Only few Pharaohs went down indelible in Egypt history. Sneferuwas undoubtedly one of them - he was the first Pharaoh of the 4th dynasty. He is the only Pharaoh, whom minimally 3 pyramids are credited to.
We can suppose Sneferu was a son of Huni, the last Pharaoh of the 3rd dynasty, but we can't say it for sure. His mother Meresankh I. was Huni's wife. To becameutíka a legitimate successor he married his half-sister Hetepheres I. - Huni's daughter and future mother of Khufu.
Sneferu loved education and rejoicings. He took boat trips in pleasant company in youth and ran away from his teachers. Egyptians loved him. He didn't take due note of the royal protocol too much and he called people from his surrounding "my friend". So he wasn't traditional Pharaoh in this sense, but he was very intelligent, educated and he loved luxuriant speeches.
Sneferu supported agriculture and stud development, he founded and maintained several agricultural homesteads and increased the mining in Egyptian and also foreign mines. That's why he strengthened the Egyptian presence on Sinai Peninsula, because he needed to protect the malachite, turquoise and cuppreous mines from bedouins attacks. So Sneferu let build approximately 60 big ships (one of them was over 50 meters long), which served for crusades to the Lebanon, from where he imported especially cedarwood for his fortress.
His business sense made him to make also war expeditions sometimes to enlarge his power in other rich areas, e.g. Nubia. Sneferu also organized a big crusade to Nubia to suppress an uprising in Dodekaschoin (Greek name of a part in Nubia, which extended along the Nile from Elephantine to Takomps), from where he brought almost 7,000 captives and also 20,0000 pieces of livestock. As well as the other Pharaons Sneferu knew, that Nubia is a country Egyptian economy couldn't get along without.
If the caravans from this area were under his control and he regulated them, he could supply big Egyptian cities with ebony, ivory, gold, diorite, olibanum, very fashionable wild animals and also manpower important for large buildings ensuring. He also made incursions into Libya, from where he brought 13,000 pieces of livestock and 11,000 captives. The land has never prospered so well as under his rule.
Sneferu was a great builder as well. Thanks to the manpower of the slaves from military expeditions he could let build fortresses, ships, palaces, temples, houses and pyramids - one of them was located in Meidum, in southern part of Memphis plain, two others in Dahshur and maybe the fourth in Sile in Faiyum near Meidum, which was discovered not long ago. He let build his residence near Meidum and he maybe wanted to differentiate from his predecessors, so he let build his first pyramid there (its eldest phase was level, as well as the Djoser's pyramid).
His other choice was Dahshur. We don't know why he let build two "real" pyramids right there. These pyramids were a kind of prologue of the pyramids built later in Giza. Sneferu left its mark on the history of his land more than any other Pharaoh. You can find other detailed information about pyramids construction - especially about the origin of the Bent pyramid - on a site dedicated to descriptions of this pyramid.