I first met Bastian, founder and CEO of Jovoto, almost one year ago, when I was doing research for my Berlin School thesis. Crowdsourcing for the creative industries was just gaining momentum and through my research work, I was finding similar looking companies such as Ideabounty, Crowdspring, 99designs, etc.

But after my first conversation with Bastian, I realized Jovoto was doing something quite different. They had found a new way to work with creatives based on a creative driven approach which emphasized interaction and ownership of one’s work. First I entered a contest and then convinced one of Mutopo’s clients to try it out. After a few months, it was clear that not only did the vision make sense, but the community was producing fantastic results through an unusual collaborative-competitive process of responding to client briefs.

We love what the community is doing, so when the opportunity came to invest in Jovoto, we immediately said yes – we’re glad to finally make it official.