in 2018 a woman by the name of lynn greenfield came across an article that made her uncomfortable it was the story of richard montenez the man who invented flamin hot cheetos it was a feel-good story a poor janitor with a billion dollar idea and lynn greenfield could hardly believe what she was reading richard was a hero and not just because he invented flame and hot cheetos but because of the inspiration he gave to the millions of people who heard his story his legacy was a viral sensation and this made her uncomfortable you see lynn greenfield isn't just some negative person hating on a good story she's the real inventor of flaming hot cheetos after this discovery lynn greenfield contacted frito-lay to set the record straight and this started a chain reaction that led us to where we're at today but before we go any further you need to be familiar with richard's side of the story and let me warn you it's heartwarming [Music] in the 1980s richard montenez was a janitor at a frito-lay plant outside of los angeles roger enrico was the ceo at the time and he sent out a company-wide videotape encouraging employees to take more initiative and to act like they were owners now while most employees just brushed this off as corporate fluff richard took it seriously he was at a local grocery store when he found himself studying the frito-lay products on the shelves he noticed they were all plain and lacking real flavor and that's when the idea hit him the time had come to do a chip with some heat some real spice he snagged some plain cheetos from the factory and he and his wife worked to get the perfect mix of spices until he found the ultimate concoction richard had created the first flamin hot cheeto in his own kitchen he jumped on the phone and called the ceo roger enrico now the secretary was a bit confused by a janitor calling for a ceo but surprisingly she sent his call through enrico loved the idea he told richard he'd be at the plant in two weeks and asked him to prepare a presentation for the executives now in richard's own words he couldn't read or write very well and he had no formal business knowledge but that wasn't going to stop him he went to the local library studied marketing concepts and prepared 100 plastic baggies with his cheeto invention on the day of the presentation richard stepped into the boardroom here i was a janitor speaking to some of the most highly qualified executives in america the presentation was going much better than he expected but just as it was about to end an executive asked him how much market share his invention could get now richard had no idea what market share meant so he spread his arms wide and said that much market share richard's invention turned out to be one of the most successful products in frito-lay history making the company billions of dollars he quickly rose through the ranks became an executive and went on to give many public speeches about his story he has written multiple books and has a feature-length movie coming out about him and then the internet made richard a viral sensation which ultimately led to an article that came across the eyes of lynn greenfield according to greenfield the feel-good story about richard was a lie she claims that flamin hot cheetos was her project so she got in touch with the company's legal team and let them know what was happening this triggered a company investigation which concluded with frito-lay making this statement none of our records show that richard was involved in any capacity in the flaming hot test market now you might be thinking okay so he wasn't involved in the test market but that doesn't mean he didn't come up with the idea right well richard claims that he came up with the idea in a grocery store in california but according to the investigation the idea didn't come from california it didn't even come from the corporate office in texas six former employees said the idea came from corner stores in chicago and detroit salesmen were noticing that spicy snacks were selling well in that area so they relayed this information back to corporate who tasked the project to the marketing department which ultimately landed on the desk of lynn greenfield but wait a minute in richard's defense he had that big presentation where he pitched the idea of flamin hot cheetos he describes this dramatic event as having over 100 people most of whom were top executives of the company so regardless of where the idea supposedly came from richard should have at least 100 people who can come to his defense and verify his story right well the la times tracked down 20 of those executives and none of them remember this famous presentation one former project manager was recorded as saying if that story existed believe me we would have heard about it now for the sake of the argument let's assume that these 20 individuals just have terrible memories maybe this presentation did happen but richard exaggerated a little making it seem more dramatic than it actually was i mean the man was writing books and giving speeches it's understandable that he might fluff this up a little and besides richard still has a very important card up his sleeve the man who first believed in him the former ceo roger enrico is a main character in richard's story he's the one who sent out the company-wide videotape that inspired richard he was the ceo who accepted the call from the janitor he was the one who planned the famous presentation and he's the one who approved the development of flamin hot cheetos in richard's latest book he mentions roger enrico by name 60 times so regardless of these other inconsistencies richard has the former ceo as his alibi but there's just one problem roger enrico wasn't the ceo at the time his career with frito-lay started in early 1991 and this was six months after flamin hot cheetos were already developed enrico passed away in 2016 without ever mentioning flamin hot cheetos publicly now the evidence is clearly stacked against richard at this point at the conclusion of the investigation frida lay came out with this statement we value richard's many contributions to our company especially his insights into hispanic consumers but we do not credit the creation of flamin hot cheetos or any flamin hot products to him how in the world did richard montenez mislead so many people well in order to answer these questions there's another part of this story that's really important do you remember when richard said he called up the ceo roger enrico to pitch him his idea and supposedly the secretary actually sent his call through well that phone call actually happened this is that secretary her name is patty and she vividly remembers richard calling but she says this happened in 1993 after flamin hot cheetos were already on the shelves so if that were the case if flame and hot cheetos were already developed then what was that phone call about this is where the story gets even more complicated the la times found a newspaper article about richard from the early 90s this was while he was still a plant worker the article said that richard had developed a new snack that was aimed at the hispanic market it goes on to say that he even tested recipes and came up with a marketing strategy sounds pretty familiar well the article goes on to tell us the name of the product that richard developed flamin hot popcorn this snack hit shelves in march of 1994 as an extension of flamin hot cheetos richard went on to develop an entire line of products called sabritas and this was a big project so frida lay hired this guy as a consultant his name is roberto sochinski and he remembers richard specifically and this is important he recalls richard designing a marketing strategy with a local network of women hosting tupperware parties now this was a unique approach and roberto who was hired on specifically for the sabritas line remembers it well richard talks about the tupperware parties in his book but as you might have guessed he says it was for flamin hot cheetos you might be starting to see a pattern here there seems to be a lot of little nuggets of truth in richard's story as far as i can tell there are three possible explanations to this whole mess the first is that richard lied and i would guess this happened over the span of a few years maybe a decade richard slowly started to conflate flamin hot cheetos with his own true story with these other products flamin hot cheetos flamin hot popcorn what's the difference the second possible explanation is that richard has memory problems there's an area of study in psychology called the misinformation effect and it deals with how easily our memories can be influenced over time i don't want to speculate too much on this but in my research it seems like this could easily apply to richard's situation the third and last possible explanation is that richard is telling the truth when the la times article dropped it caused a pr nightmare for frito-lay a lengthy statement was quickly issued defending richard reiterating his importance to the company and people took this as a win for richard saying that the l.a times article was debunked and that richard was in fact telling the truth the only problem is that the statement never addressed the real issue it danced around the only question that actually mattered did richard montenez invent flamin hot cheetos additionally frito-lay never raised any issues with the la times article they never asked for corrections or amendments but regardless maybe this entire investigation was rigged against richard maybe he did in fact invent flaming hot cheetos after all the man is a genius i'm a genius