Success story - Interview with Diego Reeber, co-founder of Catarse.ME, Brazil's first crowdfunding website

"In 2011, three of my friends and I came up with the idea of launching a crowdfunding website. While this concept was developing around the world, it didn't yet exist in Brazil. One of the co-founders is a musician and tango dancer, I myself am a poet in my spare time, and the four of us have a strong feeling for artists who, in Brazil, often find it difficult to break through because of a lack of support. But we've had to adapt our site to the needs and expectations of Brazilians, in particular by offering different means of payment, because the use of bank cards online is still less widespread here than elsewhere. The funny thing is that, since our launch in 2011, around fifty sites similar to ours have been launched - stimulating competition that we're very pleased about. We think it's essential to provide as much information as possible about this new way of supporting the arts. We owe our success to the high-profile artists who support us and use our services to launch some of their projects. Despite the crisis, people are still willing to help. That's why we intend to step up the pace this year, in particular by opening up the site to social causes. So we've gone from four in 2011 to 18. We're even going to have to take on new staff this year. And maybe one day we'll have to move to Sao Paulo's new Digital Downtown, where most of the start-ups are concentrated.