Tribal Societe Offers a Global Online Bazaar

During NY Entrepreneurship Week, I was in New Work City and two women came into New Work City (our coworking space) looking for Jeevan Padiyar (who is part of NYCENT) to confirm their business plan had gotten submitted. In the course of helping them resolve this issue, I learned about their company and efforts – and was intrigued by the two women, Nicole Basabe and Alma Sehovic, and their incredible energy. If every entrepreneur in NY had these ladies smarts and drive, I am certain NY Tech and Entrepreneurship will life NYC to new heights.

As Nicole told me, Tribal Societe is “a online global bazaar whose concept is as fashion forward and green as the company is socially responsible and its products are a la mode”. What I took from the “pitch” was that TS is a portal for creating another channel for entrepreneurs in other lands (in this case Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Brazil, South Africa to name a few) deliver natural accessory products to the US and international market.

Nicole, who was born in Manhattan, but raised in Ecuador and Miami, got an early start at entrepreneurship – starting and successfully growing her first trading company at age of 20. After spending 8 years on her business, she took someones “advice” and decided to get an MBA at NYU Stern, thinking that the financial sector was where it was at.

At Stern, Nicole met Alma, a former banker who was looking to become an entrepreneur. As the two of them spoke, Alma convinced Nicole to return to her entrepreneurial roots and launch TS.

What makes TS different from something like Etsy?

Nicole talked about her passion for the local cultures in Ecuador. With her affection and strengths in fashion and marketing, she realized that while there was an amazing source of beautiful artisan work in Ecuador, there was an appalling lack of access and distribution channels for Ecuadorians to the US and international markets. One of the stories she told me was about tagua, a wood-like material that feels more like ivory than wood, and used to be what buttons were made out of until plastic substitutes made them “expensive”. Now, with logistics and telecoms, the price of tagua has come down – and the products made from it are absolutely gorgeous.

Additionally, Nicole and Alma feature various artisans and artists on their site and promote/showcase these products through the web and through retail merchandising as they move forward. In addition, Tribal Societé also donates a portion of its proceeds to the Global Fund for Women, keeping with their mission of giving back to the communities of the developing world.

The site, launched about 60 days ago, has already turned a profit and demand is beginning to grow.

Why are you telling us about them?

Yes, there is no major technology underlying their business model (heck, all the products are handmade by artisans in developing countries!) and the e-commerce model is nothing new. But, the energy I saw from the two women and the drive they have made me decide that an article on them was worth time to point them out and allow for others to discover.

Disclaimer: I met with TS to see how I could help them, and have taken no remuneration – aside from their gift bag at their launch event.