White Venture Capitalist Loses Office Lease After Racism Video Goes Viral

A white CEO of a venture capitalist saw his office lease revoked after a video of him questioning a group of black entrepreneurs working out at a shared private gym of a rented building.

F2 Group managing partner Tom Austin threatened to call 911 on a group of black men who used the building's facility as part of their amenities. According to The Hill, the men are owners of Top Figure, a social media and branding agency based in Minneapolis, and has rented an office from a WeWork coworking space in MoZaic East.

The viral video showed Austin using his phone to document the men. He then asked them if they are tenants of the building.

“I'm Tom Austin. I'm a tenant in the building. Are you?” he said. The men answered that they have an office in the building and that Austin is accusing them that they can't use the facility.

Top Figure, who posted the video on their Instagram page said that they have been renting an office space in the building for the past year and a half. They also pointed out that Austin immediately asked the group if they “belong” in the building.

“We all pay rent here and this man demanded that we show him our key cards or he will call the cops on us,” Top Figure said in its social media post.

The men also accused Austin of “racial profiling and age discrimination,” while a voice in the video can be heard saying, “As you guys can see, we're dealing with racism here.”

“We are sick and tired of tolerating this type of behavior on a day to day basis and we feel that we had to bring light onto this situation,” the Instagram caption added.

In his defense, Austin told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that the building recently sent out an email reminding them that only tenants can use the building's facilities. He added that he became “suspicious” that the men were not tenants since he saw “one person in the group of five men” using his key fob to let other people use the bathroom and other doors.

The video also heard Austin saying that “there's a whole bunch of people who don't appear to be” part of the building using the gym, the outlet added.

Austin said that he thought “everything was fine” between him and the group but was “shocked” to see the video going viral with more than 69,000 views.

He also said in a written statement that he “f---ed up” and that he should have “handled it differently.” Austin also admitted that he only called the building manager and never called 911.

Austin's apparent racial discrimination came in the wake of Amy Cooper calling the police on a black man who was birdwatching in Central Park on May 25. In another incident on racial discrimination, protester torched the Third Precinct of the Minneapolis Police Department on May 28 following the death of 46-year-old George Floyd while in police custody.