Ozy Media YouTube Impersonation
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A story about how Ozy Media, a company that raised $150M, attempted to defraud Goldman Sachs during an investment meeting by having someone impersonate a YouTube executive.
"Ozy was on a call with Goldman Sachs who was ready to invest $40M in the company. During their final diligence calls, Ozy was telling Goldman about how they're this next-gen media company and their YouTube videos get millions of views.
They set up a call between Ozy founders, Goldman, and supposedly an executive from YouTube who runs YouTube Originals. The YouTube exec emails saying he's running late, then says he's stuck in traffic and requests to switch to a phone call. On the call, he praises Ozy, saying their data shows they crush other media companies and YouTube plans to feature them more.
The Goldman guys noticed his voice sounded strange, almost like a voice changer. They found it odd he used a Gmail address, so they decided to email the actual YouTube executive directly. The real executive responds saying he's never heard of Ozy Media and wasn't on any call.
When Goldman confronts Ozy, the company admits it was their cofounder on the call impersonating the YouTube executive, calling it a 'lapse in judgment.' Goldman backs out of the investment but doesn't make a big deal about it.
The crazy part is, after Goldman walked away, Ozy still managed to raise another round of funding from other investors."
Shaan Puri
Host of MFM
Shaan Puri is the Chairman and Co-Founder of The Milk Road. He previously worked at Twitch as a Senior Director of Product, Mobile Gaming, and Emerging Markets. He also attended Duke University.