What is Wadipay?

"Miracles don’t just happen."
We’re carefully compiling the success stories of makers who have successfully completed funding efforts and sharing them widely, like Wi-Fi, to bring new miracles to the next generation of makers.

"I used to think this was a platform where only innovative products could get funding.
But as I kept following the platform, I became convinced that even food projects like ours could gain attention.” 

The “Super Matcha” project from “Hit the Tea,” a specialty tea brand whose message is literally “Let’s have a cup of tea!”, is taking wadiz by storm. It’s just ordinary tea—the kind you can find anywhere within a 10-minute walk—so what made it so special that over 2,000 supporters were willing to endure the wait of a month for delivery just to participate in the funding? 

We sat down with Hit the Tea, which surpassed 100 million won just seven days after the project launched, achieving 10,017% of its funding goal.

Wadiz: Hello! First, could you please introduce yourself as a maker?

Hit the Tea: Hello. I’m Seong Hye-jin, the co-CEO of Hit the Tea and the tea blender overseeing the overall planning of this project. 

How was Hit the Tea founded? I’m curious about what inspired you to start this business.
Hit the Tea is a tea startup I co-founded with CEO Hwang Seong-ho in March 2017. At first, I simply loved tea and began studying it in depth; I became particularly interested in tea blending and even earned a professional certification. 

Around that time, I entered the 1st Youth Startup League, hosted by HiteJinro, with a concept called “Curated Tea Bags,” and luckily, I won the grand prize. That experience led me to officially launch the business.

It sounds like you started this business out of a genuine love for tea. What did you do before launching the company?

Before studying tea, I gained experience in UI/UX design at Naver and worked as a brand designer at a brand consulting firm. CEO Hwang Seong-ho was in charge of business development at a foreign consulting firm. 

Although it was a completely different industry from tea, I was well aware of the importance of brand experience across all sectors even before starting the business, so I was particularly interested in each brand’s core values and Stories.

No wonder the Story’s brand identity feels so strong. I’m curious—how did you first become interested in tea?In the world of tea, heritage and blending stories play a more crucial role than in any other field, as they are what truly determine the difference in flavor. So, as I learned more about tea, I realized that tea and design have a lot in common. 

What fascinated me most was how the flavor and character of tea could transform into thousands of different variations depending on how it was blended. From that moment on, I became captivated by the charm of tea, which led me to create Hit the Tea.

Since this was your first venture, I imagine the preparation process wasn’t entirely smooth sailing.

Securing the tea ingredients was the biggest challenge. We source all the organic ingredients used in Hit the Tea’s Super Matcha directly from tea farms and various suppliers. There wasn’t much demand for organic powder at the time, and since the tea farms only produce very small quantities of matcha each year, we were only able to secure the ingredients after a long period of legwork and persistent requests.

Sinceyou usedsuchhigh-quality ingredients, I imagine you also worked hard to achieve a great flavor. However, taste is heavily influenced by personal preference, so there’s no absolute standard. What criteria did you use to determine a flavor that would be widely loved by the public?As you mentioned, there’s no absolute standard because preferences for sweetness and flavor vary so much from person to person. However, I didn’t want to create a product that would be polarizing or based solely on Hit the Tea’s own personal preferences. 

So, I focused on the fact that many matcha lovers are put off by the sugary sweetness of commercially available matcha lattes. That’s why, during the development process, I made it an absolute priority to use “stevia instead of sugar and only organic ingredients, no chemical additives,” and I strove to stick to this principle unwaveringly, no matter what temptations arose.

Rather than rushing the product to market, I wanted to ensure it underwent thorough testing—even if it meant more effort and cost. Through multiple tasting tests, gathering feedback, and making refinements, I believe we were able to find a flavor that the public would love.

Now, let’s talk about funding. How did you first learn about wadiz? 

Wadiz was already well-known as a funding platform for early adopters, so I was aware of it even before starting the company. However, since I assumed it was dominated by IT devices and novelty products, I didn’t easily imagine us participating as a maker. But as I kept watching with interest, I noticed that various projects in the food category were also gaining attention. By analyzing those cases, I discovered the potential, which led us to launch our campaign.

These days, many supporters are showing tremendous interest in food projects. Thanks to that, you gathered nearly 1,000 supporters within just five hours of launching.

Before launching the project, I think all of us on the team—and perhaps even those around us—had doubts and concerns, such as “Just how popular is tea, really?” that outweighed our expectations. That’s why, regardless of the project’s actual funding figures, we view this as a meaningful experience that allowed us to personally experience the inherent potential of tea.

With a consistent color scheme, a polished narrative, and the judicious use of GIFs, the Story flowed effortlessly—anyone who loves matcha would have been practically spellbound and compelled to engage in funding for the project. While there are likely many reasons for Hit the Tea’s success, what do you think was the most significant factor?

I think the biggest factor was how well we conveyed the Hit the Tea members’ genuine passion for matcha through the Story. Since the members—who love tea—planned, created, and promoted the project while communicating directly with the public through various online and offline activities, such as pop-up stores, tasting events, and café shows, I believe our sincerity and passion came across clearly. 

The funding amount is steadily increasing. How have you been promoting Hit the Tea’s project?

To be honest, we didn’t do anything particularly special in terms of online marketing, but while operating the pop-up store at Hyundai Department Store, we received many inquiries about our products after people actually tried our drinks. Those who tasted our tea then spread the word widely, and at the same time, we’ve received inquiries from our currently operating store at the Hyundai Department Store Pangyo branch, leading many of those customers to participate in our wadiz funding campaign as well.

You ran a campaign to launch the project soon. Did the campaign help with funding? If you could share how you promoted the project during the launching soon phase, it would be very helpful for aspiring makers!During the pre-launch period, we were able to predict demand for when the actual funding campaign launched. In particular, we timed our pre-launch to coincide with our participation in the Seoul Cafe Show. Instead of selling the product on-site, we offered tastings to encourage people to sign up for the launching soon. While many people were disappointed they couldn’t buy the product right away, we were able to collect more objective data, which allowed us to prepare the product even more thoroughly.

Many people struggle with writing their campaign stories—could you share some tips from Hit the Tea?

Rather than finding it difficult, I actually worked on this project marveling at the wadiz platform’s UI—which offers intuitive editing features and allows me, as the maker planning and writing this funding campaign, to access meaningful data in real time! 

In particular, since the page is responsive, I made frequent adjustments while writing the Story, taking into account the screen ratios of different devices—such as PCs, tablets, and mobile phones—and applying those changes as I went. While this might seem like a minor detail, I paid close attention to it because such details enhance the overall quality of the page and help supporters focus more on the Story.

Many makers expand into larger distribution channels after a successful wadiz funding campaign. Did Hit the Tea receive any good news during the funding campaign?

One of the best pieces of news is that, after seeing our wadiz funding campaign, we were contacted by an international media outlet, giving us the opportunity to proudly introduce Korean matcha. We’re still being cautious about confirming our distribution plans, but we look forward to sharing more exciting updates with you in the future!

What has Hit the Tea gained from the wadiz funding campaign?I think the biggest takeaway was being able to experience firsthand that there are far more tea lovers out there than we had anticipated! It was hard to predict just how many people would actually relate to and feel the same way about the issues we were facing. 

Through this funding campaign, we saw supporters who were concerned about the calories in sugar or who loved matcha but found it difficult to prepare actually leave comments expressing their empathy and cheer. This made us realize more than anything else that “we weren’t the only ones who felt this way.”

We’re curious about Hit the Tea’s future vision.

Moving forward, Hit the Tea is planning various activities not only to expand our Super Matcha product line but also to promote a fun and unique tea culture as tea evangelists. We also aim to widely promote overseas the fact that Korea produces many high-quality teas—especially top-grade organic matcha that rivals even Japanese matcha! 

Hit the Tea will never stop taking on new challenges and developing new products until the day comes when tea lovers around the world can all enjoy a cup of tea together.

I’d like to share a few words with aspiring crowdfunding makers who dream of becoming makers like Hit the Tea!

As someone who once felt overwhelmed as a prospective maker myself, I imagine makers in the F&B category, in particular, have many concerns, such as, “Will I be able to survive in such a competitive funding environment?” However, I believe that if your genuine passion for the product is effectively conveyed through your Story, supporters across all categories will recognize that sincerity. Isn’t the appeal of wadiz that anyone can become a great maker as long as they stay true to the essence they want to convey through their funding campaign?

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