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Why the UK is great for investing and entrepreneurship | Boardroom Uncovered
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Jul 9, 2025
The chief executive of Omaze has set out the reasons why he believes the UK is the right place for his growing business to invest. Matt Pohlson, who helped found the company in the US before moving full-time across the Atlantic, also acknowledged the well-known pitfalls of choosing to invest in this country rather than in the States. Speaking to City AM's UK Editor on the latest episode of Boardroom Uncovered, the Omaze boss also revealed what he thinks the Labour government could do to support businesses more. Watch or listen to more episodes of Boardroom Uncovered here 👇 https://linktr.ee/boardroomuncovered Get more of City AM 👇 🌐 http://www.cityam.com X(formerly Twitter): http://twitter.com/CityAM Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cityam Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/city_am LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/cityam Produced by: Jon Robinson, Joseph Curay Teneda, Emmanuel Nwosu #omaze #news #business #businessnews #businessgrowth #businessleadership #ceo #entrepreneur #entrepreneurship #finance #financialnews #investing #investment #money #housing #housingmarket #property #propertyinvestment #propertymanagement #realestate #interview #podcast #fyp #foryoupage
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0:00
She says, "Look, I was there when he came into this world. If he's leaving this world right now, I'm going to be in that room." She runs and gets the
0:05
doctor. The doctor comes in and says, "He's not getting oxygen to his brain." Like, she immediately calls in a crash team. They rush me down to surgery. I
0:12
come out of surgery and they say to my mom, "The good news is we figured out what it was. It's a bowel obstruction
0:19
and we removed it. The bad news is his heart rate is continuing to plummet and we don't know why and he's in critical
0:25
condition." Nurse says, "I'm sorry. You can't come in. This is very serious. She says, "Look, I was there when he
0:32
came into this world. If he's leaving this world right now, I'm going to be in that room." My desire to contribute to
0:37
the greater good comes back to my childhood, my parents example. I grew up
0:43
in this place called Lagouna Gal, which is kind of this middle class area in Southern California, but I was on a basketball team based out of Compton.
0:50
Um, and my friends there had much more difficult, challenging lives. So, I split my life between two worlds as a
0:56
kid. Mh. Um, and I saw the opportunities that my friends at home had versus my friends on the basketball team had, and it just
1:03
made me want to figure out something in the world that could contribute. Didn't believe this kind of false choice that
1:09
you have to choose between making money and helping people. Um, and so I wanted to start a business
1:16
that could do both. Hello and welcome to another edition of City Am's Boardroom Uncovered with me, John Robinson. My guest for this episode
1:23
is Matt Pollson, the co-founder and CEO of OM Amaze. The company is best known for its luxury prize draws, which has
1:29
seen participants win grand mansions for as little as £10 per ticket. Matt helped set up the business before suffering a
1:36
heart attack in 2018. And the California native now calls London home as he works to expand Omaze across the UK and into
1:43
Europe. So, what does the future hold for Omaze? And how does Matt's near-death experience shape his approach
1:49
to work and life? Without any further delay, let's dive in. Well, Matt, thank you so much for coming
1:55
on the show. It was really good to meet you. Um I suppose there's only one way to start really and
2:00
there's a really a very real possibility rail real world where you're not here.
2:07
You know that you've got quite the backstory which I've never come across before. Could you tell us about what
2:14
happened to you? Yes. Um, I had a near-death experience
2:19
where I flatlined for four and a half minutes and they basically declared me dead and then they brought me back.
2:25
You just shook it off. They shook it off. I, you know, they brought I mean, a lot of people deserve
2:31
a lot of credit. But yeah, the backstory was that I was I was supposed to die when I was born. My stomach was twisted in a knot when I was born. And they did
2:38
this surgery then to save me. And then the scar tissue from the surgery
2:43
freakishly broke off all these years later, 40 years later
2:48
and created this bowel obstruction. And we didn't know what was happening. And
2:54
my stomach just over the course of a couple days went from looking like it
2:59
was normal to three months pregnant to six months pregnant to 9 months pregnant. And then I called my buddy
3:05
who's a doctor and said, "Hey, you know, I look like I'm nine months pregnant. What should I do about that?
3:10
I'm throwing a part at night. Do I need to go to the hospital?" And he said, "You should go to the hospital." Um, so I went to the hospital and they did all
3:17
these tests and they couldn't figure out what was going on. And our COO came, her
3:22
name was Helen, because we were supposed to meet. My parents came, did more tests, and they said, "We don't
3:28
know what this is and we think it's gonna be okay. We're going to you guys go home. We're going to keep
3:35
Matt overnight and if he's not better by the morning, then we'll do surgery then.
3:41
And so Helen, the COO, drives home to her house. It's probably midnight at this point. She's been at the hospital
3:47
all day with me. And she pulls into her driveway and she goes to get out of her car and something tells her to go back
3:55
to the hospital. Some kind of voice really. And she's British and a COO and very
4:02
serious. She's not like a Venice Beach, listen to the cosmos type person. Right. Right. Right. She's not checking
4:07
your Aurora out. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Yes. It was very out of character. She's not one of us kooky Californians. Um but she,
4:16
you know, the voice was undeniable as she said. So she drove back and if she hadn't driven back, I would have
4:22
probably died 45 minutes later. And he gave her a raise. I gave it
4:28
raise. Yeah. $1 an hour raise. Yeah. Um Yeah. So, yeah. So, she she'd come back.
4:35
She had seen that the my blood pressure had plummeted. She went and got the
4:41
nurse and said, "Look at this. This looks really bad." The nurse says, "That can't be right. He wouldn't be getting
4:46
oxygen to his brain." The nurse goes and gets another test. He does another test. Gets the same result. And she says, "No
4:53
more tests. Like, we need a doctor." She runs and gets the doctor. doctor comes in and says,
4:58
you know, takes one look and says we like he's not getting oxygen to his brain. Like she immediately calls in a
5:03
crash team. They rush me down to surgery. I come out of surgery and they
5:09
say to my mom, "The good news is we figured out what it was. It's a bowel obstruction and we removed it. The bad
5:15
news is his heart rate is continuing to plummet and we don't know why and he's in critical condition."
5:24
So, a couple hours pass, my mom goes downstairs to get my dad, my brother, and she's coming back up the elevator,
5:31
and she hears over the loudspeaker code blue in room 437. And my mom works in a
5:37
hospital, and so she knows that means flatline. Yeah. And she knows that's my room.
5:43
So, she gets out of the door and she starts running down the hall and she
5:48
gets to the the door of the the operating room and the nurse says, "I'm sorry. You can't come in. This is very
5:54
serious." She says, "Look, I was there when he came into this world. If he's leaving
5:59
this world right now, I'm going to be in that room." I read that for doing research for this for this interview, and I got quite
6:05
emotional actually reading that account. Just the idea of your mom just forcing her way in to see her son is that must
6:14
stick with you. I think she unlocks some kind of, you know, parents have a superpower when it
6:19
comes to saving their children, especially moms. M um and I think she tapped into something
6:25
that was kind of beyond her and that continued to persist, you know, cuz she got in that room and the I was flatlined
6:33
like right on the table like immediately right in front of her and they were doing the compressions and they were doing the defibrill
6:40
that you know the electric paddles and my body was bouncing up and down but I wasn't responding
6:46
you know and she she started to crumble in that moment. It's one thing to lose a child. That's another thing if it's
6:52
right there in front of you when it's happening. Yeah. And at the same time, my dad was outside with my brother and this doctor came out
6:58
and said to another brother or said to another doctor, sorry, in front of my brother, "Hey, I think we lost this guy.
7:05
I think he's gone." And so my brother pushed my dad in the
7:11
room and said, "You got to be there." And so my mom's kind of faced this way to the right towards me and my dad's
7:18
coming from her left and he's crying so loudly that she turns from me to him to say, "Hey, you got to
7:26
like shut shut the up. Kick us out of this room." Um, and when she turned,
7:32
she said she saw something that had this almost
7:39
spiritual impact on her. And what she saw was every nurse
7:44
and every staff member and every doctor in the ICU had just gravitated outside
7:50
this window. And there was like 40 of them. And she said, "They look like this silent church
7:56
choir just sending in positive energy." Well, it obviously worked because you're
8:02
here. Yeah. And fully recovered. Yeah. Yeah. It's absolutely incredible.
8:07
I can't imagine though that it's not something that you don't think about multiple times a day. It's such a huge
8:12
thing to have happened to somebody. It's really wild. Um it's sometimes hard
8:19
to wrap your head around that that's your life story. you know, I I never of
8:25
all the things I could thought think could happen in my life, that was never even something I would consider.
8:31
Um, and yeah, it does. It lives, you know, it happened seven years ago next week. And I
8:38
don't think there's a day that has gone by where I didn't think about it. Um, you know, it's really like I had a whole
8:43
come back to the light experience. It took me a long time to wrap my head around it all.
8:49
Um, and so it changes you. It changes your perspective in pretty fundamental
8:54
ways. How has it changed you?
9:00
It's changed me in a lot of ways. It's changed my relationship to fear.
9:08
I think before this happened, I was
9:14
really fear driven. I made, you know, would quote unquote bold choices, but sometimes they were made out of fear
9:19
versus love or, you know, contraction versus expansion, whatever words you want to use. Um, but it was a lot of
9:26
fear of not being enough. Uh, fear of compar, you know, comparing myself to
9:32
others, fear of failure. And and then you realize like when you
9:38
encounter something like that that nothing is as bad as the fear of the
9:46
thing. Yeah. Right. Like for many people death is their ultimate fear. I experienced some version of that. Um and it was okay.
9:53
Like what I saw on the other side made me you know excited for the next chapter
9:59
of this whatever it is you know in the world. and and um and and so then you
10:05
realize like fear is just kind of a story like in most cases like very rarely are we in actually like lifethreatening situations that one
10:12
actually was but most of our fears are just stories that we've created and if you can learn to to reframe those stories
10:19
um that opens up a whole new world and and so that was a big thing like um and
10:24
so therefore you become a much better friend to yourself like that's another thing has changed like I used to
10:31
what I thought was motivational to myself was a lot of just like saying pretty mean things to myself or self-criticism or that negative
10:37
rumination loop that a lot of people can go through and and a lot of the world conspires to push us into you know via
10:45
social and other things. Um I'm way better at getting past that. It still comes but I just process
10:50
through it much quickly much more quickly. Um because at the end of the day like the opposite of fear isn't
10:56
hate. The opposite of fear is love. And so I I love myself more. I know this is a funny thing, a woowoo thing to talk
11:02
about on a on a business podcast, but that's really true. And that and it affects my leadership. Um, and you know,
11:10
and therefore like I spend less time in those spaces and more time just about like what's possible and what you know,
11:16
kind of expansion. Did you ever think about stepping away from the world of business entirely and doing something
11:22
completely different off the back of that or has it sort of fired your motivation even further to succeed and
11:30
make the most of life I suppose? Yeah, it I did think about it for a while. I mean I really struggled
11:37
afterwards. Initially I was like euphoric that I was alive and all these people came and visited and I felt these
11:43
amazing things. But then people kept saying to me, you know, you're here for a reason and you have this second chance
11:48
and you know, you've got to make the most of it and all this stuff. And then I just felt this like incredible
11:54
pressure. Um, and I didn't know I didn't think I
12:00
necessarily deserved a chance versus anyone else. I think I just ended up getting saved, you know, and I didn't
12:06
have these immediate like I saw the light, but I was not enlightened. like I didn't I didn't have this new knowledge
12:13
that I you know it took me a long time to develop that like there I realized there are no epiphies
12:18
you know they're they're just these moments that can help you lead a path of curiosity but you don't need you don't
12:24
need to have what happened to me happen to you to to start that curiosity you know so there was it took me a long time
12:30
to kind of wrap my head around and when I immediately got back to work I was really struggling to do it
12:35
and really struggling on how big we could make Omaze and what kind of impact and I had a lot of concerns but And over
12:41
time, as I wrap my head around that, it it actually did fuel my ambition and um and
12:49
my desire to do more. Absolutely. And now you've you've moved from the US to London uh to grow OM
12:55
Amaze, not just in the UK, but in Europe as well. Tell me about, you know, founding the company, setting it up and
13:01
and the reaction to it in the UK market in particular. Yeah, the it's quite a unique business
13:07
model. It is. So we started in the US doing celebrity experiences doing stuff like riding a tank with Arnold Schwarzenegger
13:12
and Crush Things or As you do as you do I was reading George Clooney George Clooney we yeah we had a bunch of
13:19
crazy stuff small list nobody's ever heard of him went to Lamborghini where Pope Francis hand you the keys that was probably the
13:25
craziest one we ever did that's good you didn't take him for a spin I did not but I I had to go to the Vatican and pitch Pope Francis which was
13:32
pretty wild experience yeah u we did that for many years and then after the near-death experience
13:38
I came back and said we can't just keep doing celebrities. We don't control our own destiny. And that's when we started
13:45
doing stuff like holidays and then we started doing cars and then we said where it's really at is houses. You
13:51
know, a car changes someone's lifestyle. a house changes someone's life. And we launched that in the UK because we had a good business going in
13:57
the US with the celebrities and the cars. And we had a good operator here named James Oaks, a great operator named James Oaks. And
14:04
it was a smaller country, less expensive houses. And so we launched that here um four and a half years ago.
14:10
And how's it been going? It's been amazing. It's been I mean it's been a rocket ship. It's exceeded all
14:16
expectations because it's it is quite unique, isn't it? because you give so much away to to
14:22
charity as as part of the money. I mean, you what 20% of the proceeds you you
14:27
keep and the rest you you give away? I was reading. Is that correct? No, the 17% of the sales goes to
14:35
charity. So, the way you think about it, every pound that comes in, a third goes
14:40
to VAT and charity. A third goes to prizing the cost of the houses, plus we give the winners cash so
14:47
they can afford to live there. We cover their taxes. is we have a bunch of other cash prizes for other winners. Yeah. And then a third goes to operating
14:54
expenses, marketing, and then our profit. Why is giving that much of money to
15:00
charity so important to you and the company? That's where I started. I was in the charity space before OME doing big
15:07
documentaries and global concerts using storytelling to inspire action. um you know that my desire to contribute
15:15
to the greater good comes back to my childhood. My parents example um I spent
15:22
a lot of I grew up in this place called Laguna Gal which is kind of this middle class area in Southern California but I
15:28
was on a basketball team based out of Compton um and my friends there had much
15:34
more difficult challenging lives. So I split my life between two worlds as a kid. Um, and I saw the opportunities
15:39
that my friends at home had versus my friends on the basketball team had. And it just made me want to figure out
15:45
something in the world that could contribute. But at the same time, I also
15:50
didn't believe this kind of false choice that you have to choose between making money and helping people. Um, and so I wanted to start a business
15:59
that could do both. Um, do you think those people who are buying sort of the raffle tickets to to enter the draw are
16:06
doing it because they want the house obviously, but also because it's a way of funding charity, do or do you think
16:11
if that charity element wasn't part of it, you'd make more money anyway?
16:17
I think that people that we get people's attention with the house and that's very
16:23
yeah natural. Um the but I think they stick around because there's a
16:28
charitable element also. Um I've never thought about would we make more money without the charities. It's just a core part of it. We we have
16:35
a very healthy business. Um there's a lot of benefits of doing it with
16:41
charities. But the main thing is it just creates like a huge sense of purpose that that really makes us work hard. Um
16:48
and so that's always has been and always will be part of what we do. Well, Matt, we've got some quickfire
16:53
questions for you now. [Music]
17:00
The first one, what was your first job? My first job,
17:06
my dad's a criminal defense lawyer, and my first job was serving subpoenas to
17:11
people, which is not a first job I recommend for a 16-year-old. No. I got chased multiple times. I don't
17:19
know why he I think he wanted me just to see the real world fast. I saw the real world fast. I mean I was going into some, as you'd say here, dodgy Yeah.
17:27
situations. So that was my first job. Wow. That that I did not expect you to say that. That's that's really funny. Who inspires
17:33
you? My mom inspires me. She
17:40
really leads from a place of love and she has been through so much adversity in her life. And
17:46
when you face adversity, you have two choices. You can have post-traumatic stress or you can have post-traumatic
17:51
growth, but you can't stay the same. And she's chosen to grow. And that example has helped me grow.
17:56
We talked about some celebrities, so you might mention some of those now. But if you had to appoint a celebrity to your
18:01
board, who would it be and why? I would go with John Stewart.
18:07
How come? Because he uses humor to spread awareness and consciousness. And like we
18:14
try to do that. We believe laughter is the shortest distance between two people. But he's also incredibly smart and incredibly business-minded. Him
18:20
potentially President Obama, Oprah, like people who've come from nothing and created
18:27
businesses that or careers that help that make money and help people. What's the best thing about your job?
18:34
I love the people that I work with and the ripple effect that we get to make both in our own lives, but also like
18:41
that we get to help so many lives. Like it's incredibly fulfilling. Yeah. And if you weren't doing this,
18:48
what would you be doing? I would probably still be film making.
18:54
You know, I love stories. That's my passion. And finally, if you were, we normally ask our guests actually, what would you
19:00
do if you were prime minister for the day, but I should probably ask you what would you do if you were president for the day?
19:05
Oh, can I can I do prime minister instead? Well, let's start with president. Um,
19:13
I if I was president, I would really focus on the things that have made
19:19
America the economic and social marvel that it's been over the last 80 years.
19:26
I would focus on how immigrant populations have driven economic
19:32
activity. I would focus on how universities have driven innovation. I
19:39
would focus on how the rule of law has helped people thrive. Um I would f I
19:48
would continue to use the government's capacity to drive innovation into clean energy into other the next areas. Um and
19:55
I would do whatever it can to remove regulation that stifles entrepreneurship
20:01
and innovation. I want to talk about investing in the UK. Obviously you you've come over here from the US. There
20:08
seems to be a narrative, true or false, at the moment that the UK is a challenging place to invest, but you've
20:13
obviously chosen to base yourself here and expand more across the UK and into Europe.
20:19
Tell me about your your your thoughts on on investing in the UK. Is it as doom
20:24
and gloom as maybe we we make it out to be? I have not I've only experienced a great
20:30
environment to build a business. Um, and the reason it's great is because
20:36
there are so many people in the UK spec and specifically in London from around
20:41
the world. And I think a diversity of backgrounds leads to creativity. Um,
20:49
it's the only city in the world where there's globally relevant centers for politics, business, and entertainment
20:56
within a mile of each other. And that leads to a dynamism. I understand all
21:01
the criticisms. I've I've heard them. It's harder to raise capital in the UK than it is the US for sure.
21:07
Um there's much a there's more risk takingaking there and then the US also
21:13
has the huge advantage of you have one market that you can sell into that speaks the same language and essentially
21:19
has the same laws versus you know trying to do UK and Europe is much more complicated. Um, I think there's some
21:28
things that can be a lot of things that could be done to spur entrepreneurship and innovation here that could be some
21:35
lowhanging fruit big wins that I hope they do. Um,
21:40
I'm not qualified to get into specific policy details, but I would just say that there's some things that I've seen
21:46
done that I I think were not the best for innovation and entrepreneurship. And
21:52
I think there's something you might know a few things I'm going to I'm going to leave it at that. Yeah.
21:57
Do do you think the government could do more to support a business like yours?
22:02
The government's been great with us like we're a more mature business. I think I think they really do believe in growth
22:09
and want to do that. I think the more complicated thing is creating the ecosystem for for seed businesses.
22:15
I think there's a lot more that could be done to commercialize great ideas coming out of universities in the UK. Um, you
22:20
have incredible talent coming out of all over, not just Oxbridge, but it's much
22:26
easier to monetize those those ideas and that technology in the US than it is in
22:33
the UK. And then those startups get snapped up by US giants and and then that's it. Yeah. Isn't it? Um, it's difficult for the UK
22:41
to to keep its businesses within UK ownership. Yes, it is. But there's things that can
22:46
be done to change that, I believe. Since you're in the business of selling houses
22:52
sort of, let's talk about the housing crisis in the UK. There is one that's been going on for decades and decades it
22:58
seems. Now, you're not giving away cheap two up two downs. You're giving away
23:04
mansions. Mhm. What do you think that could be done to improve the housing situation in the UK?
23:11
Because, you know, giving away the odd mansion here and there isn't necessarily No, we are not addressing the housing crisis in any way.
23:17
um you know this phenomenon is going on around the world. Mhm.
23:23
I mean it's in in the markets that we pay attention to, US, Australia,
23:28
Germany, it's the same story as the UK. And in all these markets, it's become
23:35
increasingly hard to build some regulations that become focused on environmental protection, which is
23:40
obviously a good thing in the right done thoughtfully has led to a lot of
23:48
challenging building environments. Nimiism, you know, not in my backyard is happening all around the world. Um, I'm
23:56
not an expert enough to say what could unlock or change these things, but like
24:02
it's a real problem everywhere. Um, and and so I think like you've just got to
24:08
figure out how to get people building in ways that is environmentally responsible, but like we don't build like we used to anywhere. It's even
24:14
worse in the US. Um, and so that's like we've got to figure that out. Would you like to see
24:20
sort of planning regulations relaxed um and making it easier for those house
24:25
builders to actually get on and build the houses that everybody needs? Yeah, we I it's hard to imagine another
24:32
solution. You know, I can speak much more to California like the regulations you have in coastal areas around density
24:38
around new permissions. I mean, it strangled it, you know. So then therefore only people who already have their homes where
24:45
they're appreciating with scarcity makes it way harder for a younger generation to do that. Um I imagine there's a
24:52
similar dynamic here. Um but yeah, you've got like you've got to be able to build. We've got to figure out how to be
24:59
environmentally responsible for that. But like there's other costs on the other side. You know, you could argue by
25:04
not having density and highrises in at least California, you're that's actually environmentally irresponsible. M well
25:11
let's go back to OM Amaze because obly the main reason why you're here. Um tell
25:17
me about the future plans for Amaze in the UK. Yeah so
25:23
we are continuing to scale in the UK. Um we are launch we're about to launch some
25:30
new products in addition to the house draws that we're doing which we're really excited about. Um, we are
25:38
increasing the scale of our impact, you know, so we're doing like really tangible projects. We're building a
25:43
pediatric cancer unit with Great Orman Street Hospital, like those kind of big things. We just funded the London Air
25:49
Ambulances. Um, we have a bunch of other kind of
25:54
really exciting um, preservation building projects like that we're doing
25:59
next year. So, you'll see more and more of that. you'll see more and more content around the winners and the
26:05
charities and how in those moments of transformation. There'll be ways we're rewarding um local heroes throughout the
26:11
UK that are doing great stuff that's coming. Um and we're just continuing to uplevel the quality of our houses and
26:17
also building more of our houses too. Building the houses yourselves. Yeah, we started that last year. We did
26:23
our first build was in the Lake District and that was our most successful house to date. Really? And so what makes an Omaze house
26:30
then? Are you are you sort of putting the logo into the brick work?
26:37
Yes. Everywhere. Yeah. All the lights have Omaze, like bat signals. Um, you
26:42
know, we know what our customers want. Like our the Omaze community is amazing. Like the the impact that the Amaze
26:48
community made like I just referenced. Like that's that's not us, that's them, right? That's their money. Um, and but
26:54
they've they've told us time and time again what they're looking for in houses. um you know certain designs on
27:00
kitchens certain ways certain um views of nature or the offices certain
27:05
features that every every house looks for certain modern design but it's also clean and matches the UK sensibility and
27:11
so sub areas it's harder to find those houses and so that's why we started building them eco-friendly as well as that come into
27:17
it energy efficient it does and that yeah that has varying degrees of importance in different areas we
27:23
launched in Germany uh two days ago um and that's very critical. It's like
27:29
triple pain and you know every house has 40% of the roof is solar panels and you
27:35
know so it's like it's a different it's different there but yeah the UK also cares about that too. Well let's talk about that European
27:40
expansion there. You just launched in Germany. What's the plan for expanding across the continent?
27:46
Yeah launched Germany. We want that's a big investment for us and you know we
27:51
want to be able to have a similar impact there that we've had in the UK and as soon as we see that then it's going to
27:58
lead to a bunch more countries around Europe back in North America and other
28:04
continents. So you know once we once we prove it doesn't just work in the UK I
28:09
mean we did it in the US but now with houses um then we're going to be uh expanding pretty aggressively. What's
28:16
the sky's is the limit, I suppose. Do you have any sort of growth targets over the next five years that you want to
28:21
hit? We have a long-term vision which is Fortune 500 impact number one.
28:27
Um, so to be Fortune 500, you need to get to 8 billion in revenue. And to be impact number one, you need to be 3.5
28:34
billion in charitable giving. And we think we can do that in the next 14 years. And what about ownership? Are you
28:41
seeking more investment into the company? Thinking about going public? What's uh what's the plan on that?
28:47
We're keeping all our options there. We're not we don't you know it's a profitable business. Um we're able to
28:52
fund expansion into Germany off our own balance sheet and so and we think we could be able to
28:58
continue to do that in other markets as we grow. Um if we decide to accelerate
29:03
that, we may go out and raise around to do that. And then yeah, you know, an IPO is certainly an option at some point,
29:10
but we're not I think sometimes companies rush to that and they make that the goal. Um, and our
29:17
goal is the expansion and then the IPO can be an outgrowth of that. You'd have your pick of your stock exchange as well. You could go anywhere
29:24
that you want. Is there one at the moment that you would be more likely to choose
29:29
given which which stock? New York, London, Amsterdam. Yeah. Um, we'll keep our options open
29:36
there. Um, you know, a lot of people end up I mean, we just saw Wise last week transfer over
29:43
to the US. Um, we won't do that unless we have a US business going and we don't have that
29:48
currently. So, we'll we'll kind of we'll kind of we're just focused on these next couple markets and then we'll kind of
29:53
decide what the best options are from there. London's having a difficult time at the moment. Has done for a year or so, maybe
30:00
even a little bit more. What would you say about if somebody, you know, London Stock Exchange came up
30:06
to you and said, "Well, how about helping us out here?" Mass, there's a lot of really smart people
30:11
working with the London Stock Exchange. There's a lot of great businesses that are listed here. Um, we would have to
30:18
assess it at the time. You know, I I wish I think everybody wishes it was stronger.
30:23
Um, thinks it should be stronger, but these things are complicated. Yeah. Do you think it will get stronger
30:30
in the future? you know sort of it has been sort of declining in terms of number of listed businesses number of
30:36
IPOs over the last few years or so certainly post pandemic do you think that London will rise again
30:43
I really hope so I'm not educated enough to predict I know there's really smart people working on it and I believe
30:51
I believe in London whether they that whether this gets figured out or not I can't say
30:57
yeah okay I want to um take you in a little bit time machine. Now, Matt, and
31:02
go back to your younger self. You're just starting out in your career. If you could have a conversation with that younger Matt, what would you what piece
31:08
of advice would you give to him? How young are we talking? Oh, 18.
31:16
I think my first piece of advice would be nobody knows what they're doing.
31:22
Mhm. I think so many people, especially entrepreneurs when they're starting, get held up because everything is new and
31:30
you see other people succeeding and you just assume they had it figured out at all points. I at least that was my experience, you know.
31:36
Um and then as you get to know these people and the reason I know is now I'm one of these people they look at and say, "Oh,
31:43
they're succeeding." And I know I had no idea what I was doing. Yeah. You know, and I have a bunch of friends who've been really successful and I know
31:48
they had no idea what they were doing. And so the whole the whole game is just like keeping going, right? And so it's about just taking the
31:55
punches and getting back up, you know? So I I would I would say that um I would also say that everything you
32:02
want is on the other side of fear. Like your whole everything should be thinking about how do you how do you process
32:08
through that more quickly through a variety of techniques from you know being healthy to fitness to meditation
32:17
to whatever whatever it takes. Um, but if you can if you if you forgive
32:22
yourself not knowing and you just keep going and you're able to move past the fear, like there's really there's nothing you can't do.
32:28
Yeah. Well, that 18-year-old has grown up into quite a successful businessman on on pretty much any metric. But I was
32:35
wondering, do you yourself consider yourself successful?
32:40
Yeah, it depends how you define success. Um,
32:46
I define success as deep connection. Do you have deep connection to your
32:52
work? Do you have deep connection in your relationships? Um, do you have deep connections to your
32:59
partner? Do you have deep connections to your other hobbies? And I and I have those, you know, um, from other financial
33:05
metrics. I'm sure people wouldn't say I'm I've not become successful yet, and maybe I will one day. Um but in terms of
33:12
like feeling a real sense of purpose, feeling connected to others, feeling connected to my relationships, I I do
33:18
feel successful in that respect. You mentioned there about sort of connections to business and your family.
33:26
Is it difficult to strike the right tone when it comes to or the right balance when it comes to work life balance
33:32
because your business must be so all consuming and and trying to run that and expand that and then you know trying to
33:39
switch off at the end of the day and that must be a challenge. It is. I think a lot of people have done
33:45
a better job of it than I have. There's a lot of people with much bigger jobs than me who have great family lives. Um,
33:53
you know, I'm single and so that and and a big reason I am part of it was going
33:59
through the near-death experience and that really kind of like took me a while to get my head around. Um, but part of
34:04
it is just like I've I've always since, you know, the idea for OME came, I've always felt like this was something
34:11
bigger than me or anybody who works at Ome. I felt a deep responsibility for
34:16
putting this out in the world. Um because and especially now what I know it's like to be a patient whose life was
34:22
only saved because of the generosity of others. I was only saved because this
34:28
charity had raised money to create this ECMO machine at UCLA hospital and that one machine saved me and if they hadn't
34:34
done that I wouldn't be here you know and so I feel like a deep responsibility to bring that forward in
34:39
a world where I think it's increasingly hard for for charities to raise money. It's increasingly hard for people to
34:45
have a chance at upward mobility. So I feel a deep connection to that and I I have been so focused on that that it I
34:51
have made sacrifices from a family perspective but I don't think it's impossible to have the balance and I know people who are more successful and
34:58
more impactful than me that that do. Yeah. And I I think one day I will figure that out.
35:04
What do you do then at the end of the day to to chill out? Is it gym straight to the gym for a couple of hours or is
35:09
it running or cycling or you know what what I start the day at the gym. Um I start the day with gym and meditation and some
35:17
writing and then I do and I meditate a second time. So that that really helps me. But then I love, you know, I love
35:25
being around friends and and so I'm still even though I'm I myself am not
35:31
don't have a family yet. I spend time with friends and family that are family
35:37
to me. I mean the family already obviously are, but the friends are too. So, so I I feel very I feel very
35:43
enriched by those relationships selling them raffle tickets as well. I do. I just slinging raffle tickets. Yeah. A little tomb in the in the corner
35:49
of the dining room. And no one gets to have dinner with you without buying at least two tickets. Ah, that makes sense. Why not? You got
35:55
to deep connection, man. Yeah. A deep connection to the money in their pocket. 100%. Yeah. Um, final question, Matt. Um,
36:03
what's it take to be a good CEO in your opinion?
36:09
There's a lot. Um, I would say the most
36:17
underrated skill and most important skill in entrepreneurship is storytelling.
36:24
It's obviously it's critical with marketing and and product, but it's critical for
36:31
fundraising. It's critical for setting a vision. It's critical for hiring. It's critical for mobilizing a team around
36:39
this specific thing. You know, like Omaze is just a story. Like when I talk about the future of Omaze with you right
36:44
now, all that is is a story that doesn't exist. So, it's a thing that I can see in my head and other people on the Omaze team
36:50
have created that we can see, you know, and I think by doing that, by learning that skill, it also enables you to
36:56
empower people with the the guard rails to make the most of their
37:02
potential, right? And so the best CEOs first and foremost are able to help others succeed and empower them to be
37:10
successful on their team and then and they do that by storytelling. Brilliant. Well, Matt, thank you so much
37:16
for coming on board from Recovered. It's great to have you. Thanks for having me, John. I really enjoyed it. Cheers. All right.
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