The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 33 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 2 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Omaze's Subscriber Retention Rates Rival Netflix and Spotify
“It's right up there with the top consumer subscription companies in the world. I mean, it's comparable to Netflix, Spotify.”
Omaze Beat WME, CAA, Airbnb, and Groupon in Celebrity Campaigns
“At one point we were producing 400 celebrity videos a year, you know, and our team, like, figured out that process, was really good at learning from that process. Like, that's why we, like, that's why we were the only ones who did a celebrity that made it. We'…”
Omaze Targets $8B Revenue and Gates Foundation-Level Charitable Impact
“It's not our 10 year vision, but it's our 15 year vision, is Fortune 500 impact number one. The Fortune 500 is right now is eight billion in revenue to be on that list. Impact number one means the number one source of charitable funds in the world outside of g…”
Outlander's Sam Heughan Outgrossed Brad Pitt as Omaze's Top Talent
“Whereas like a guy named Sam Heughan, who's on a show called Outlander, which is a kind of a sci-fi romantic show set in Scotland. He's our highest grossing talent of all time, more than George Clooney or Brad Pitt or Matt Damon, or you name it, because he has…”
Omaze Spent $250K on a McLaren With Only $900K in Cash
“And so I, then I went to our CFO, Nina, and I said, hey, I think we should offer a car. We should go buy a 250,000 dollar McLaren, offer it with just a maze, no talent. Because if we could do that on our own, then we would control our own destiny. We would rea…”
The Bachelor Has the Highest Educated TV Audience in the US
“Same in the US, like The Bachelor, the highest educated audience in the US is The Bachelor.”
40% of All Global Television Content Is House-Related
“40% of all television in the world is about houses, like some kind of house transformation show, some kind of DIY, you know, 60% of all TV is reality, and two-thirds of that is about houses.”
Omaze Shut Down Its Entire US Team to Pivot to the UK
“We shut down our whole US team because to focus on the house model in the UK.”
London Uniquely Combines Politics, Finance, and Entertainment Within One Mile
“London is incredibly dynamic. You know, it's the only city in the world where you have a relevant center for politics, a relevant center for entertainment, a relevant center for finance that are within a mile of each other.”
Omaze Will Reach Roughly 30% EBITDA Margins at Scale
“You know, at scale, this will be roughly a 30% EBITDA margin business. We're not there now.”
Pohlson: $10 Micro-Donation Entries Outperform Exclusive Charity Auctions
“If we make it so anybody can donate 10 dollars for the chance to win, you could raise so much more money, so much more awareness, open up a whole new donor base.”
Omaze's Breaking Bad Finale Campaign With Bryan Cranston Raised $1.7M
“And that one raised 1.7 million.”
Omaze's Call of Duty and Cristiano Ronaldo Campaigns Underperformed Expectations
“We thought being Call of Duty, you got to have a character in Call of Duty would raise a lot. That did not. Without Ronaldo, get your haircut and play football with Ronaldo would raise a lot. That's a knot.”
Pohlson: Fear is short-term motivation that worsens decision-making over time
“Fear constricts you, makes you focus on things that you think are threatening you, spikes your cortisol levels. Again, it can be very motivating, but Over time, it makes you make worse decisions.”
Omaze's Daniel Craig Aston Martin Campaign Raised $2.1M Against $300K Projection
“We had done a campaign with Daniel Craig, where you got to go to New York, you got to ride around in a one-of-a-kind Aston Martin, and you got to keep the Aston Martin. And it was the first time we'd offered a prize. We thought it would raise 300,000 and it ra…”
Omaze's Talent-Free McLaren Campaign Raised $1.9M Against a $500K Target
“Well, yeah, bad, but it turned out to be great, because when I came back, I was sitting down with her, and I had all this distance and all this perspective, and said, by the way, whatever happened with the McLaren, did it raise the 500,000? She said it raised …”
Pohlson: A car changes lifestyle, but a house changes life
“A car changes someone's lifestyle. A house changes someone's life.”
Omaze's U.S. Business Reached $100 Million in Revenue Before UK Pivot
“Really well, I guess it's an overstatement for this podcast. For us, it was really well. It was like a hundred million. You know, it wasn't nothing.”
Higher Home Giveaway Values Do Not Linearly Drive Customer Acquisition
“It's not that cleanly correlated. We've had some of our best houses have been three million pounds and others that were five, not as good.”
Creative Quality Is Replacing Algorithms as the Main Marketing Differentiator
“The real gains, the real differentiation now is coming from creative, right? A lot of people could like these algorithms are reaching efficiency frontiers. So like, that's really how you differentiate.”
NSF Study: 80% of the Average Person's 30,000 Daily Thoughts Are Negative
“I read some study the other day from the NSF that said the average person has 30,000 thoughts a day. 80% of them are negative, and 95% of them are repetitive.”
Omaze's UK Unit Economics: One-Third Charity, One-Third Prizes, One-Third Operations
“The best way to think about our business is like a third. So a third goes to VAT and charity. So 16% to VAT, 17% to charity. Spend about a third on prizing. So the house plus the taxes, we cover all the taxes for the winter. We cover all the furniture. We give…”
Companies Must Reach Larger Scale Before IPO to Survive Market Volatility
“I think being bigger when you go public is really important now. I've watched a lot of companies that were, you know, in relatively small market caps. You can just, you're better set up to weather the increased volatility of the world.”
Omaze Founder Matt Pohlson Flatlined for 4.5 Minutes During Medical Emergency
“I did flatline for four and a half minutes.”
Omaze's First Charity Experience on Cupcake Wars Raised Just $780
“Our first experience was to be a guest judge on Cupcake Wars. That raised 780 dollars.”
Omaze Pitched Disney's Bob Iger With Only Six Employees
“Like we were meeting with Disney and Bob Iger. They didn't know that we were only six people and like, we didn't really even have the tech stack to support. That kind of traffic.”
Omaze's Pope Francis Lamborghini Campaign Raised $3.1 Million
“It did. I think it raised like 3.1 million, something like that.”
Pohlson Would Have Died if Omaze COO Hadn't Returned to Hospital
“So she drove back and if she hadn't driven back, I would have probably died. 45 minutes later.”
Omaze Stays Seven Houses Ahead in Its Property Purchasing Pipeline
“We have to be seven houses ahead in our purchasing.”
Omaze Has Tested Over 10 Million Performance Marketing Ad Variations
“We've tested, you know, we've had over ten million different performance marketing ads.”
Geico's Gecko Campaign Grew Premiums From $4B to $15.6B in 10 Years
“They had grown at like a two percent CAGR for like 40 years until they launched the Gecko in 1999. At that point, They had 21% brand awareness. 10 years later, they had 90% brand awareness. They went from four billion in premiums to 15.6 billion. They doubled …”