Matthews co-founded Uncharted Play with Aslan Cahill to commercialize the Soccket and expand into other energy-generating consumer products.
On June 3, 2010, Jessica O. Matthews, together with cofounder Aslan Cahill, founded Uncharted Play, the company that would become the commercial vehicle for her Soccket invention and subsequent clean-energy products.
Founding a technology hardware company as a young Black woman fresh out of college was itself a notable barrier-breaking act; venture-backed hardware startups were (and remain) a space with very few women of color at the helm. Uncharted Play's mission centered on 'human-centered engineering' -- creating everyday products, like sports balls and jump ropes, that harvest kinetic energy from play and convert it into usable off-grid power for lighting and charging small devices in communities with unreliable electricity access.
The company's establishment marked Matthews' transition from student inventor to CEO and business leader. Over the following years, Uncharted Play grew its product line beyond the original Soccket to include the PULSE, an energy-generating jump rope, and later pivoted toward broader infrastructure and power-technology solutions. The founding date is a key milestone in Matthews' career trajectory, representing the formal beginning of her entrepreneurial identity and the establishment of a company that would earn her recognition from the White House, Fast Company, and numerous innovation and business publications in the years that followed.