[HN Gopher] Thank HN: You helped save 33k lives
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Thank HN: You helped save 33k lives
13 years ago, we launched Watsi.org with a Show HN [1]. 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! [1]
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4424081
Author : chaseadam17
Score : 1081 points
Date : 2026-02-17 17:06 UTC (1 days ago)
| dang wrote:
| Nice to hear from Watsi after all this time! Here's the original
| Show HN Chase linked to:
|
| _Show 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)
| aftergibson wrote:
| You should be unbelievably proud of what you've achieved, and
| it's lovely to be reminded of the amazing things people can
| accomplish amongst the backdrop of almost deafeningly negative
| sentiment going around.
|
| Thanks for doing what you do and for sharing your story!
| chaseadam17 wrote:
| Thank you :) Watsi is lucky to have an incredible team and
| medical partners, who work in some of the most challenging
| environments to provide care to patients.
| sskates wrote:
| Chase- thank you for what you've done in creating Watsi to impact
| 33,000 lives! It also made me believe in the potential for non
| profits to create a positive impact again.
| cies wrote:
| This is my fav charity option. It's so hard some times to know
| where you can do maximum good with your money: Watsi might well
| be it.
| watsi wrote:
| So awesome to hear - thank you! Hoping others will join in on
| watsi.org to help too. We want giving to be a bigger and more
| meaningful part of our day to day lives and to do this, it
| helps to always know and trust the impact you are making.
| BloondAndDoom wrote:
| You did a great thing! Thank you.
|
| 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).
| nyddle wrote:
| That's incredible. Why even compare your startup to for-profits,
| while you _actually_ make world a better place?
| teekert wrote:
| Why would for profits not make the world a better place?
|
| For-profit does not mean "shareholders and ROI over user" or
| something. You can do for-profit and not enshtfy and make the
| world better. That's my goal at least.
| TimorousBestie wrote:
| > For-profit does not mean "shareholders and ROI over user"
| or something.
|
| It's not _definitionally_ true, but it happens often enough
| that there's no denying a clear trend.
| i7l wrote:
| If profit is the objective, it will turn into growth-at-all-
| costs machine because that's how the mathematics works.
|
| If, however, the objective is, say, improve as many lives as
| possible with the constraint of being profitable, it's
| definitely possible to do good. You just have to make sure
| you understand what level of profitability is sufficient,
| which is rare but doable.
| rlonn wrote:
| The comment is a bit misguided: the operations Watsi helps
| perform would not have been possible without for-profit
| companies and for-profit innovators building the
| infrastructure of modern medicine. It's not one or the other:
| both for-profits and non-profits make the world a better
| place and I think they complement eachother. Sure, there are
| for-profits that do NOT make the world a better place, just
| like there are non-profits that fail in their mission to do
| good things. They just typically fail to do good things for
| different reasons.
| tacone wrote:
| Value makes the world a better place, not profits per-se.
| Sometimes the two things coincide, sometimes they don't.
| josuepeq wrote:
| You're sentiment is correct, but I also think that most
| Certified B Corporations arguably make the world a better
| place.
| jbarrow wrote:
| Watsi is incredibly inspiring!
|
| 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.
| chaseadam17 wrote:
| That's incredible. Monthly donors are Watsi's lifeblood - it is
| so impactful to be able to bet on receiving a certain amount
| each month - thank you!
| watsi wrote:
| Your support every month in our Universal Fund means the world
| to us! This consistency and reliability helps us plan ahead,
| show up faster for patients in need, and grow to reach new
| hospitals and communities.
| ohyoutravel wrote:
| No problem! I would absolutely help again. This is an important
| cause that is near to my heart. Speaking for the HN community: we
| are always happy to help!
| photon_lines wrote:
| Thank you Chase -- I was an early Watsi supporter (and still am
| actually) but you just reminded me I need to donate soon haha :)
| Either way fantastic work and thank you!
| chaseadam17 wrote:
| Thank you so much!
| ag8 wrote:
| Watsi seems to be doing great work, but the title--"you helped
| save 33k lives"--reads as misleading to me. I guess "helped"
| could be doing a lot of heavy lifting here, but I would be
| incredibly surprised if the counterfactual number of lives saved
| was more than 3000. (But don't let this dissuade you from
| donating; concretely improving someone's life is totally a
| worthwhile goal, and Watsi seems very good at effecting this)
| danparsonson wrote:
| You must be fun at parties ;-)
| ag8 wrote:
| Lol, I just care a lot about saving as many lives as I can;
| the most effective charities I've been able to find good
| evidence on save one life for $6-8k. If Watsi had a credible
| claim at being able to save lives 10x cheaper I would
| redirect my entire donation budget to them!
|
| That said, once again, Watsi is great. I really appreciate
| all the hard work they've put into making this happen--this
| is orders of magnitude more impressive and impactful than
| most projects I've ever seen!
| danparsonson wrote:
| Ah well then, please forgive my snark - you're right of
| course; I misread your intent with your original comment.
| whizzter wrote:
| There was a link posted here that showed some hernia
| surgery in Malawi costing 400$ , some others listed via
| links at 160$ to 1000$.
|
| I honestly have no idea about healthcare costs in countries
| like that, but assuming the main cost is a surgeon, the
| reported median salary for surgeons in Sweden is between
| 110-150k usd yearly. Assuming 200 working days a year and
| available for something like 4 surgeries a day on average
| that goes to about 137 usd per surgery. Adjust for Malawi
| being a far cheaper country but addition of more staff and
| a cost of 400$ for a relatively minor surgery doesn't seem
| too far fetched if there isn't middlemen taking a cut
| (actually googling it seems like middlemen can take a
| fairly large cut even with those costs).
| wizzwizz4 wrote:
| "Counterfactual number of lives saved" is not the normal sense
| of the phrase "save a life". By that logic, each person's life
| can only be saved once, which is not how people normally use
| the phrase.
|
| Your definition may be useful for cold hard utilitarian
| calculus, of the sort that hospital directors need to do if
| they've run out of fundraising opportunities. However,
| "effective altruism" - which I suspect you're alluding to here
| - isn't actually an efficient way to save lives, the way it's
| usually practised (ignoring second-order effects, and
| everything that doesn't fit on a spreadsheet).
| ag8 wrote:
| You're right; I should've been more precise. However, we have
| tools for dealing with this--that's what quality-adjusted
| life-years are for! I don't contest that surgeries often
| significantly increase QALYs, and may do so pretty cost-
| effectively.
| kalvin wrote:
| Yes they are surprisingly cost-effective in the countries
| Watsi operates in, which isn't intuitive for those of us
| who live in places where surgeries are very expensive.
|
| "A review across 23 LMICs found that low-complexity
| surgeries (e.g., appendectomy, hernia repair) cost only
| about ~$17 per DALY, whereas even complex procedures were
| often cost-effective" (Most surgeries on Watsi are low-
| complexity)
|
| "Reports from the WHO and Lancet Commission consistently
| emphasize that investing in surgical capacity has high
| value, in many cases, more than essential drugs or vaccines
| on a per-DALY basis"
|
| Both quotes from: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186
| /s12893-025-03204-0
| yottamus wrote:
| I basically only trust GiveWell on global aid, have you been
| evaluated by them?
| watsi wrote:
| We'd love to have GiveWell evaluate Watsi. They often recommend
| global health interventions because every dollar goes
| incredibly far in saving lives. In the meantime, here's what a
| few (independent) experts have said about investing in access
| to surgery:
|
| * A review across 23 LMICs found that low-complexity surgeries
| (e.g., appendectomy, hernia repair) cost as little as $17 per
| Disability-Adjusted Life Year (DALY) averted (Mengistie et al.,
| 2025). Overall, 89% of surgical procedures studied were cost-
| effective, and 76% were "very cost-effective" based on GDP
| thresholds (Ifeanyichi et al., 2024). * Essential surgery often
| achieves costs per DALY well below standard willingness-to-pay
| thresholds and can be more valuable than essential drugs or
| vaccines on a per-DALY basis (Mengistie et al., 2025). Low-
| complexity surgical interventions compare favorably to--and are
| sometimes more cost-effective than--interventions such as HIV
| antiretroviral therapy, family planning, and TB vaccinations
| (Ifeanyichi et al., 2024).
| tristor wrote:
| Incredible, I didn't know about Watsi, but I am glad that I do
| now. Direct support for something as important as healthcare
| seems to be one of the best ways to deploy donations to
| positively impact the world. Thank you for creating this!
| kalvin wrote:
| Thank YOU Chase :) (I work at Watsi)
|
| 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
| maerF0x0 wrote:
| I've long played around with the thought of what would happen
| if someone started something like the universal-fund you
| mentioned, but had it snowball like a sovereign fund? (ie,
| instead of spending the in flow, invest it and only spend the
| profits from the investments, for example) ...
|
| Particularly for basic needs like housing,food,clothes... Like
| what if instead of giving a charity $100 we created 41c per
| month? of UBI (roughly the cashflow from investing that same
| $100). Yes it would seem too little today, but in time it would
| be massive because it would never dissipate.
|
| IDK, just my musing while claude takes, err does, my job.
| MagicMoonlight wrote:
| Plenty of those have existed, but in the end they always get
| stolen and given to the dogs trust.
|
| There's nothing people hate more than lasting charitable
| foundations. They take them to court so that they can crack
| them open and wank away the entire fund in 6 months.
|
| There was one which was supposed to pay off the entire
| national debt. They cracked and spaffed it.
|
| Another was supposed to end piracy. Cracked and spaffed.
|
| You could save a million people a year, but that won't save
| you from being cracked and spaffed. They're already rubbing
| their trotters at the thought.
| pjc50 wrote:
| This sounds like a strange set of examples that may have
| been scams from the start. Can you name them?
|
| The UK is full of long lasting charitable foundations. Many
| attached to schools and universities, but the highest
| profile example is probably the National Trust and its
| collection of historic buildings.
| toyg wrote:
| A lot of those charities are precisely in the process of
| being "cracked open", or have been captured by small
| groups who manage them as their personal fiefdom. The
| level of everyday corruption in this country is
| incredible.
| embedding-shape wrote:
| > The level of everyday corruption in this country is
| incredible.
|
| Sounds like the solution is to stop trying to make
| something like that work in an environment (country)
| which sounds setup to prevent those sort of efforts.
| There are lots of countries out there, some are surely a
| better fit.
| pjc50 wrote:
| It's pretty hard to move the National Trust for England
| preserving England's historic buildings to a different
| country. Sometimes things are local.
| pjc50 wrote:
| > captured by small groups who manage them as their
| personal fiefdom
|
| Isn't that intrinsic to what a charity _is_? They don 't
| have customers, they're not trusts set up on behalf of
| someone else specific, they're a tax exemption with an
| ideological mission.
|
| (still short on named examples in this subthread)
| some_random wrote:
| The key there is "ideological mission", which is
| immediately abandoned in all but name in favor of
| slinging money around the non-profit industrial complex.
|
| Edit: A great example that comes to mind for me is
| Wikimedia. They beg for money every year telling you that
| it's to keep Wikipedia running, but not only do they have
| enough money to keep running for years, not only is
| running Wikipedia not their main expense, but they
| redonate some of that money to other nonprofits. Even if
| you agree with the missions of those other nonprofits
| (which are not in line at all with the mission of
| Wikimedia), you're trusting that an organization that
| already lied to you about where the money is going is
| making good choices with that money.
| chaseadam17 wrote:
| Love the idea and have long wanted something like this to
| exist. One other twist is you could let ppl vote on where to
| donate the profits.
| BobaFloutist wrote:
| That's called a foundation, they exist.
| luplex wrote:
| What you need to consider is that you also get compounding
| returns by treating a patient. They can now be more
| productive and contribute to their local economy. They might
| plausibly have a higher return rate (in wellbeing terms) than
| your alternative investment into stocks.
| daniel_reetz wrote:
| Precisely. Things become clear when we think of benefits
| for people instead of monetary terms.
| rsynnott wrote:
| Some nonprofits do run largely off endowments.
|
| One big issue is that it's a PR problem; most people don't
| really understand it. They'll look at the non-profit and say
| "why does that need to raise money, it's rich". You saw this
| a lot with Harvard in Trump's recent funding war with it,
| say.
| skeeter2020 wrote:
| And the biggest expense of the most successful charities is
| fund raising. It's a viscous cycle and when Watsi came
| along they showed maybe an alternative path.
| doctoboggan wrote:
| I remember Watsi being posted years ago. I was a recent
| graduate then and didn't really have the funds but I do now so
| I just donated to Philip's cause! Thank you!
| kalvin wrote:
| Thank you so much! Here's another patient link for other
| readers, since you fully funded Philip :P
|
| Paw: https://watsi.org/profile/9dae70d8f758-paw
| frankdenbow wrote:
| Great work Chase! I remember meeting you back in the shared
| office with Teespring. You are right, we are not our startups,
| but there is a lot to be proud of, an impact is always the goal,
| for profit or non. Onward!
| chaseadam17 wrote:
| The old Teespring office, those were the days!
| yakshaving wrote:
| I don't comment on Hacker News very much -- in fact, extremely
| rarely, but I do remember this more than a decade ago and its
| awesome that you've stuck with this for this long.
|
| 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!
| Karupan wrote:
| Thank you for the incredibly inspiring work! At a time when 99%
| of the founders and VCs just want to bank on the next big hype
| cycle and accumulate power and wealth, it's good to be reminded
| that actual life changing work with direct impact on people is
| still possible.
| cyrusradfar wrote:
| I've appreciated following your story. Happy that it's brought
| more meaning to your life and been a net-positive for the planet.
| That says a lot.
| maybelsyrup wrote:
| Never heard of Watsi, but I just donated!!!
|
| 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 wrote:
| THANK YOU! Welcome to Watsi!
| jacquesm wrote:
| Watsi is without a doubt the best thing to come out of YC.
| aaur0 wrote:
| I have been a Universal Fund member since 2014.
|
| 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.
| watsi wrote:
| Thank you aaur0 - you have no idea how much this means to us.
| Grateful for every ounce of good news and good health we can
| spread in this world.
| js2 wrote:
| > I have been a Universal Fund member since 2014.
|
| I couldn't remember when I joined, but it turns out 2014 too.
| From that date and dang's comment below, I found the HN
| submission that motivated me to join:
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7550005
| chaseadam17 wrote:
| That's a very long time - thank you both!
| aaur0 wrote:
| @chaseadam17 -
|
| This is where I learned about Watsi -
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlT3UhC7NwQ
|
| I attended it in person. Very inspiring!
| aswerty wrote:
| Another 2014 batch member here. Hard to believe it is over 10
| years I've been contributing to Watsi.
| mclightning wrote:
| I made the biggest donations in my life via Watsi. Thank you for
| building this site. I love you guys have an API as well. I
| thought of building an app on top of your API but never got round
| to complete it. If you are curious, I can share; I think there
| may be an opportunity to capture value in free giveaways and turn
| it into charity. Many people try to give away their things
| quickly on fb marketplace or letgo, ...what if they could ask for
| a donation to a charity? I know there are challenges like, what
| if they want to return. But there has to be a way to solve this
| with an escrow service or something. A similar model already
| works in used, 2nd stores that work for charities.
| chirau wrote:
| Great work. Do you have specific countries you work with? How are
| health partners selected? Would love to introduce some doctor
| friends of mine in Southern Africa. Every now and then they have
| some cases where we end up just pooling as friends and send to
| them. Again, great work!
| lanyard-textile wrote:
| :) Even saving 1 life is worth celebrating.
|
| Much more, 33,241.
| j45 wrote:
| Great accomplishment, congrats. YC acts different and glad they
| helped make something happen.
|
| Lots of ways to keep score and count returns to investors.
| vessenes wrote:
| Chase,
|
| I was an early donor and had forgotten about Watsi -- thank you
| for the reminder and congratulations! You should be super proud.
| Plus, the experience you got here will serve you in good stead if
| you decide to do a commercial venture -- scaling a non profit is
| much, much harder than a commercial company with some compounding
| finances.
|
| That said, I have a pitch for you on Watsi - I continue to think
| Donor Advised Funds are underutilized financial tech in the US
| today. Watsi could set up a DAF that takes your cohort's startup
| stock, gives them a tax deduction, mandates a 2-5% annual
| disbursement to the general fund if not otherwise allocated, and
| privilege the Watsi general fund. My team did a bunch of research
| on these a few years ago including some legal work, and I'd be
| happy to share if you think you might be interested in taking
| another crack at getting Watsi a large fund to back what it's
| doing.
|
| Either way - helping 33k people is incredible.
| chaseadam17 wrote:
| I'm a fan of DAFs and agree they are underutilized. Getting ppl
| to donate stock might be hard but I'll chat with Mackinnon,
| Watsi's ED, about it and let you know if we have any questions.
| Appreciate the offer to help share research!
| vessenes wrote:
| Totally!
|
| What you'll hear from DAF folks is
|
| "we have to sell everything we get in when we get it" -> not
| true, managed by disclosures
|
| "Our job is managing volatility of the donated assets, so
| getting volatile assets would be bad for the fund, or
| possibly not allowed" -> not true, managed by disclosures
|
| "DAFs are disliked because of asset stuffing, and on the
| down" -> true as to the first part. On and off legislative
| pushes centeraround getting 2-ish% a year as a mandatory
| donation, so you could be ahead of the curve on an 'ethics'
| basis with this as a rule.
|
| "It's impossible to value illiquid stock so we can't get a
| proper deduction" -> not true, you can get an outside
| valuation, or see below on the secondaries
|
| The scheme I'd suggest on a call would just be: find a friend
| who did well from your cohort, or pitch some of your VC
| allies that have helped on the board, see if anyone is
| willing to give it a try in the 10mm or so range. You'll then
| need to find someone who wants this stock in the secondary
| market; this would be either the key partnership or the key
| staff you hire, and another reason to bring in the VCs here.
| You'd be able to accept any donor with stock that has a value
| in the secondary market.
|
| One of the things we looked at was psychology on give now /
| give later, most founders are planning on mooning, and
| therefore want to give later. This lets them split the
| difference a little - deduction at current secondary prices,
| but they could hold off on selling and get more out to
| charity if the stock does well.
|
| On valuation, to my mind the easiest path is finding a
| secondary buyer, then you've got an independent price.
|
| We even ID'ed an Exec Director who wants to do this, and
| would be great! My contact is in my profile.
| corford wrote:
| I wonder if some sort of partnership with
| https://forgeglobal.com/ could potentially help for
| syndicating to secondary buyers?
| vessenes wrote:
| Nice idea! I didn't know about them, but yes, exactly
| gkoberger wrote:
| Hey Chase! Congrats on everything you, Grace, Thomas and the rest
| of the team built. I know it wasn't always what you expected it
| to be from the inside, but from the outside nobody saw that. They
| just saw something amazing. Your Startup School talk is my
| favorite ever, and I'm lucky I got to work with you all those
| years ago. You built something incredible, and helped a lot of
| people.
| chaseadam17 wrote:
| Thanks, Greg! We really appreciated all your help. Been too
| long.
| tnorthcutt wrote:
| My first donation to Watsi was on July the 6th, 2013. I continue
| to be impressed with the work your team does. Bravo.
| smoyer wrote:
| I was part of Omaze and can definitely empathize with the amount
| of work charitable fund raising takes and the amount of heartache
| that come from seeing under needs. Thanks for your hard work!
| zachlatta wrote:
| Watsi is an incredible organization doing incredible work.
|
| Chase and Grace are both incredible people.
|
| When I was 15 and first starting Hack Club, I went to Startup
| School 2013 and watched Chase's talk. It was the first time I had
| ever seen a startup founder who was starting a nonprofit instead
| of a for-profit. Afterwards he showed me the kindness of speaking
| with me.
|
| Later as the years went on, both of them always replied to emails
| and gave great advice.
|
| Many nonprofit founders understandably feel very protective of
| their experience and relationships because nonprofits can be
| zero-sum in a way that for-profits aren't, but Chase and Grace
| are two of the most generous people you'll ever meet.
|
| Thank you for starting an incredible organization and being such
| an inspiration.
| user3939382 wrote:
| If this world wasn't run by disgusting psychopaths an
| organization like this wouldn't be and shouldn't be necessary but
| since it is, I applaud the work sincerely and wish you the best
| of luck.
| Uptrenda wrote:
| this organization helped me get a new anus. it was very
| inspiring. thanks, op.
| jtokoph wrote:
| We shared an office space with Watsi years ago in San Francisco.
| Chase, Grace and the rest of the team were amazing.
|
| Chase: one thing that's always stuck with me was when you talked
| about when you realized that you "can both do good and do well".
| chris_wot wrote:
| I'd be impressed if you would process my donation. Your platform
| says it can't right now.
| kalvin wrote:
| We can't see any failed donations around this time, and we've
| had many successful ones, so we'd love to get more info from
| you to debug if you're willing. My email is in my profile.
| Thanks so much for the help!
| kalvin wrote:
| Update: we just deployed a fix for this, thanks for reporting!
| (We recently enabled Cloudflare caching which exposed a pre-
| existing CSRF issue, now fixed)
| coderintherye wrote:
| Chase: You, Grace, and Thomas created a lot of good in the world,
| as did everyone else who joined in on the Watsi journey. Was
| really proud to see all you accomplished!
| kittbuilds wrote:
| The observation about donations growing linearly while requests
| for care grew exponentially is one of the most honest
| descriptions of nonprofit scaling I have seen. Most founders in
| that position either burn out silently or pivot to a for-profit
| model. Choosing the slow, steady, sustainable path instead -- and
| then coming back 13 years later to share what you learned -- says
| a lot about character. 33k surgeries is remarkable. Thanks for
| sharing this.
| nickpsecurity wrote:
| That's pretty awesome what you're doing. Tough that you got to
| feeling responsible for all of those people. I've struggled with
| that weight.
|
| The good news is God doesn't hold us responsible for them. He is
| sovereignly in control of the entire universe, including every
| life. He made us to worship and reflect Him, and love others as
| ourselves day by day. We're only judged for what we can actually
| do, more from the heart than anything.
|
| That's a huge relief. I just help who I can. It's also awesome
| that, if we believe in Jesus Christ, we can pray fir them to be
| healed or for Him to raise up entire organizations to give people
| more medical care. We've seen some healings but usually
| exceptional, medical progress. (Some suffer or die.) On more care
| available, your team was one of our answered prayers. :)
| nbush wrote:
| This post triggered a wave of bittersweet remembrance: when Watsi
| was announced I signed up and was genuinely excited for what I
| thought a well-positioned incubator like YC could accomplish in
| general redistribution. I was very wrong! But to see this not
| being a shutdown or acquisition announcement is heartwarming.
| Keep linearly existing!
| jmathai wrote:
| Watsi remains the most inspiring things that's happened on
| Hackers News since I joined. Well done Chase and Grace!
| Bob_LaBLahh wrote:
| I really admire what you folks are doing. You can count me as a
| new supporter.
| notpushkin wrote:
| Ohh, thanks for the reminder! I've been a Universal Fund member
| briefly, but I've lost my job soon after, and have had it paused
| since then. I do have some stable income again now - will resume
| my subscription later this month. :)
|
| One thing I didn't like back then (IIRC) was the fact that you
| couldn't opt out of receiving the patient stories with your
| monthly receipts. While genuinely heartwarming, I'd prefer to
| check these out when I'm in the mood. Any idea if there's such an
| option now?
| watsi wrote:
| We'd love to have you back! Just let us know and we can turn
| off the patient updates for you anytime.
| snthpy wrote:
| It's ironic that the landing page shows people from around the
| world but the country where healthcare is least affordable is the
| USA.
| siquick wrote:
| This is truly great - just joined the universal fund.
|
| I tried to signup from the nav bar but kept getting a 500 error
| from the sign_up.json endpoint. I had to go through the Donate
| flow to be able to create an account.
| kalvin wrote:
| We just deployed a fix for this, thanks for reporting! (We
| recently enabled Cloudflare caching which exposed a pre-
| existing CSRF issue, now fixed)
| MASNeo wrote:
| That's such an amazing story. I ca relate to much of the
| emotional, time and financial commitment of a non-profit and
| keeping at it like you have is absolutely commendable. Seeing you
| succeed is an inspiration to continue doing the right thing for
| me and for many others!
| davedx wrote:
| Happy to have donated! Amazing work.
| kamens wrote:
| You, Thomas, Watsi, and crew have been an inspiration for a long
| time. I loved getting to know you all back in the day, and I've
| loved being a small donor since the early days. Deep respect for
| what you built.
| ricardobayes wrote:
| Wow this is special. I hope as AI scales, we can channel some of
| that growth into philantropy and non-profit (startups).
| iso1631 wrote:
| > Watsi donors have donated over $20M to fund 33,241 surgeries
|
| I don't get this. Why wouldn't your normal healthcare cover the
| surgery?
| ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
| Great to hear!
|
| As someone that has been in the volunteer/NPO space for decades,
| it's nice to hear stories like this, in this land of money-
| making. I confess that it can be difficult, when dealing with
| folks unable to even understand there are priorities other than
| money.
|
| There's certainly a need for your service, these days.
| igl wrote:
| First time seeing this. Really moving story.
|
| I just set up a monthly donation and had one thought: the way to
| donate monthly feels a bit too hidden right now (did a ctrl+f
| search to find the footer link).
|
| Much love to all of you!
| RGamma wrote:
| This thread gives me visions of a black mirror episode.
| staubfinger wrote:
| Love how watsi helped not only others but also also you; to grow
| as a person. Hope this will both never stop :)
|
| Curious Question about Money and Logistics: If people from all
| over the world donate, how do you guys funnel/move the money to
| the places where they need to be? I can think of bank wire
| transfers, but i doubt that's the way you do it - so curious as
| to how its being done. Also: are fancy new cryptocurrencies of
| any use in transferring funds? could you see them ever be?
| ninju wrote:
| Reposting the main URL so that it does not disappear
|
| https://watsi.org/universal-fund
| kinderjaje wrote:
| Nice story, glad to see launches like this and that is not all
| about self promotion and money.
| domjmich wrote:
| Congratulations! I remember your launch all those years ago and
| am not surprised by your team's success. It's great seeing tech
| used for good.
| czbond wrote:
| @chaseadam17 - What advice or lessons would you share for others
| looking to pursue a company which focuses on public good or
| nonprofit?
| TheAtomic wrote:
| This is wildly cool. I donated to a patient and now make a very
| small monthly donations. #this
| zehagray wrote:
| Thank you for your work
| Whitespace wrote:
| I've been with Watsi for almost 12 years now, most of that as a
| Universal Fund member. Like others, I love periodically checking
| the "My Impact" page, as it really humanizes my monthly donation.
|
| > You've funded healthcare for 162 patients in 14 countries.
|
| > You joined Watsi on February 26th, 2014. Eleven years ago, you
| became a member of our Universal Fund, supporting life-changing
| treatments for a new Watsi patient every month. Your most recent
| donation traveled 8,500 miles to support Leah, a poultry farmer
| from Kenya, to fund abdominal surgery.
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