Lynsi Snyder, the billionaire heiress of In-N-Out, recently shared details about her early years and said that, in an effort to gain respect, she began working shifts at the renowned West Coast burger chain as a teenager. At the age of 27, Snyder assumed leadership of the company her grandfather had started in 1948. But, the affluent heiress refused to let her family history define who she was.
Snyder’s grandfather, Harry Snyder, passed away in December 1976, leaving his sons Rich and Guy to run the company. Lynsi’s uncle, Rich Snyder, died in an aircraft crash in Orange County in 1993, and her father died in 1999. The sole blood relative of the Burger Empire to survive was Lynsi Snyder, who was 17 years old.
The ambitious young entrepreneur, however, was determined not to let her surname hand her any opportunities. Snyder revealed that she spent two hours waiting in line outside a brand-new In-N-Out restaurant in Redding, California, in an attempt to secure a summer job with the company.
“I think that there’s a stigma that can come with being the owner’s kid. I just wanted to be respected like others, doing it the right way and not having the special treatment,” Snyder revealed in an interview with NBC’s Today and Morning News Now.
During her first job at In-N-Out, Snyder performed the minor duties that are often assigned to new hires: chopping onions, dicing tomatoes and sorting lettuce leaves. Snyder’s identity was kept a secret from everybody save the shop manager, she revealed to Orange Coast Magazine in 2014. This allowed her coworkers to treat her same as any other teenager.
After overseeing the chain’s 400th store’s opening and its introduction in three additional states—Colorado, Oregon and Texas—Snyder’s net worth is estimated by Forbes to be $6.7 billion in 2024.
She disclosed that her family’s tragic past still haunts her, saying, “It really was that family pain and tragedy that really put each leader in its place.”
In 2014, Snyder managed the establishment of a replica of In-N-Out’s first restaurant in Baldwin Park, California, as a tribute to her family. Snyder struggled to define her personality inside the family-founded giant, which employs over 36,000 people, in her early years as CEO.
Snyder said, “In the earlier days I actually wore pantsuits, and I did that because I felt like I was supposed to.”
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