Interview
MatchHat is building a one-of-a-kind platform for creatives globally to connect and collaborate

In our digital world, it takes a lot of skills to put together something as simple as a short online video. Finding people with the skills to do all those various tasks can be a challenge and often limits the ability of creatives with great ideas to execute them.

What if there was a way to connect with collaborators with all of these various skills, not only locally, but around the world, through a platform designed specifically for artists and creatives? That is the goal of MatchHat, a startup founded by Soraya Umewaka.

“If you're a filmmaker, you might need to work with musicians, costume designers or editors to put together a short film. We want to streamline that,” said Umewaka. “Our vision is to empower diverse storytellers from around the world to find key collaborators and get their passion projects off the ground.”

MatchHat is an online platform designed to assist creatives in finding collaborative partners from various fields for their projects, and is currently in pre-launch. On MatchHat, projects are listed, and interested creatives can connect, collaborate, and form a match. Unlike platforms that support outsourcing, like Upwork, MatchHat aims to function as a meeting place for collaborators to bring their projects to fruition.

According to Umewaka, right now, there isn’t really a platform that connects creatives globally. Most have to use groups on existing social networks, like Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn, or via word of mouth. That often limits the number of people even a well-connected creative can find. For those new to the field, or located in remote regions, the barriers to collaborate can be even higher.

Umewaka experienced this herself. A filmmaker and production specialist with experience directing and producing short and feature-length documentaries, music videos, news programs, and web series in multiple countries, Umewaka has also faced challenges in finding collaborators, especially for cross-border projects.

“During my journey as a filmmaker, I noticed that it's quite hard to find key collaborators for your creative projects,” said Umewaka. “So that was the inspiration for MatchHat.”

In some ways, MatchHat was designed for Umewaka, but she recognizes that the needs of creatives around the world can vary greatly. That is why MatchHat has been using co-design principles to incorporate user feedback and ideas, aiming to create something that is both useful and ever-evolving with the needs of the community.

“When it comes to the design, we want to think about a playground. How do we foster great conversations?” asked Umewaka. “We're constantly talking to creatives and would like to make it easy for them to showcase their work, their concept video and their storyboard as a way to attract collaborators and supporters.”

Umewaka is unique as a startup founder. She brings not only her diverse filmmaking and production skills but also received Noh training, a traditional Japanese theater art. She has also worked in technology, including for big names like YouTube.

“It's good to have different experiences, and you can choose what kind of work culture you like and adopt that for your team,” said Umewaka.

So far, MatchHat has focused on recruiting creatives in the field that Umewaka knows best; video. So far, the platform has more than 600 creators and over 200 projects registered. The creator economy market, however, is valued at $250 billion. with an estimated 200 million creatives worldwide.

The main emphasis during the pre-launch is on those making short digital films, which typically require collaboration with professionals from different areas. But MatchHat is also exploring cross-disciplinary projects that merge science and art, as well as social impact projects designed to raise awareness about pressing issues. Someday, Umewaka hopes that MatchHat can showcase projects focused on gender, minority rights, or identity.

MatchHat has been bootstrapping with a team of engineers and designers and will launch this year. To prepare for that, they’re connecting with universities, and organizing in-person events in Japan to further build and broaden the community. Umewaka says, "It's hard to build great things alone. We are fortunate to have a talented team that believes in the vision of empowering creators so they can tell their untold story through the power of collaboration.

The plan is to use a freemium model, not requiring users to pay any fees or taking any cut of the projects that creatives embark on via the platform, but getting revenues via online collaboration tools, and commissions from a casual version of a crowdfunding mechanism. There’s a good reason for that.

“We're not taking a commission from the match itself, because that would make the platform quite transactional in nature,” said Umewaka. “Instead, we like to offer these collaboration tools for storyboarding, concept videos and mood board creation, and offer that as a subscription service.”

One of the users of MatchHat, Umewaka herself, has already used it to find partners for a music video and sake documentary project. She hopes that, someday, when any creative, whether they work in film, art, or even photojournalism, wants to find collaborators, they’ll think of MatchHat first.

“Our vision is that when creatives think, I want to do a fun creative project, get inspired, or want to talk about their project vision, they'll go to MatcHat,” said Umewaka.