| In computing's earliest days, Xerox PARC was an incubation lab for the most innovative, outlandish ideas for the digital age—most of which are ubiquitous today. PARC's legacy can be traced from inventions like the graphical user interface, WYSIWYG editors, laser printers, and the MVC architecture. PARC created a space in which weird, terrible and wonderful ideas that tested the boundaries of computing were given free reign to figure out if they were worth pursuing. Snap is the Xerox PARC of the internet age: it's one of incredibly few companies that is able to incubate those wacky, weird and incredible ideas—then bring them to market in a way consumrs understand. Sure, they sometimes flop, but often those ideas have ended up setting the tone for the entire industry. What it hasn't been good at—ironically in similar ways to PARC—is capitalizing on those ideas better than Facebook can photocopy them. But, it finds itself in an interesting position now: as users increasingly migrate toward private group-focused chat, Snap is poised as one of the few companies that can make the most of that shift. It's the antidote to Facebook's 'public' platform and newsfeed-focused tools. Snap struggled for years with its lack of public feed or social graph—but it may end up being a surprise strength as users look beyond Facebook's walled garden for something that isn't growth hacking or monetizing their data. Snap just has to win them back. That's why it's blowing open the boundaries and allowing Stories into other apps, building flashy lenses and handy shopping features. It hopes to woo users back, and get them to consider shifting back to the way it was before: messaging your friends, not broadcasting to the entire world. | 
