Conference Presentation
Chase Adam at Startup School NY 2014
- Organization Profile: Watsi is a crowdfunding platform for healthcare founded by Chase Adams in 2012, enabling donations as low as $5 to fund medical care for individuals in need.
- Founding Inspiration: The concept was conceived during a trip to Central America while serving in the Peace Corps, triggered by witnessing a woman successfully raise funds from locals by displaying her son's medical records.
- Core Philosophy: Adams initially criticized the nonprofit sector for bureaucratic slowness but concluded that markets and governments fail to solve specific medical poverty problems where the cost of care exceeds the patient's daily earnings.
- Operational Decisions: Three foundational decisions were made during the volunteer phase to shape the organization's future:
- 100% of every donation directly funds medical care with no operational overhead cut.
- Complete transparency regarding financials and operations, published openly on the website.
- Priority placed on the ratio of operational spending to patient value creation rather than top-line growth.
- Launch Strategy: The platform launched on August 23, 2012, via a surprise post on Hacker News that drove 16,000 unique visitors and funded the entire six-month treatment pipeline within hours.
- Initial Funding Crisis: The team faced significant fundraising challenges typical of nonprofits, including a lack of urgency for donors and the inability to use standard venture capital instruments like convertible notes.
- First Major Grant: The organization won a $10,000 Huffington Post competition via an online vote, which funded Adams' salary for one year and allowed him to quit his finance job.
- Y Combinator Acceptance: Paul Graham contacted the founders after seeing their Hacker News activity, leading to Watsi becoming the first non-profit accepted into Y Combinator.
- YC Growth Metrics: During the accelerator, the team focused on a single metric—average weekly donations—and raised a subsequent operational round by setting an arbitrary three-month closing deadline.
- Investor Backing: The post-YC round included donations from notable figures including Paul Graham, Ron Conway, Vinod Khosla, Paul Buchheit, Jeff Ralston, and Tencent.
- Team Scaling Strategy: Watsi grew its team slowly to preserve culture and mission alignment, aiming for a 100-year lifespan rather than a short-term acquisition.
- Performance Statistic: In its first calendar year, Watsi grew by 1,070%, with every team member raising over 10 times their own salary in patient funding.
- Current Operational Challenges:
- Unsustainable Growth: Managing short-term resource spikes from press cycles while investing in long-term infrastructure features.
- Infrastructure Gaps: Operating in 19 countries where hospital internet access is often spotty, complicating data collection and dissemination.
- Market Dynamics: Balancing donor demand with fixed medical costs, as surgery prices do not fluctuate based on fundraising speed.
- Future Outlook: Adams predicts a historical transition from nation-states to a global community, asserting that universal connectivity will make it impossible to deny the rights of any individual.
- Mission Statement: The organization's driving force is the belief that "everyone matters," aiming to bridge the gap between global connectivity and the fundamental right to health care.