In 2020, Mississippi musician-turned-founder Seth Power launched Tribly to help musicians build direct relationships with their fans, bypassing the algorithms that dominate today’s music marketing. While early iterations of the product leaned into blockchain and NFTs during the crypto boom, a market crash pushed the company to rethink its foundation. That push resulted in a bold pivot from Web3 to a more accessible SaaS platform—and it’s paying off.
By 2023, Tribly had rebuilt its technology stack, maintaining its core mission but shedding the crypto layer. The new platform focused on what Power calls “early access channels”—giving artists a simple tool to offer fans early access to unreleased music in exchange for valuable first-party data like email addresses or phone numbers. This direct-to-fan approach struck a chord. Within months, hundreds of artists joined each week, confirming a strong product-market fit and prompting a $500,000 seed round to accelerate growth.
That round raised Tribly’s total to over $1 million, including nearly $400,000 in funding from the InvestMS program run by Innovate Mississippi. Power credits Innovate Mississippi and its partners as essential to Tribly’s success. “Without that support mechanism, we probably wouldn’t be here,” he said. “They were the first people I pitched this to, and they helped us navigate the early stages—connecting us with angel investors, matching funds, and just giving us the space to learn from our early missteps.”
Today, Tribly’s platform empowers artists to bypass the algorithms that drive social media and streaming services. Instead of asking fans to “like and follow,” artists can use Tribly to offer exclusive early access to music in exchange for concrete actions—like pre-saving a soon-to-release song, providing contact info, and more. The company has created a frictionless toolset called “swaps” to automate this value exchange, and plans this year to roll out additional actions, embeddable widgets and monetization options to help artists sell directly to fans.
While some might compare Tribly to platforms like Patreon, Power quickly notes the difference.
“We’re not building paywalled communities. Our tools are free for fans and designed to strengthen the middle of the funnel,” he explained. “In fact, we’re partnering with platforms like Patreon—feeding them better-qualified, higher-converting audiences.”
The result is a growth engine built on simplicity, artist empowerment, and creator ownership. It’s what Power calls the modern-day evolution of a band’s mailing list.
Based in Brandon, Miss., Tribly is proudly a part of the state’s growing innovation economy. “Mississippi is often overlooked as a tech hub, but that’s changing,” said Power. “We have the talent and culture, and now we’re building the infrastructure. I’m excited to keep growing here and help lift up other founders just starting.”
With revenue streams coming online and user growth accelerating, Tribly is well-positioned for a breakout year, thanks to an innovative pivot—and a strong ecosystem supporting that move.
