Matthew Pohlson: the Omaze CEO on the importance of storytelling

If you've seen an advert on TV or social media for a chance to win a dream home, then you've probably come across Omaze. Its prizes are stunning properties that wouldn't look out of place on Grand Designs. And they tap into something deep in the national psyche: the desire to own your own home. Surprisingly, though, this is a phenomenon that was born in the US.

CEO Matthew Pohlson co-founded Omaze in California in 2012 with Ryan Cummins, whom he met while studying at Stanford University. Pohlson later gained an MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, where he met some inspirational peers who each went on to found unicorns. Sir Richard Harpin caught up with Pohlson for this episode of the Business Leader podcast.

In our interview, you will learn about:

• Why Omaze shut down its original US operations to focus solely on the UK market
• Why data science led Omaze to target areas like the Lake District over London
• How a near-fatal medical emergency reshaped Pohlson's thinking on fear-driven decision-making
• Why Omaze has chosen Germany as its next market

How Omaze found its UK home

It's a unique origin story. After gaining his MBA, Matt Pohlson graduated into the world of film production in Hollywood, working with famous actors on commercial projects and honing his storytelling skills. Within this glamorous world, he spotted a gap in the market. He attended a private charity auction for high-net-worth individuals to bid on exclusive experiences with stars such as former basketballer Magic Johnson.

It was at this event that he realised such tantalising prizes could have a mass-market appeal. Omaze started with celebrity draws before switching to something more tangible and easier to manage: dream homes. And that's where the UK presented a better opportunity than the US.

“We couldn't afford to do the homes in both markets,” explains Pohlson, “because we have to buy eight houses up front in order to offer a house every month.” Real estate in the US was too expensive for that, so Pohlson knew he would have to look beyond his home country if he wanted to scale the model.

Leaving the US version of his business was no easy task for him. It meant leaving a great team behind. But the difference in success on this side of the Atlantic was stark, and the Omaze team were surprised by just how well the idea worked in the UK. “It was growing similarly to Netflix, Amazon or Spotify in its first five years,” says Pohlson. With momentum on their side, the Omaze team chose to fully shut down their US operation to focus on the UK.

“Originally, when we launched test houses in the UK, we were offering a £1m house for seven months. But now, we do a £5m house every month,” says Pohlson. Each campaign typically has a celebrity involved to generate attention and a set amount of proceeds from each sweepstake goes to a nominated charity. There's always a winner, and there are no rollovers.

Understanding the UK mindset

Pohlson's data science team uses AI modelling to figure out what makes a home appealing to Omaze entrants. This includes analysing migration data. London is a huge, diverse market full of extraordinary properties. But people who live there are stubbornly wedded to their boroughs, and Pohlson and his team found that plenty of Londoners wouldn't cross town even for a mansion.

The Omaze team's data-led approach instead identified that dream homes outside of London, in places like Surrey, were in fact more appealing to most Londoners. “We tried to find a wide range of houses,” he says. “Cornwall and the Lake District are the only places that are nationally appealing.”

Speaking to Pohlson, his enthusiasm for the UK as a market for his business and as a home for himself is evident. “I'm an American, I love the US,” he says. “My best friends are there. But I really love the UK. I think it's an amazing country. London is the only city in the world that has globally relevant centres of power – in government, in finance, in media – within a mile of each other. Those would be in three different states in the US.”

Still, Pohlson has a wary sense of the startup business culture in the UK, versus what he was used to back home. “A business failure is frowned upon here. It's a stepping-stone for success in America.”

Why Matthew Pohlson loves a story

Winning a dream home is a story many of us would love to tell. That kind of storytelling has helped the team spread the word about their prize draws online, but it has also helped internally when it comes to growing the business – for example, when approaching investors, says Pohlson. “Every investment starts with a story,” he says. “The valuation is just metrics plus storytelling and massive PE [private equity] ratios come from better storytelling, so it's a skill that's undervalued.”

In fact, a big life event affected Pohlson's attitude to business and storytelling. He was born with an abnormality in his stomach tissue, which had to be corrected with surgery. Forty years later, some of the scar tissue dislodged in his stomach.

This led to medical complications and Pohlson flatlined for several minutes as doctors figured out how to react. His family watched as the defibrillator was used on him. Pohlson recovered and the experience gave him a new mindset. He realised he had to stop being fear-driven and that “fear is just a story you tell yourself”. So he had to start telling himself a more positive story.

“The opposite of love is not hate, it's fear,” says Pohlson. “Fear can be a motivating force. I allowed it to drive my decision-making. You can make a decision out of love or fear, but when you are scared, your mind constricts – you are actually dumber.”

He also tries to bring some of that positivity about life to the Omaze brand. “People want to survive and thrive,” Pohlson has learned. “Your brand has to show them how to do that.”

An Omaze home in every country

Pohlson has embraced that same spirit of positivity when it comes to expansion. “We believe that this is a universally appealing product – everybody wants a better house, right?” says Pohlson. He thinks there are at least 30 countries where the Omaze model could work without needing to adapt to local laws.

His team decided to crack Germany next. It's a country that has proved problematic in the past for UK companies, with its different culture and decentralised government and regulatory system. But it has a similar population density to the UK, Pohlson says, and it is the biggest market in Europe. The fact that a competitor was about to launch there was also a strong motive.

Omaze was able to launch in Germany last year, after around seven months of planning, which Pohlson admits was fast. To speed up the process, they bought a company, which helped them comply with licensing rules around running charity lotteries. A lot of planning had to be coordinated from the UK.

But crucially, they also hired a local German person as their managing director in the country, rather than parachuting someone else in from the UK. “We really want people making decisions for the customers [to be] as close as possible to the customer,” explains Pohlson.

From there, the plan is to sell the Omaze dream even further. “We think we can do this all around the world,” Pohlson enthuses. Ultimately, he wants to conquer his own homeland, re-importing Omaze back to the US where the company started its journey. This can then be a launchpad for Canada and Mexico, he believes.

While he waits, though, Pohlson sounds like a man who has fully embraced his British base: “The UK is just a beautiful country, with beautiful people, and a great sense of humour.” A dream home, you might say.

Matthew Pohlson's four lessons for leaders

Let data override assumptions. Omaze's data science team used migration and behavioural data to prove that Londoners would not travel across their own city for a mansion but would consider a home in Surrey, Cornwall or the Lake District. Leaders scaling into new markets should test what the data says about customer behaviour rather than relying on instinct.

Treat storytelling as a core business skill, not a soft one. Pohlson argues that “the valuation is just metrics plus storytelling” and that better storytelling is what earns higher private equity ratios. Leaders who invest in how they frame their business to investors and customers gain a real, measurable edge.

Put decision-making as close to the customer as possible. Rather than send a UK executive to run the German launch, Omaze hired a local managing director. Pohlson's reasoning was simple. The people making decisions for customers should be as close as possible to those customers.

Focus beats presence in two markets at once. Omaze shut down its original US business entirely to concentrate on the UK, despite having “a good business in the US”. It was a hard call but it let the team commit fully to the market that was growing fastest. Sometimes scaling means choosing where not to compete.

Listen to Matthew Pohlson on the Business Leader podcast.