【Japan】

When I arrived at the New York Stock Exchange check-in Thursday at the crack of dawn (a.k.a. 8 a.m.),Japan I told the security guard, Juan, I was there to be a guest on live-streaming media outlet Cheddar and to interview a so-called “Matthew Kobach.”

He grinned and said, “Oh, you mean Snappy?”

I laughed at the nickname, though it didn't at all surprise me. We had scheduled this whole interview on Snapchat. Kobach casually slid into my DMs on Twitter when he noticed me screenshotting and tweeting out his snaps.

Kobach is the guy, among the sea of almost entirely white men on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, who can't stop taking selfies. That's partially because it's his job — he runs the NYSE Snapchat.

On Thursday, the day Snapchat went public, he took viewers to the boardroom where Snap CEO Evan Spiegel and fiancee Miranda Kerr sat before the bell rang and sent snaps from their personal Snapchat accounts.

Press and media on the floor weren’t allowed interviews with Snapchat executives, but Kobach captured the sentiment via Snapchat. It epitomized exactly what Snapchat has grown to be: A glimpse of the world through someone’s eyes. The account may say 'NYSE' but in reality it’s Kobach, holding his phone or donning his Spectacles (Snapchat’s video-camera glasses) to show you what’s up behind-the-scenes of the Snap IPO.

We caught up with “Snappy” on the floor of the NYSE, after the bell ringing and before the price was set. This interview was lightly edited for clarity.

Kerry: When did your channel start? Do you remember why?

Kobach: We actually tried to find the exact date. It was mid-to-late 2015, and we started it. We didn’t quite know it what it was but we knew that it was something we should be on.

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We realized it was the perfect vehicle for us. You get to pull back the curtain. It doesn’t feel the same way on any other social media platform. We get to demystify what happens. We pride ourselves on transparency, and Snapchat seems very honest. We’re not getting the best pictures. We’re capturing the best moments, the moments whether [they're] good, bad or ugly.

How often do you snap?

All day, every day, even some weekends. We’re thorough. We have a good problem — we have too much content. The job ends up being as much capturing content as editing it out. Like today, I recorded everything that I thought would be remotely interesting.

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We’ll post it right away, but we’re always editing it as we go. Our goal is to tell the best, tightest, most comprehensive story in the least of amount of snaps.

What has been your favorite story so far?

It has to be today. It’s both world’s colliding. It feels meta. It feels right. This is all the effort we put in, being able to craft a really tight, interesting story.

Did you prepare?

I use a football analogy: We go to the line of scrimmage with a game plan, but we know we need to see what the defense is doing.

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We know we want to get the CEO, the bell, the floor, the behind-the-scenes stuff, but maybe the CEO doesn’t want to be on camera. It’s not just about the stuff we try to catch and can’t catch. The true story of an IPO isn’t a planned choreographed thing. It was watching Evan Spiegel and Miranda Kerr snapchatting in the board room.

I noticed you don’t really use filters? I didn’t see any puppy filters today?

It’s a deliberate decision. While we like to have fun here, it is a serious industry. It is a serious place of business. We have fun, but we don’t want to trivialize anything.

So is this your favorite IPO so far?

They’re all exciting. They’re like our children. For this one, the excitement from the outside world is really high. It’s such a consumer-facing product. We normally don’t have all this attention.

What’s next for you today?

I’m going to get into the middle of that [the pit]. Wait until the stock opens. Figure out the indication. Once the stock officially goes live, it could be now to a couple of hours, we’re not trying to get the price to quickest.

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We’re going to try to show what you can’t see anywhere else. You can’t see it on CNBC. You can’t see it on CNN.

And what about going forward with the account?

We would love to partner with our listed companies. We want to make filters with them. We want to make sure we’re getting their CEOs on our snapchat, getting our inspiration advice. Our audience is young, is just starting their career. They’re asking the questions of, ‘What’s my major?’ and ‘Where am I working this summer?’

We try get every CEO to give their best career advice in 10 seconds or less. When we don’t do it, we get dozens of dozens of comments.

How many followers do you have?

Well, you know with Snapchat, we don’t actually know. But I’ll tell you this. An average Story of ours has tens of thousands of impressions, and we’ve noticed a 20 percent increase over the last few days.

How old are you?

35

So you’re out of the Snapchat age range then? I’m impressed. You’re great with the app.

I learned how to do it. We made a deliberate effort on what do we want our Snapchat to be.