[michaelochurch]

For Snapchat, monetizing with 320x50 banners or full-screen interstitials would degrade their user experience and deliver a serious hit to their brand.

Not really. They already have Evan Spiegel (Valleywag him) as their CEO. People who care about quality are not going to use it. "A serious hit to [the] brand" is a non-threat. What brand?

[JacobAldridge]

Quick - name the CEO and ethical position of your preferred gas company, toothpaste supplier, and shoe manufacturer?

For the long term, and I don't know anything about Spiegel or Snapchat so I'm just taking your comment at face value, you are right about the negative impact a poor CEO can have. For a short-term hit to the brand, I would suggest most users neither know nor care.

The impact of the CEO over time will come from within (loss of good staff, failure to respond to market shifts etc) not external branding - as long as he doesn't go shooting elephants.

[cocoflunchy]

This is not a very good argument... I don't think a significant portion of their user base knows about the identity of the CEO, nor do I think it has an impact on the quality of the app.

There are real issues with the quality of the app though. Maybe I'd use Snapchat if it didn't force restart my phone every time I tried to load a message...

[rebel]

And what percentage of Snapchat users do you think have any clue who that is? As an HN reader (so already a tiny minority) I still don't know who he is.