So if you think you’re innocent, why would you do that?”. Jarrett Stephens. Jasper Cook. “Jake hasn’t done this openly and transparently where everyone can talk in the same room,” says an enraged Robertson. Unfiltered chief executive Millar is the biggest shareholder with 50.2 percent, followed by Richard Bell with 16.5 million and Ogino at 11.8 percent. An SEO expert The Spinoff spoke to says that Unfiltered’s own numbers – 30 million views by 2019 – suggest that more than 27,000 videos were accessed per day (an average of 10 million per year, 2017-2019, divided by 365 days). Unfiltered, best known for its video interviews platforming high-profile business leaders and entrepreneurs, was once lauded as a beacon of startup success. Millar with co-founder Yuuki Ogino shortly after being named in Forbes’ 30 Under 30 North America in 2018 (Photo: Supplied). But it wasn’t long before the dream began to fall apart. “All these investors are fairly switched on businesspeople and they were all aware of the risks. The Spinoff is a New Zealand online magazine covering politics, pop culture and social issues. Another investor who’s publicly supported Millar is Andrew Barnes, founder of Perpetual Guardian and Coulthard Barnes Capital, the latter holding a 1.28% stake in Unfiltered. I don’t know if it’s true or not but I’ve got no reason to believe that.”. Another investor says they signed the deal simply because they’d had enough of Millar and wanted to move on. Less than a year later. The source of Millar’s wealth, however, has been somewhat of a mystery in the last few years. “He said to me: ‘You need to take bigger risks in life. Guy Haddleton and Beaton soon joined Roberts on the board of directors. Perhaps most polarising of all is Eric Watson, whose family has both personal and professional ties with Millar. Safe Haven Counseling Center. Robertson says he was then told he’d have to pay more than Crimson’s offer, after which he tried three times to call for a shareholder’s meeting. Episodes. TMB Trust, of which Millar and Watson’s son Sam are trustees, are the largest shareholders in Unfiltered (37.75%). At the time, the plane was said to have been badly loaded and overweight which placed the blame on the skydiving company which Millar’s father co-owned. And it’s in the process of doing even bigger things. His attitude veered from gracious to indignant towards investors, apologetic yet defiant about the sale, and alternately candid but careful with his answers, some of which had been prepared in advance. Guy Haddleton and Beaton soon joined Roberts on the board of directors. I often look back on that now and I think in some ways making that money at that age was one of the worst things that could’ve happened to me because it gave me a taste of this kind of lifestyle.” – Jake Millar in 2019. On September 4, 2010, when just 15 years old, Jake Millar’s life changed forever. He is an award-winning animator and filmmaker with over twenty years experience in animation and visual effects. Millar says his life changed when Key had earlier visited him at his Greymouth family home shortly after his father’s death. I remember thinking, ‘if he could, why couldn’t I?’”. The site features educational videos with advice from Eric Watson, Stephen Jennings, Sir Michael Hill, Diane Foreman, Sir Ralph Norris, Christopher Luxon, Dame Trelise Cooper and even Jake’s hero Richard Branson, to name a few of Unfiltered’s 67 interviews currently listed on the platform. You’re young … and now is the time when you have the freedom to take enormous risks’.” That night, Millar booked a one-way plane ticket and set off for the US exactly a month later. A few days later, reports emerged that not only had the business, once valued at $12 million, been sold for just US$60,000 cash, but that a group of investors were accusing Millar of poor management, lack of transparency and attempting to “divide and conquer” shareholders to approve the deal. In early February, news broke that Unfiltered – the business education platform he co-founded in 2015 – had been abruptly sold to university admissions consultancy Crimson Education for an undisclosed sum. “My business has commercially failed and I have no obligations anymore to a set of investors. But Millar is adamant he’s not going to Kenya to work for Rendeavour, the urban development company founded by Jennings building seven satellite cities across Africa. Normally media-shy interviewees, including Stephen Jennings, Cliff Cook and the late Sir Douglas Myers, feature alongside Sir Richard Branson and former Prime Minister John Key. News. So I invested solely to help him and other people through him. We drink L'affare by day. Stephen M. Jennings, Founder and Co-President of Grasshorse Technologies, Inc., opened Grasshorse in 2002 as a sole proprietorship offering animation, visual effects and graphics services. With Covid looming at the start of 2020 and everyone preoccupied with trying to save their own businesses, Robertson says he advised Millar to “cut back the spending and put the thing on hold”. Throb Zombie. Prior to 2018, the website operated behind a paywall, although Millar was unable to say if traffic from that period would show up in any analytics. It’s also understood Millar sold $400,000 worth of his Unfiltered shares when he moved to New York City. For his part, Robertson says he rejects Millar’s claim that the company was at risk of going into liquidation and that he was told in a Zoom call with Millar, Ogino and their legal representative that there was still “$80,000-$90,000 roughly” in the bank. “If I was launching Unfiltered today, I would do it through [one of those platforms] if I could get a deal.”, Millar visiting the home of Julian Robertson, American billionaire and investor and developer in New Zealand (Photos: Supplied). That same year, Unfiltered also signed a “sweat equity” agreement, with Australian businessman Richard Bell, who would invest time, energy and expertise for three years in return for a 21% stake in the company and the roles of director and chairman. I told him I was passionate about America and he said, ‘go to America’,” says Millar. Search data, which only goes back to August 2017, suggests that organic traffic for Unfiltered.tv averaged a little over 2,500 visits per month with record numbers this February and March when the sale to Crimson was announced. The reaction was brutal and swift. He seemed to live, at least judging by his now-deleted social media accounts, like a multimillionaire: Rolex watches, collections of fine art, and loafers from not just Gucci but Louis Vuitton too. “When you’re hanging around with the sons and daughters of billionaires, it’s easy to get sucked into that, particularly in New York.”, “Blur the lines between family and friends. “Much of the commentary about my lifestyle has been untrue and defamatory … and trying to imply that money came from the company is absolute nonsense,” he says. In October last year, Watson was sentenced to four months in jail after English courts ruled he’d been hiding assets from creditors in a “rainy day account” in his mother’s name. 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