Thomas Athey
MESA – MICRO Spring 2024
Published September 11, 2024
As part of our ‘Meet Our Founders’ series today, we introduce Thomas Athey, Co-CEO and CFO of MESA based in Davidson, NC. MESA is rights management for music creators. MESA streamlines collaborative workflows, uses the blockchain to timestamp contributions, and creates legal contracts with the help of AI.
Q: What problem are you trying to solve and what influenced you to start your company?
A: Technology has democratized music creation and distribution making record labels less valuable than they’ve been in the past. This has many benefits, but record labels provide crucial administrative capabilities for artists. Without these administrative capabilities artists often fail to capture the value that they’ve created. 67% of artists don’t have an established process for discussing and establishing ownership splits; 69% of artists have lost money due to missing out on rightful ownership or credit in a song.
My co founder comes from 20 years in the music industry and saw this issue first hand.
Q: What are you most excited about right now? What keeps you up at night?
A: Blockchain technology disrupting the music industry. Blockchain tech will not only provide new monetization models for artists but also improve the portability of money and data which is a huge issue for the music industry.
Q: What have you enjoyed most about starting your own company?
A: I think there are very few other jobs that push you to be your absolute best in so many aspects. You must always be learning, you must execute day in and day out, you must be creative and innovative, you must be a leader, you must be resilient.
Q: What is one thing you wish you understood about entrepreneurship before you ever got started?
A: The freedom you get is not that of “working your own hours”. It’s the freedom of dictating your own path. You will definitely work more than a 9-5!
While visiting Charlotte, Thomas recommends:
- I just moved to Charlotte so I am still learning the city!
Support MESA and Thomas by:
- We would love to connect with any music industry professionals and anyone in the blockchain space.
