Watson boasts an impressive résumé: degrees from Harvard University and Stanford Law School, a stint on Wall Street, on-air gigs at CNN and MSNBC, and entrepreneurial chops. Ozy Media was his second startup, coming a decade after he sold a test-prep company he had founded while in his 20s.
Mountain View, California-based Ozy produced TV shows, newsletters, podcasts, and a music-and-ideas festival. Watson hosted several of the TV programs, including the Emmy-winning “Black Women OWN the Conversation,” which appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Network.
Ozy snagged big advertisers, clients, and grants. But beneath the signs of success was an overextended company that struggled to stay afloat after 2017, according to insiders’ testimony.
The company strained to make payroll, ran late on rent, and took out pricey cash advances to pay bills, a former finance vice president, Janeen Poutre, told jurors. Meanwhile, Ozy gave prospective investors much bigger revenue numbers than those it reported to accountants, according to testimony and documents.
On the witness stand in July, Watson said the company’s cash squeezes were a startup norm, and investors knew they were getting unaudited numbers that could change.
Only one of those investors spoke at the sentencing: Beverly Watson, who stands by her brother. She told the court Monday that her biggest loss was “this important platform that elevated people and ideas that weren’t being heard before.”
Ozy disintegrated in 2021 after a New York Times column disclosed the phone-call impersonation gambit and raised questions about the size of the startup’s audience.
