Manchester First: Why We're Building Hyper-Local for Creatives

Why Manchester?

Manchester has a creative pulse. Music, film, design, gaming—the city has a long history of producing talent and attracting collaborators. From the Hacienda to the Northern Quarter, from MediaCityUK to indie studios and venues, Manchester is a creative hub. But it's also a place where finding the right collaborator can still feel like luck. Where you might know someone who knows someone—or you might not.

We're launching in Manchester first because we believe in hyper-local. Real-world collaboration. Not just matching online—meeting in person, working in the same city, building a community that shows up. A platform that works for Manchester creatives has to understand the city: its venues, its studios, its networks, its rhythms.

Grassroots Rollout

Our go-to-market is built around content, community, and creator loyalty. We're not dropping millions on ads. We're talking to creatives, running demos, listening to what they need. We're testing with real users—musicians, filmmakers, designers—who are already booking work and looking for better tools.

That means we're starting small and growing with the community. Manchester is our proving ground. If we can make LinkUp work here—where creatives know each other, where word-of-mouth matters, where trust is built locally—we can build something that scales to other cities.

What Hyper-Local Means in Practice

Hyper-local isn't just a tagline. It means search by location. It means availability that reflects real schedules—not time zones on the other side of the world. It means curated matching for Manchester's creative scene: music producers, session musicians, sound engineers, filmmakers, designers, game developers—all in one place, all in the same city.

It also means we're not trying to be everything to everyone. We're building for creatives first. For Manchester first. For the people who are already doing the work and deserve a platform that feels like it was made for them.

What Comes Next

Our plan is a stepwise city rollout across the UK, with an eye on LATAM's rising creative freelance hubs. Manchester is the first step. We learn here. We iterate here. We build something that creatives actually use—and then we take it where the demand is.

But for now, the focus is Manchester. The creative community. The grassroots. The real-world collaborations that make the platform valuable. We're building something that speaks the language of the city—and we're starting here.

Conclusion

Manchester has the talent, the history, and the energy. What it needs is a platform that connects creatives to real bookings—frictionless discovery, built-in availability, secure payments. That's what we're building. And we're building it here first.

Ready to be part of it? Join LinkUp.