Thank HN: You helped save 33k lives
For nearly a year, this community drove so much traffic that we couldn’t list patients fast enough. Then pg saw us on HN, wrote us our first big check, and accepted us as the first YC nonprofit (W13). The next few years were a whirlwind.
I was a young, naive founder with just enough experience to know I wanted Watsi to be more efficient, transparent, and innovative than most nonprofits. We spent 24/7 talking to users and coding. We did things that don’t scale. We tried our best to be walking, talking pg essays.
Over the years we learned that product/market fit is different for nonprofits. Not many people wake up and think, "I'd love to donate to a nonprofit today" with the same oomph that they think, "I'd love a coffee" or "I'd like to make more money."
No matter how much effort we put into fundraising, donations grew linearly, while requests for care grew exponentially. I felt caught in the middle. After investing everything I had, I eventually burned out and transitioned to the board.
I made a classic founder mistake and intertwined my self-worth with Watsi's success. I believed that if I could somehow help every patient, I was a good person, but if I let down some patients, which became inevitable, I was a bad person.
This was exacerbated by seeing our for-profit YC batch mates raise massive rounds. I felt like a failure for not scaling Watsi faster, but eventually we accepted reality and set Watsi on more of a slow, steady, and sustainable trajectory.
Now that I have perspective, I'm incredibly proud of what the org has accomplished and grateful to everyone who has done a tour of duty to support us. Watsi donors have donated over $20M to fund 33,241 surgeries, and we have a good shot of helping patients for a long time to come.
In a world of fast growth and fast crashes, here's a huge thank you to the HN users who have stuck by Watsi, or any other important cause, even when it's not on the front page. I believe it embodies the best of humanity. Thanks HN!
66 comments
[ 4.8 ms ] story [ 62.3 ms ] threadShow HN - We just built a site that saves lives - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4424081 - Aug 2012 (183 comments)
... followed by the other threads I could find (in forward order for a change):
Meet Watsi, Y Combinator's First Nonprofit - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5117385 - Jan 2013 (168 comments)
The Story of Bageshwori, Watsi's First Patient - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5299910 - Feb 2013 (63 comments)
Watsi (YC W13) and the Future of Patronage - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5445014 - March 2013 (11 comments)
Catching up with Watsi: Y Combinator’s first non-profit graduate - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5508064 - April 2013 (20 comments)
PG chooses healthcare non-profit Watsi as his first board seat - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5579353 - April 2013 (31 comments)
Watsi (YC W13) raises $1.2M first-of-its-kind 'philanthropic seed round' - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6103506 - July 2013 (94 comments)
Watsi Lands $1.5M Donation From Humble Bundle - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6916609 - Dec 2013 (20 comments)
A dose of perspective - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7549245 - April 2014 (38 comments)
Stories from our first two years - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8286476 - Sept 2014 (34 comments)
Universal Fund - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8563558 - Nov 2014 (29 comments)
Saying Yes - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9428403 - April 2015 (13 comments)
Watsi launches universal health coverage, funded by YC Research - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15165111 - Sept 2017 (281 comments)
How we built Watsi Coverage without stable electricity, WiFi, or email - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16398220 - Feb 2018 (25 comments)
Thanks for doing what you do and for sharing your story!
One thing I always thought of converging businesses with helping people in need.
I know a lot of people think about this in a negative way in charity circles but I’d rather like to see companies sponsor donate in return of some sort visibility.
Somehow I always thought that would be a good fit for an organization such as yours. (I did donate through you guys previously, thanks for facilitating that).
I’ve been a monthly donor since ~the beginning when I was just an undergraduate, and I still read the stories and emails I receive. I’m glad that you opted for the steady growth path, and that you’ve made it a sustainable thing.
If you'd like to see an example of what Watsi's about, check out Philip's profile: https://watsi.org/profile/2286cb03a5bd-philip
Also, fun fact: 619 of our current "Universal Fund" monthly donors first made a donation 10 or more years ago, and I'm pretty sure many of those were/are Hacker News readers.
If you're interested, see https://watsi.org/universal-fund
Congratulations to you and all the work that you've done and the impact that you've had. That's pretty cool and something I think many of us aspire to. Cheers Chase!
Grateful for your work, and sticking it out serving human beings while others hustle to secure the bag. There's nothing wrong with securing the bag, of course, but it just makes work like this even more impressive to me. Kudos!
Watsi has this Impact page where you can see every person you've helped — their photo, their story, the country. I visit it more often than I'd like to admit.
I have been building a startup since the last couple of years and as we all know it is relentless. There are weeks where nothing seems to work, where you question every decision. In those moments, pulling up that page and seeing real people whose lives changed because of a few dollars a month — it resets something. It reminds me why building things that matter is worth the grind.
Thank you to everyone at Watsi for creating something that gives back to donors just as much as it gives to patients.
Much more, 33,241.
Lots of ways to keep score and count returns to investors.