6 ms·

"The president of the Ford Foundation, Mr. Walker, said in an email that he had confidence in Ozy. “We need new media companies to challenge the status quo, sha

by mvind 5y ago

"The president of the Ford Foundation, Mr. Walker, said in an email that he had confidence in Ozy. “We need new media companies to challenge the status quo, shake things up, and go deep on the issues that matter most,” he said. “In an increasingly diverse world, it’s no coincidence that a company with co-founders of Black and Indian descent would be so successful.” Remember this is the sort person investing capital nowadays..

hogFeast 5y ago
Not an investor. Never worked as an investor. Only worked for charities. Marc Lasry, however, is a very well-known investor. Investing and charity does seem to be merging in quite a puzzling way. Saying that this company has been "so successful" after the founders have been caught committing fraud (not in the legal sense) is inexplicable. I worked in finance. If this happened at a company that I recommended, I would have lost my job (I actually know a fund manager who had a well-publicised 5% position in a company that failed, they had institutional money only so the reaction was swift...50% drop in AUM, investors demanded they fire 75% of the analyst team...this does happen in finance). I guess not everyone has to play by those rules. Ironically, it sounds just like old media. Pay a few good 'ol boys to put out the stuff I like and agree with. I will lose all my money but...who cares?
TechBro8615 5y ago
I’m glad someone is pointing this out. The article makes it sound like the accused company is wrapped up in a lot of social justice propaganda. Hucksters like this CEO know how to leverage woke messaging to their benefit. Woke is good for business. That their first instinct was to frame the excuse as empathy for an employee struggling with a “mental health episode” says it all. They know their audience. Their YouTube Channel [1] makes it immediately obvious they do not have anything close to a consistent viewership audience of millions. Anyone who invested in this should fire their entire due diligence staff. Existing investors are the main idiots here, with Goldman only redeeming themselves at the last minute. YouTube doesn’t have much skin (no pun intended) in the game. Nobody is gonna pursue this further because it will look bad. [1] https://www.youtube.com/OZY https://www.youtube.com/OZY
- CPLX 5y ago
  Holy shit they have multiple videos with zero views and tons more with less than 10 or less than 100 views. For a company that claims to have 25 million newsletter subscribers?
- pessimizer 5y ago
  They're just vapid and corporate, and vapid and corporate means a lot of warmed over cultural studies buzzwords. Raising capital based on wokeness is a no-lose situation (ask Theranos.) As an investor, you can count your investment as pseudo-charity work in your press releases and reports.
- concinds 5y ago
  It has to be some kind of money laundering scam, or other fraud, right? Surely, no matter how out of touch they are, these old investors understand that not a single teen and college studens actually watches Ted Talks every day, reads Vox, listens to the NYT Daily on their way to classes, and has the Open Society Foundations RSS feed on their phone, right? They understand no one actually gives a F** about "media companies that challenge the status quo, shake things up, and go deep on the issues that matter most". Come on! The most "media" they watch is Linus Media Group, the Daily Show, and John Oliver. Only slightly exaggerating. It's impossible for them to be this out of touch!
  - wolverine876 5y ago
    Is there any data to back this up? IIRC, the NYT is performing very well in the 20-something demographic. Also, IME generally people start reading more seriously, such as the NY Times, etc., when they're older; we need data on how such a media company performs in markets relative to some standard for realistic expectations. I'm sure the NY Times has few readers among high schoolers, but that doesn't indicate future problems
- danrocks 5y ago
  This is what made me angry about this story the most. "Mental health episode" is quickly becoming a universal excuse anybody can use for anything for mild discomfort to downright criminal behavior. Elizabeth Holmes is going down the same path in her defense. Woke is good for business, let's see if good enough to stay out of jail. For Samir Rao, it probably is.
woodruffw 5y ago
The president of the Ford Foundation might attend the same cocktail parties as the investment leadership at the US's large banks, but you can rest easy knowing that (1) both are still very cool with fossil fuels, and (2) only the latter is investing any meaningful amount of capital.

by mvind 5y ago

hogFeast 5y ago

Not an investor. Never worked as an investor. Only worked for charities. Marc Lasry, however, is a very well-known investor. Investing and charity does seem to be merging in quite a puzzling way. Saying that this company has been "so successful" after the founders have been caught committing fraud (not in the legal sense) is inexplicable. I worked in finance. If this happened at a company that I recommended, I would have lost my job (I actually know a fund manager who had a well-publicised 5% position in a company that failed, they had institutional money only so the reaction was swift...50% drop in AUM, investors demanded they fire 75% of the analyst team...this does happen in finance). I guess not everyone has to play by those rules. Ironically, it sounds just like old media. Pay a few good 'ol boys to put out the stuff I like and agree with. I will lose all my money but...who cares?

TechBro8615 5y ago

I’m glad someone is pointing this out. The article makes it sound like the accused company is wrapped up in a lot of social justice propaganda. Hucksters like this CEO know how to leverage woke messaging to their benefit. Woke is good for business. That their first instinct was to frame the excuse as empathy for an employee struggling with a “mental health episode” says it all. They know their audience. Their YouTube Channel [1] makes it immediately obvious they do not have anything close to a consistent viewership audience of millions. Anyone who invested in this should fire their entire due diligence staff. Existing investors are the main idiots here, with Goldman only redeeming themselves at the last minute. YouTube doesn’t have much skin (no pun intended) in the game. Nobody is gonna pursue this further because it will look bad. [1] https://www.youtube.com/OZY https://www.youtube.com/OZY

CPLX 5y ago
Holy shit they have multiple videos with zero views and tons more with less than 10 or less than 100 views. For a company that claims to have 25 million newsletter subscribers?
pessimizer 5y ago
They're just vapid and corporate, and vapid and corporate means a lot of warmed over cultural studies buzzwords. Raising capital based on wokeness is a no-lose situation (ask Theranos.) As an investor, you can count your investment as pseudo-charity work in your press releases and reports.
concinds 5y ago
It has to be some kind of money laundering scam, or other fraud, right? Surely, no matter how out of touch they are, these old investors understand that not a single teen and college studens actually watches Ted Talks every day, reads Vox, listens to the NYT Daily on their way to classes, and has the Open Society Foundations RSS feed on their phone, right? They understand no one actually gives a F** about "media companies that challenge the status quo, shake things up, and go deep on the issues that matter most". Come on! The most "media" they watch is Linus Media Group, the Daily Show, and John Oliver. Only slightly exaggerating. It's impossible for them to be this out of touch!
- wolverine876 5y ago
  Is there any data to back this up? IIRC, the NYT is performing very well in the 20-something demographic. Also, IME generally people start reading more seriously, such as the NY Times, etc., when they're older; we need data on how such a media company performs in markets relative to some standard for realistic expectations. I'm sure the NY Times has few readers among high schoolers, but that doesn't indicate future problems
danrocks 5y ago
This is what made me angry about this story the most. "Mental health episode" is quickly becoming a universal excuse anybody can use for anything for mild discomfort to downright criminal behavior. Elizabeth Holmes is going down the same path in her defense. Woke is good for business, let's see if good enough to stay out of jail. For Samir Rao, it probably is.

woodruffw 5y ago

The president of the Ford Foundation might attend the same cocktail parties as the investment leadership at the US's large banks, but you can rest easy knowing that (1) both are still very cool with fossil fuels, and (2) only the latter is investing any meaningful amount of capital.