When three Brazilian teenagers built a ticket resale platform on Bubble, they weren’t just solving a local problem — they were racing against Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. Less than a year later, BuyTicket has become Brazil’s top-ranked secondary ticket marketplace, achieving break-even in their first month and attracting 20,000 users in their first week — all with 100% organic growth and zero paid traffic.
From childhood friends to startup founders
Angelo Bimbato and Arthur Schneider Terra were just 17 years old when they spotted an opportunity in the summer of 2023. As Coldplay performed in Brazil, their Instagram stories filled with desperate posts: “Selling Coldplay tickets,” “Buying Coldplay tickets,” over and over.
“I remember Angelo saying, ‘Is there not a better way of doing this?’” Arthur recalls. “People were using Instagram with zero guarantees. These tickets were worth $500, $600, and it was so easy to scam someone.”
The problem was especially acute in Brazil, where online scams are rampant. The local version of a major international platform had just a 4 out of 10 rating on Brazil’s consumer review site, while BuyTicket would eventually achieve 9.5 — the highest of any ticket platform in Brazil.
Angelo, Arthur, and their fellow co-founder Gustavo Celso needed to build something better fast. Major concerts were coming to Brazil, and they had no funding for traditional development.
Building at breakneck speed
The team had discovered Bubble while building a previous startup. Despite having no programming skills, Angelo taught himself the platform and built their first marketplace entirely on his own.
“When I saw Bubble, I saw I could make an MVP here,” Angelo said. “If we needed to pay $10,000, $20,000, $50,000 for developers, we would need funding — and we didn’t have money.”
Starting in July 2023, they gave themselves two months to build a sophisticated marketplace before Taylor Swift arrived in Brazil. Their platform would include identity verification, payment escrow that holds funds until after events, and integrations with ticketing platforms to verify authenticity.
By September, they had launched a beta. By November — perfectly timed with the Eras Tour — they were ready for their public launch.
Breaking even from month one
BuyTicket’s launch strategy was brilliantly simple: partner with fan communities. They connected with Taylor Swift fan accounts, some with over 300,000 followers, to spread the word about their secure marketplace.
The results were explosive. In their first week alone, they gained 20,000 users and started trending on Brazilian Twitter. But the most remarkable achievement came at the end of month one: They had already broken even.
“We broke even in our first month,” Angelo says. “We did this bootstrapped, and our growth was 100% organic — we didn’t put any money into paid traffic.”
This early profitability — almost unheard of for marketplace startups — meant they could reinvest in the business immediately without seeking outside funding. It validated not just their business model, but their decision to build on Bubble, which kept their development costs minimal while allowing them to iterate rapidly based on user feedback.
Scaling to meet explosive demand
What started as three friends quickly grew into something bigger. After their viral launch, Brazil’s concert calendar exploded with Ed Sheeran, Travis Scott, The Weeknd, Bruno Mars, and Paul McCartney all performing within a two-month period.
“When you’re founding a startup, you have to move fast all the time. On Bubble, you can change features fast and learn in less time than a traditional platform.”
The platform’s growth was so rapid that by September 2024, they had upgraded to Bubble’s Enterprise plan to support their scaling needs. “The Enterprise plan gave us the infrastructure to handle our growth,” Arthur explains. “We were scaling so fast, and Enterprise was perfect for our needs at that stage.”
Today, BuyTicket has grown to over 50 employees, including a CTO who previously led technology at major Brazilian banks and a COO who’s managed operations for over 500 people. They’ve built this success entirely through organic growth — the company still hasn’t spent a dollar on paid traffic.
Building the future of ticket resales
Looking ahead, BuyTicket is targeting 10 times growth this year. Their mobile app is awaiting App Store approval, and they’re working to integrate with every major ticketing platform in Brazil.
The founders, now 20 (Arthur and Angelo) and 24 (Gustavo) years old, haven’t forgotten what got them here. When asked what advice they’d give to other young founders considering Bubble, Arthur doesn’t hesitate: “Go for it. If you’re young, I’m assuming you don’t have funding, so it’s always the best option.”
Gustavo adds: “When you’re founding a startup, you have to move fast all the time. On Bubble, you can change features fast and learn in less time than a traditional platform.”
For BuyTicket, that speed made all the difference. They went from idea to Brazil’s number one ticket marketplace in less than a year — proving that with the right platform and the right timing, even teenagers can disrupt an entire industry.
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