By now, we've all had our fair share of time on awkward Zoom calls, but on a winter afternoon

in Mountain View, California, a particular call, one with $40 million on the line, is going

to get a lot more uncomfortable.

The meeting should have been a formality.

The meeting's host, Carlos Watson, CEO of Aussie Media, had invited YouTube execs Alex Piper

to meet with him and execs from Goldman Sachs.

They were doing some final due diligence before closing a major investment in the company.

Watson, never the one to shy away from his own success, had bragged about his sizable audience

on YouTube.

In fact, he said his eponymous talk show was the fastest growing program on the platform.

But because money was on the line, Goldman Sachs wanted to confirm the numbers before signing

the check.

Just a formality, right? Just like the first

clumsy moment of any Zoom conference, Watson and the Goldman team members made small talk

prior to the arrival of Piper, perhaps meandering chats about the weather or plans for Valentine's

Day. Eventually, Piper did join, but he was having issues.

He claimed his technology wasn't working, and he'd prefer the team to pivot to an old-fashioned conference line.

No face-time at this meeting.

Once styled in, Piper shared the good news.

The YouTube show was a smash, and they were thrilled to be working with a great leader like Watson.

Surely Watson was beaming at the praise.

But without video, there was no way of knowing how the Goldman execs were really feeling.

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