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Meet Watsi, Y Combinator's First Nonprofit

ycombinator.com

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Re: Meet Watsi, Y Combinator's First Nonprofit

#71

Post by corin_ »

chaseadam17 wrote: post #69
corin_ wrote: post #47

I'm personally not a fan of the concept of donating to help a specific person, rather than a cause, but am unsure whether I'm a rare exception or whether many people have the same view as me - hopefully a few replies could help answer this? When I say not a fan of the concept, I absolutely don't mean I disapprove. I don't have any problem with organisations raising money this way, nor with people choosing to donate m…

Great point. It's all about personal opinion. There are currently tons of organizations that enable people to fund a cause, but nearly none that let you fund something as specific as an individual treatment. We're providing a new, more direct and transparent, alternative. Oftentimes there is institutional support for specific "mainstream" conditions (e.g. HIV, TB, etc.) and as a result, some patients who are in uniqu…

I wonder if everyone who has come across both options (broad vs. specific) choses one and sticks with that, or whether some people like both and split their donations?

While you'd obviously always prefer to expand the pie rather than just take a piece, there's nothing wrong with the latter - like you said, your approach can help people who slip through the gaps, so even if the pie doesn't expand, your taking a piece of it can still be a good thing.

Keep up the good work.

Re: Meet Watsi, Y Combinator's First Nonprofit

#72

Post by dasht »

Paul Graham, or anyone "in the know", may we please hear a bit about what the equivalent of a term sheet looks like for a Y Combinator non-profit investment? Is Y Combinator giving a grant? Is Watsi issuing debt to Y Combinator? What's the financing model here?

Re: Meet Watsi, Y Combinator's First Nonprofit

#74

Post by xfax »

Really cool concept, makes donating very compelling. In fact, I just donated to help fund Esther's treatment.

An idea to get more people to give more - make it competitive. For example, it'll be cool if I could create a group for my school and then get people to 'tag' their donations with the group ID. Would love to see which school can get the most donations!

Re: Meet Watsi, Y Combinator's First Nonprofit

#75

Post by st0p »

I just donated some euro's, and I truely believe those euro's will be well spend. But it feels wierd (and somehow wrong) to crowdfund someone's health. I'm not questioning watsi, they are in it for the right reasons. But is crowdfunding something important as health for poor people the solution?

I think everyone is trying to do good here, but nobody is solving the real problems.

Re: Meet Watsi, Y Combinator's First Nonprofit

#76

Post by diziet »

kt9 wrote: post #12
fghh45sdfhr3 wrote: post #9

How about a kick starter like nonprofit for social funding of scientific and medical research?

Ask and you shall receive: https://www.microryza.com/

These guys have a lot of potential, especially the more researchers they get on board.

Re: Meet Watsi, Y Combinator's First Nonprofit

#77

Post by tinco »

philwelch wrote: post #65
loceng wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"guaranteed medical care" - of what quality, with what results? And the value of medical care being covered is that it doesn't destroy the rest of your life. It's actually kind of pointless to help someone just get to the point of surviving, and then leave them to fend for themself.

To me, it's plainly obvious that people in those other countries need our help more than people in the United States. What other concern is there? "I'd like to help people in MY country" is just a vaguely nationalistic bigotry.

It is not so obvious. There's a lot of suffering going on in your country too.

Charity comes from the heart, and where you should direct your love is your own choice. If you feel the people in your country are closer to you, there's no shame in helping them before others. We are human after all.

Re: Meet Watsi, Y Combinator's First Nonprofit

#78

Post by cperciva »

tptacek wrote: post #66
dmoney wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, the really cool part is this: "At Watsi, 100% of your donations directly fund medical treatments. Watsi.org is separately funded. They pay all their operational costs from their own funding, and none from your donations. They even eat the credit card processing fees." It doesn't sound (as) cool me if the founders can only do this until they go broke. It looks like they do accept direct donations to fund their ope…

HN is bad at subtext, so let me offer you a decoder ring on the subtext of the 'pg story we're commenting on: YC is working on addressing the problem of funding Watsi's overhead. The point of the service is that end-users don't fund Watsi, they fund patients. In the same sense as you need to take it sort of on faith that Airbnb can bootstrap and maintain a two-sided market for short-term lodging, you should probably…

Who cares about the Watsi founders? Go help the girl!

I think the point is not that people particularly care about the Watsi founders; but rather, that they care about the hundreds of thousands of other girls whom Watsi won't be able to help if Watsi and/or its founders go bankrupt because they lack a sustainable funding model.

Re: Meet Watsi, Y Combinator's First Nonprofit

#79

Post by FrojoS »

zopticity wrote: post #73

Wow, I'm really taken away the fact that you're using PayPal. First of all, you're in YC, where's the brotherly support of using other YC companies? You got WePay and Stripe, and you're not using either.

One step after the other. I just donated, despite ever having used PayPal before, and with a non-american credit card. And - it worked within a few minutes. I have my objections to PayPal, too, and would like to see alternatives but that doesn't have to be the focus right now.

Re: Meet Watsi, Y Combinator's First Nonprofit

#80

Post by callmeed »

I'm curious if there's a reason Watsi couldn't or shouldn't be a for-profit company?

I like the fact they're not taking a transaction fee. But, it seems to me that they're also a benefit to healthcare providers, insurance companies, and big pharma (after all, the money raised is going to end up in their pockets). Aren't there ways Watsi could make money from these companies?

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