I have a degree, but it’s not a BA or BSc. No, it’s a slightly ridiculous-sounding BBR. I’m a Bachelor of Broadcasting.

Aside from often popping up as an interviewee on TV and radio, I never got to use this rare qualification in my career. Film and TV are all about relationship-building and ‘who you know’ rather than ‘what you know’.

As an insecure and unconfident 22-year-old graduate, I simply didn’t have it in me to go out and forge a career in such an unstructured space.

Today’s startup wants to bring a little order to that chaos for people looking to make, commission, or otherwise support new productions. And given the current state of the industry, it could arguably use the help.

Read on to find out all about My SMASH Media.

– Martin

My SMASH Media wants to take the ‘who you know’ friction out of the film and TV industry

Taking a TV or film project all the way from an idea to the screen can be a messy business. Finding the right partners involves a lot of relationships, gatekeepers, and the luck of talking to the right people at the right time.

“If you're an independent producer, you spend a lot of your time trying to bring together a patchwork of finance and relationships to get your project across the line. You can spend a lot of time and energy on doing that, and we lose a lot of good, financially viable projects that could make a difference to the economy of the industry,” says Fiona Gillies, who has been there and experienced the pain points for herself as a producer.

Gillies is co-founder and CEO of My SMASH Media, which aims to rewrite the rulebook for the sharp end of film and TV production.

Edinburgh-based My SMASH Media’s SMASH platform is sold as “like a dating app for Film and TV projects,” matching creatives and their pitches with industry professionals who have a specific brief. The platform is designed to match the right people anywhere from a project’s development stage, right through to completion.

“The industry is a web and needs a lot of different matches at a variety of different stages of a production's life. That is where we can come in and we can help,” Gillies says.

“At the moment, creatives spend a lot of time knocking on doors, trying to find the right partner… there are a lot of gatekeepers in place. There are a lot of vested interests, and we disrupt that slightly, because we make the gatekeeping a lot easier, a lot more transparent, and a lot simpler for the decision-makers involved.”

How it works

SMASH allows creators to pitch ideas and others in the industry to publish ‘call-outs’ for projects they’d like to see.

The platform helps creators build a pitch that fits a standard format. This includes everything someone reading that pitch might need. A drama might need details such as a good logline, synopsis, cast list (confirmed or speculative), the format, and target audience.

Once the pitch is complete, it can be sent to relevant people for the project’s stage. Early on, they might need development finance. Later, they might need studio space, and eventually a sales and distribution deal. At each point, the project can be matched with relevant people through SMASH, taking the ‘who you know’ factor out of the equation.

Protecting creators’ intellectual property is a key emphasis for My SMASH Media.

“We're giving you a digital trail for your project because for a lot of new creators, there's an anxiety about your IP being stolen. So we make it easier for you to get your idea in front of the right person while still protecting it,” Gillies says.

SMASH works to a pretty standard SaaS pricing model, offering creators a limited but functional free option, and an accessibly priced premium option. Paid subscribers get access to a team of experts to provide feedback and support for pitches and AI tools to assist with writing.

‘Discoverers’, the people being pitched to on the platform, also pay a subscription fee and SMASH charges a 5% success fee for transactions across the platform.

The story so far

Gillies has co-founded My SMASH Media with fellow film producer Christine Hartland (COO) and Mahesh Ramachandra (CPO), who has a background in the intersection of tech and media.

Gillies and Hartland came up with the idea as a result of the “pain and frustration” of the existing system, which they saw as deeply inefficient. Hartland suggested Ramachandra should get involved, and the three started developing their platform during the lockdown era.

The platform is live and Gillies says it already hosts thousands of users across 101 countries. A new AI-powered matchmaking system is under development. Ramachandra says this will help identify the best ‘call-outs’ to match a project with, and help creators fine-tune their pitches to increase chances of success.

Gillies says the startup is working with two major studios and a couple of UK-based broadcasters, along with a range of production companies, sales agents, film financiers, studio spaces, lawyers, and accountants.

The focus for 2026 is further growth in the film and TV space, and beyond.

“Our users are creating pitches for podcasts, theatre shows, and even an interactive opera. That's taken us by surprise. We've also been approached by a gaming company looking at the use of SMASH in that industry as well, and that's something we're hugely excited about,” Gillies says.

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