Solana Breakpoint Interview: DRiP Founder on Empowering Creators Across Southeast Asia
Vibhu Norby, Founder of Drip Labs, shared insights during an interview with BitPinas Editor-in-Chief Michael Mislos at the Solana Breakpoint conference in Singapore.
In Focus: DRiP is a Solana-based collectibles platform, enabling creators to tokenize their content and distribute it as NFTs.
- Recent news: Recently, DRiP released the open beta version of its app and it is now available for iOs and android.
- Last July, Drip Labs acquired Vault Music to become the de facto home for onchain music on Solana.
- Check out more interviews here at BitPinas.
In the following interview, edited for clarity, Norby discussed the platform’s role in enabling creators to share tokenized content as NFTs on Solana, highlighting its focus on mobile accessibility and fostering a social, non-speculative user experience.
Interview: Vibhu Norby on DRiP’s Expansion and Differentiation at Solana Breakpoint
Table of Contents
Standing out from competition
Michael Mislos, Editor-in-Chief, BitPinas: Thank you so much for having this interview with us at BitPinas. I would just like to know about DRiP House and DRiP, what your project solves from all the challenges we have in our space, and what makes you stand out from the competition today?
Vibhu Norby, Founder, Drip Labs: Sure, so DRiP House is an event here at Solana Breakpoint. The name of the company and the app is DRiP. The company is Drip Labs, and we’re a collectibles platform built on Solana.
We’re the number one most popular thing on the consumer side within Solana, and maybe within the entire collectibles space on-chain.
We help creators tokenize and distribute their content and media as NFTs. DRiP functions somewhere between an Instagram and a Patreon, but all the content is on-chain, so you have access to the financial aspects of crypto as well.
Is DRiP more like Instagram or OpenSea?
Mislos: Do you think you’re more closely aligned with Instagram or OpenSea?
Norby: We definitely are more about sharing and less about trading. You can’t trade collectibles on DRiP.
It’s really a place to meet creators, give back to them, and receive their content as gifts or rewards. That content just happens to be wrapped inside an NFT and is tradable.
Mislos: I see. So, you mentioned it’s not more about trading, but there is some form of it, like creative royalties?
Norby: Everything on-chain can be traded, but DRiP itself doesn’t have any exchange. You can’t sell, list, or buy. What creators put on the blockchain through DRiP are digital trading cards, music, video, art, and other types of content. DRiP is about helping creators find an audience and monetizing their work.
Mislos: Okay. I think I get it. On Instagram, artists sell their work, but the problem is provenance. (Provenance means proving that you are the true owner and/or original creator of a digital work.)
Norby: Yes, imagine Instagram, but instead of consuming a feed of content, you’re collecting it. You’re collecting little memories from creators and bits of their lives and work.
Acquisition of Vault Music
Mislos: I think you had an acquisition related to Vault Music. Can you tell me more about that?
Norby: Vault Music was a Solana app focused on helping musicians sell their music as NFTs. We acquired them a couple of months ago. DRiP is now focused heavily on music, and we’ve been onboarding some of the greatest up-and-coming musicians from all over the globe.
Vault did a great job of onboarding musicians, and we’ve transitioned many of them over to DRiP.
On being mobile-friendly
Mislos: DRiP has an iPhone and Android app. Many in this space don’t have mobile apps and rely on desktop browsers. How important do you think mobile is for projects?
Norby: We’re announcing tomorrow that we’re putting out the open beta of DRiP for iPhone and Android. A big theme at Solana Breakpoint is mobile. Most people in the world, especially in places like the Philippines and Southeast Asia, only use their phones to access the internet. It’s madness that crypto is so desktop-focused. Every app should be thinking about mobile right now.
SEA and Philippine partnerships
Mislos: Now that you’re here at Solana Breakpoint, what kind of partnerships are you looking to form in Southeast Asia, and possibly in the Philippines?
Norby: DRiP has a strong presence in Southeast Asia, with creators from Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Japan, and more. This region is our creative home, and many of our creators make a full-time living on DRiP.
DRiP in the Philippines
Norby: In the Philippines, we don’t have many creators yet, which is a mistake, given the immense talent there. With organizations like Superteam Philippines helping to build country markets for apps, we’ll be doing a lot more in the region soon.
Mislos: Can you tell me more about your users in the Philippines?
Norby: Yes, I wanted to share about one of our brand-new creators. Her name is Harley, and she’s the founder of a media company called Web3 Reality.
She makes amazing crypto educational videos, teaching people how to use the chain, how to access apps, specifically on Solana, but also exploring other ecosystems. You can subscribe to her on DRiP for free at https://drip.haus/web3ality. Definitely check her out.
Balance between speculation and users
Mislos: You mentioned users and bots in your panel talk earlier. What’s the balance between speculation and users in your project?
Norby: We’re one of the few top apps on Solana that doesn’t have a token, nor do we plan to.
For consumer products, you need high-quality data and quick iteration. Speculation can lead you astray. DRiP is a commerce app focused on micropayments to creators. Our community is anti-speculative, and if you’re using DRiP expecting a token, you’re wasting your time.
Mislos: You also mentioned Telegram apps and the presence of bots. How does that impact user growth?
Norby: There’s been this idle-clicking trend for Telegram apps, some of which have grown very large. However, none of those apps have proven to grow on-chain usage. While bots are involved, real people are also engaging, often under the misconception that clicking will lead to free money.
But that’s not sustainable—real work is required.
Future updates
Mislos: Any updates or future developments your users should be excited about?
Norby: This morning, I talked about why we collect. The social layer of crypto—Twitter, the debates, memes, etc.—is more interesting than what happens on-chain. DRiP is looking to bring more of that social aspect into the product experience itself, making the focus less about collectibles and more about the people behind them. Look out for social features coming in the next two quarters.
You can listen to the clip above. Keep reading BitPinas for interviews with the people who move the crypto industry in forward.
This article is published on BitPinas: Solana Breakpoint Interview: DRiP Founder on Empowering Creators Across Southeast Asia
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