I’m not much for April Fool’s Day pranks, but one of my favorite ones in recent memory was when College Humor threw a “In-N-Out Burger: Coming Soon” sign up in Midtown Manhattan and caused New Yorkers to lose their minds. The burger chain — home to the best $5 double cheeseburger on the planet — is content with staying “small” on the West Coast with only 304 restaurants. Still family-owned, it’s one of the few chains that deserves the cult-like following that it’s earned. And it’s 500x better than Shake Shack’s bougie, overrated burgers.
The chain just opened up in Oregon this September, which gave In-N-Out’s notoriously reclusive President, Lynsi Snyder, a reason to talk to the media. Talking to CBS This Morning this weekend, the 33-year-old billionaire burger heiress (the second youngest female billionaire in America) says the family-owned company refuses to build restaurants out of principle if they’re more than 600 miles from a distribution facility. This means that the ingredient in the burgers are never frozen, always fresh, and always delicious. To date, there are only three such centers, all west of the Mississippi:
In two years, on her 35th birthday, Lynsi Snyder will receive full control of In-N-Out’s stock, becoming President and CEO. In the CBS interview above, Snyder also notes that she has no plans to rapidly expand the company or “sell out” by taking the company public, where it would surely be worth well more than the billion dollars cited in this CBS report. Why?
Family. She is the only grandchild and surviving blood relative of Harry and Esther Snyder, who founded In-N-Out in 1948.
Mad respect for her to run a massively popular business based on values like that.
A mother of four, she also has quite the affinity for drag racing and multi-million dollar real estate. What a boss.
Stay chill, Lynsi.