world in 1925. A man who Mark Twain described as “the most rotten disgusting creature the republic has ever produced.”

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