Chief Marketing Officer at Snap Inc. Kenny Mitchell speaks onstage during the Snap Inc 2022 NewFronts at Jazz at Lincoln Center on May 3, 2022, in New York City. | Source: Noam Galai / Getty
UPDATED: 6:00 p.m. ET, July 11
Kenny Mitchell has spoken out about the viral video in which social media users claimed the Snapchat executive was being interviewed.
The popular social media platform’s first Black C-suite executive said on Twitter that he is not the Black man featured in the video.
When asked if it was “really” him being interviewed, Mitchell replied with one word: “Nope.”
On Monday, the video footage was widely shared on social media with users expressing doubt over the stated wealth of the man in the video apparently based on his appearance.
The man in the video was being interviewed by the School of Hard Knocks, an influential social media account that posts Q&As with various individuals of note. The School of Hard Knocks interview was posted on Sunday and told its army of followers: “I asked a 9 figure angel investor and private equity firm owner the biggest risk he took throughout his career and the biggest thing needed to scale a business in today’s world.”
When the man being interviewed in the video shared his purported personal story and gave tips for successfully growing a company — “marketing” is paramount, he said — it was the answer to a question of “the biggest risk” he ever took in his career that seemingly caught the most amount of attention on social media.
“Snapchat,” the man said with a one-word answer, sparking speculation that it was Mitchell being interviewed.
When asked to explain, the man said he invested his $80,000 salary toward the seed money to start Snapchat.
“That was a big risk,” the man said before adding that “it paid off” to the tune of “$72 million” from Snapchat.
However, because of the man’s appearance, which included a scruffy beard, casual clothing of a T-shirt and sweatpants — and more than likely the color of his skin — a number of social media users were overcome with doubt about his claims of wealth.
“Not me thinking he’s a homeless guy,” one person responded to the video on TikTok.
“You can’t be an angel investor with 80k. Guy is cappin,” another wrote on Twitter.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this article misidentified the man in the video as Kenny Mitchell. This article has been updated to reflect this correction.
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