Forbes Brasil covered the launch of MeuPatrocínio in January 2016, when the platform was just two months old and had 13,000 members. Jennifer Lobo, founder and CEO, explained to the magazine that her motivation came from hearing friends complain about their experiences on regular dating sites. “Everyone knows that men earn more than women,” she told Forbes.
MeuPatrocínio was the first platform to bring the concept of sugar dating to Brazil. At the time, the model was common in the United States but virtually unknown in the country. Jennifer, an American of Brazilian descent, spotted the opportunity when she moved to Brazil.
How it all started
The platform took five months to develop with personal investment and funding from friends and family. From the beginning, the idea was to put financial expectations on the table before any date. Men disclose their income and assets. Women share the lifestyle they expect. According to Jennifer, the goal was to “remove the taboo of finances from relationships.”
In 2016, sugar daddies paid R$ 169 per month to access the platform. Sugar babies had free access. The ratio was four women for every man. Today, MeuPatrocínio has over 18 million users and is the largest sugar dating platform in Brazil.
From 13,000 to 18 million
Forbes’ coverage in its Business and Columns section was an important validation of the model. Ten years later, sugar dating is no longer taboo and has become part of the modern dating vocabulary in Brazil. The platform has grown over 1,300 times since the original article.
For those who want to learn about the model Forbes described in 2016, MeuPatrocínio explains everything on the How It Works page. You can also learn what it means to be a sugar baby and what a sugar mommy is, a category the platform launched months after the article was published.
Source: Forbes Brasil
