Impact Creative Network
Impact Creative Network
A hiring and networking platform for the film and TV industry, designed from seed through Series B.
32% sign-up lift · 1 week → 48hr hiring response time · 90% lifecycle retention
The Gates of Hollywood runs on who you know.
Impact started as a Y Combinator accelerator for writers. When the writers’ strike froze that business, we looked at crew, who had almost no online presence. Hiring ran on referrals over email and text, and nobody could see who was available.
The search, lists, and profiles we had built for writers carried straight over to crew.
Hiring Was A Reputation Bet
Coordinators hired from personal spreadsheets and their own phones, and called whoever was top of mind. Hiring a stranger put their own reputation at risk, with no way to verify the person and no time to try. One coordinator told us, “I’m scared to hire someone new because I don’t know how it would reflect on me.”
Crew outside that circle paid for Facebook groups, coaches, and coffee meetings, and got little back. Being unknown was a bigger barrier than being unqualified.
Building a Network That Showcases Credibility
Coordinators did not need a better database. Their networks already worked. So we made those relationships visible and faster to act on, and gave crew earlier in their careers a way to show they were reliable.
We built it in three phases, and each one depended on the last: a network, then a hiring system, then on-set tools.
Phase 01
Network + Credibility
Solve cold start. Build a network with real signal, people you've worked with, not just people who exist on a database.
Phase 02
Hiring System
Structure the hiring workflow without replacing it. Evolve existing behavior into something faster and trackable.
Phase 1: Building the Network (2022)
There was no existing place where Hollywood professionals actively networked.
IMDb was static and LinkedIn was not built for film. We started with profiles, search, availability status, and the ability to connect and message. Search ranked mutual connections first, then shared credits, then profile and experience.
From Claiming A Profile To Seeing Your Network
We first pre-filled profiles from industry data and asked people to claim them. Only 16% signed up. People did not recognize Impact, and some credits were wrong, so we were asking for trust before we had earned it.
We changed the first screen from “claim your profile” to “see your network”: the people from your past productions who were already on Impact. Seeing people you know builds trust faster than anything a company says about itself. Sign-ups rose 32%.
Profile Cards
Credit-heavy results did not help a coordinator decide whether to reach out. We put relationship signals first: mutual connections, shared collaborators, and unions and guilds.
I pushed for messaging to launch with connecting, because a connection with nothing to do next is a dead end.
Phase 2: From Connecting to Hiring (2022–2023)
Hiring For Productions
Hiring was still search, email, wait, follow up, and repeat. We turned the saved list into Avail Check: a coordinator sends an availability request to a whole list in one action, and crew reply with one click from email.
What broke first
The first version only tracked available or not available. Working with coordinators from Netflix and HBO, we rebuilt it around real hiring stages: outreach sent, response received, follow-up needed, offer made, and confirmed.
Response times dropped from roughly a week to under 48 hours.
Phase 3: On-Set Tools
Getting hired through Impact was only half the job
People got hired through Impact and then left, because production ran on texts, calls, and separate apps. That gap became CrewChat.
Generating User Growth & Hiring Efficiency
Scenechronize charged $30,000+ per engagement. Impact delivered comparable capabilities at roughly 30% of that cost, and once studios were already using Impact through their coordinators, the enterprise conversation sold itself.
Sign-up lift, from the shift to relationship-first onboarding.
Hiring response time — down from roughly a week.
Of competitor pricing, with better UX.
Lifecycle retention, once on-set tools closed the loop.
Establishing & Scaling The Design System
One source of truth across mobile and web
I built the design system in Figma, from tokens to components to layout patterns. Mobile and web shared one set of parts, and engineering had one reference.
Reflections
Phase order is a product strategy
A hiring tool needs a real network to hire from. On-set tools need hiring to happen on the platform. Each phase had to unlock the next.