Kids’ content-focused digital studio Pocket.watch has brought in industry veteran Xavier Kochhar as its first chief financial officer and chief operating officer.
Pocket.watch is known for partnering with YouTube creators and helping them launch their own big-box merchandise, original series, and more. Its partners include Ryan’s World (30.5 million subscribers), Love, Diana (5.88 million), LankyBox (11.6 million), the Onyx Family (3.44 million), Kid City (2.5 million), Rosanna Pansino (13 million), Jason Vlogs (14.4 million), Karina Garcia (9.35 million), EvanTubeHD (7 million), and the Dangie Bros (4.64 million). The company’s main studio in Culver City is pictured above.
Kochhar’s most recent position was at AT&T, where he headed strategy and business development for HBO Max. Prior to joining the tech giant, he was founder and CEO of the Video Genome Project, a data startup that was acquired by Hulu (with its assets subsumed into the platform’s recommendation algorithm) in 2016.
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Kochhar has also held executive roles at MediaLink, Walt Disney Co., and LEK Consulting, and at the start of his career was one of the first digital/new media agents at WME.
At Pocket.watch, Kochhar will oversee major business units, including direct-to-consumer, content sales/distribution, advertising, consumer products, gaming, and creator partnerships, Variety reports.
Kochhar will additionally lead the company’s corporate development, strategy, and finance divisions. Those sectors were previously led by Pocket.watch founder and CEO Chris M. Williams.
“Xavier’s vast experience in corporate strategy and development, operations and finance in companies ranging from startups to Fortune 100s is precisely what Pocket.watch needs as we consider all the opportunities in our next phase of growth,” Williams, a former Disney and Maker Studios executive, said in a statement. “We’ve seen tremendous growth the last several years, but the biggest growth is still ahead of us.”
In his own statement, Kochhar said, “Pocket.watch is one of only a few creator-economy companies in kids and family–a category that has shown to not only drive first-time streams, but also greatly reduce churn–to have proven this model.”
Kochhar officially took up his role at Pocket.watch today, Sept. 16.
