HomeBusiness InsiderIn-N-Out owner Lynsi Snyder is expanding the burger chain to two more states and increasing her wealth along the way. Here's how one of the youngest billionaires in the US lives her life.
In-N-Out owner Lynsi Snyder is expanding the burger chain to two more states and increasing her wealth along the way. Here's how one of the youngest billionaires in the US lives her life.
Lynsi Snyder, 36, became one of the youngest billionaires in the US when she inherited full control of the burger chain In-N-Out.
NHRA
Lynsi Snyder, 40, is the billionaire owner and president of In-N-Out Burger. Her net worth is $4.2 billion as of February 2023, according to Forbes.
Snyder became one of the youngest billionaires in the US when she inherited full control of In-N-Out in 2017. Despite outside pressures to go public or grow through franchising over the years, In-N-Out has remained a privately run family business since it was founded in Southern California by her grandparents, Harry and Esther Snyder, in 1948.
Snyder is a reclusive heiress. She has experienced several family tragedies that led to her gaining control of the chain at an early age. She makes public appearances on behalf of her charities, but keeps a low profile with the media. She recently spoke about the chain's expansion to Tennessee with local media. Here's what we know about her life and the In-N-Out empire.
Snyder's grandparents Harry and Esther Snyder opened the first In-N-Out restaurant in 1948. A burger cost 25 cents.
Harry and Esther Snyder, shown with sons Rich and Guy.
In-N-Out
The original Baldwin Park, California, burger stand was demolished decades ago to make room for a freeway. The restaurant's two-way speaker drive-thru system was considered groundbreaking at the time.
This is a replica of the original In-N-Out burger stand and drive-thru.
Under Lynsi Snyder's leadership, In-N-Out unveiled a replica burger stand in 2014 near the original location. "This is a really special spot for me," Snyder said at the time.
Lynsi Snyder at the replica burger stand.
Rich Snyder ran the company until 1993, when he and another In-N-Out executive died in a plane crash. The day before, Rich Snyder had seen 10-year-old Lynsi perform in a pageant.
Former In-N-Out chief operating officer Mark Taylor said in a 2010 interview that the Bible verse was something Rich did while he was running the company. "Who are we to undo it?"
Lynsi Snyder, a devout Christian, has added three more Bible verses to different restaurant products. She added Proverbs 24:16 to French fry containers.
Nancy Luna
She also added Luke 6:35 to coffee cups, and Isaiah 9:6 to the holiday cups.
Nancy Luna
She said, in the early '90s when her uncle first added the verse to the cup, "He had just accepted the Lord and wanted to put that little touch of his faith on our brand. It's a family business and will always be, and that's a family touch."
During his tenure, Rich established In-N-Out University to train entry-level managers from all In-N-Out locations. It operated out of store No. 1 in Baldwin Park for years until it got its own building in 1984.
Lynsi began working as an associate at In-N-Out in 1999. Her father remained in charge of the company until 1999, when he died of a prescription-drug overdose. Lynsi was 17 at the time.
Guy Snyder
"My world shattered," she said. "After my dad died, there was no way I was going to be alone." She said she would jump from one man's arms right into the next. She has been divorced three times.
"It wasn't right," she said. "I paid the price with a divorce and jumped right into the arms of someone else." Then, she said, she started smoking pot and abusing alcohol.
She said drug and alcohol use was something she had wanted to stay away from because of her father's addiction, but she found herself using them as an adult.
Snyder said she worried she would "meet an early death" like her father, and she eventually married again, had two children, and later had an affair. The marriage dissolved within six years, she said. "I couldn't feel like a bigger failure at that point," she said.
She married a third time and had another child with a man she said married her for money and cheated on her for nearly four years before they divorced. "The first time he cheated on me I thought, 'Well, I deserve it,'" she said. "It was terrible."
In 2014, Snyder married Sean Ellingson. She told an audience at Azusa Pacific University that she met her soon-to-be fourth husband on the dating app Tinder.
Lynsi Snyder and Sean Ellingson.
She said the first conversation they had was about their mutual experience with addiction, politics, their spiritual lives, and what their goals were at the time. They both say they have finally found peace through religion.
Lynsi Snyder and Sean Ellingson
Snyder credits her turning her life around to her faith — she said that she ultimately decided to spend time with God and Jesus and that faith still guides her today.
Now she and her husband run a ministry called Army of Love. Their mission is to "enlist, train and equip an army of love" to help anyone in need of support.
Lynsi Snyder-Ellingson and Sean Ellingson founded Slave 2 Nothing Foundation in 2016 with the mission to free people from being enslaved to any person or substance. In 2022, Slave 2 Nothing granted a total of 101 awards totaling $2 million to nonprofits working in the seven states in which In-N-Out Burger operates.
The main house has 11 bedrooms, 13 bathrooms, an indoor batting cage, a movie theater, a game room, a chef's kitchen, and a gym. The grounds feature an infinity pool, a guest house, a tennis court, a basketball court, and two-hole golf course.
"I'm a lot like my dad, a little bit of a daredevil," she told Orange Coast Magazine in 2014. "I like an adrenaline rush. My dad took me to the racetrack for the first time when I was two or three ... Anything with a motor, that was in my blood."
Lynsi Snyder doing fire eating, which she often does during band performances as well as aerial routines.
BTV / In-N-Out
In her free time, Snyder enjoys drag racing, a hobby she started when she was 18 years old. "I just love muscle cars," she told the National Hot Rod Association of why she races. "I love the whole sport. I think that it was kind of an escape and a hobby that was a lot of fun and a connection to my dad."
Snyder named her racing car the "Flying Dutch Fox" in a tribute to her father, who had a car named the "Flying Dutchman."
The Flying Dutchman is also the name of an In-N-Out secret menu item.
She said she used "Fox" because when she was little her father called her that. "He told me I was a little fox because I was always climbing on everything and getting into everything," she told the NHRA.
She's got quite the collection of vintage cars, including this unique 1941 Willys Coupe, with about 1,000 horsepower, which used to belong to her dad. A coupe like this can cost upward of $130,000.
Besides cars, Snyder also loves rock 'n roll. She and her husband, Sean, play in the In-N-Out band, .48 Special.
BTV/In-N-Out
The band members, shown, are all In-N-Out employees.
BTV/In-N-Out
Sean does some vocals and plays lead guitar and harmonica; Lynsi does vocals, plays bass and occasionally rhythm guitar.
BTV/In-N-Out
Around the time she started racing, Snyder was the target of two attempted kidnappings, she said. The first was when she was 17 and still in high school. The second time she was 24 and working as a manager at In-N-Out.
"I ran across the highway," she told Orange Coast Magazine, adding that she knew her would-be kidnappers were suspicious because "they had a van with boarded-up windows."
Since becoming In-N-Out's president in 2010, Snyder has expanded In-N-Out's footprint to three new states – Texas, Oregon, and Colorado.
Cars line up for the Colorado opening of In-N-Out in February 2021.
Getty Images
In early 2022, In-N-Out announced plans to open restaurants in Idaho. A year later, in January 2023, In-N-Out said it plans to bring the chain's famed Double-Double to Tennessee.
When the first restaurants in Nashville open in 2026, they will be In-N-Out's closest locations to the East Coast.
Lynsi Snyder with Tennessee officials.
BTV/In-N-Out
Adding Idaho and Tennessee will more than double the number of states In-N-Out has entered since Snyder became president in 2010. Over the last decade, In-N-Out has added 102 restaurants. Of those, 64 opened after Snyder took control of the company.
Snyder has changed almost nothing about the brand, which prides itself on its simple menu of burgers, shakes, and fries. But, she did make one nostalgic menu tweak in 2018 when she added…
Nancy Luna
…hot cocoa. It was previously on the menu in the 1950s. "I'm not sure how it fell off the menu but it's part of our culture and something special for kids, and I'm happy that we're bringing it back," Snyder told the Orange County Register.
Patties, buns, potatoes, vegetables, and everything else you can order from the restaurant are delivered to each location via trucks from In-N-Out distribution centers like this one. The company says nothing is ever frozen or microwaved.
"My heart is totally connected to this company because of my family, and the fact that they are not here — I have a strong tie to keep this the way they would want it," she said.
MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images
Appearing on magazine covers and giving media interviews are rare occurrences. But in January she traveled to Tennessee to announce In-N-Out's expansion in that state.
Snyder and her husband attend a press conference announcing the chain's entry into Tennessee.
She told The Tennessean: "We came here years ago, actually East of the smokies, but came back out to Pigeon Forge and Nashville and fell in love. There was one other state definitely interested and wanting us there, but we chose Nashville."
BTV/In-N-Out
Snyder told "CBS This Morning” that she shies away from interviews intentionally. "We want to do what we do best, and that's serve some good burgers to our customers. It's not about us here — it's about this," she said, pointing to the restaurant behind her.
Still, Lynsi is active on Instagram, where she has nearly 38,000 followers. She posts updates about her charities, her In-N-Out family, her friends, her favorite foods, and brand swag.
Screenshots of Snyder's Instagram
In-N-Out Burger is celebrating its 75th anniversary with a festival on Oct. 22, 2023. It will be held at the newly named In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip. The company took over the naming rights this year of the legendary Southern California drag strip.
In-N-Out owner Lynsi Snyder is expanding the burger chain to two more states and increasing her wealth along the way. Here's how one of the youngest billionaires in the US lives her life.
Reviewed by mimisabreena
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Saturday, March 04, 2023
Rating: 5
Reviewed by mimisabreena
on
Saturday, March 04, 2023
Rating:
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