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Launch HN: Upsolve (YC Nonprofit W19) – TurboTax for Bankruptcy

149 points by rpavuluri 8y ago

Hi HN! I’m Rohan Pavuluri, co-founder of Upsolve (https://upsolve.org/ https://upsolve.org/), a nonprofit in YC’s W19 batch. We provide software for low-income people in America that makes filing for bankruptcy less painful and expensive, just like what TurboTax did for filing taxes. Bankruptcy is a lifeline for low-income people in the United States who fall into debt from job loss, medical emergencies, and payday lenders. It allows them to get a fresh start. Unfortunately, it’s impossible for most people to file for bankruptcy because they cannot afford $2,000 for a bankruptcy lawyer. Our average user erases ~$40,000 in debt. I started Upsolve when I was a law school research assistant in college. We were testing out the effectiveness of legal self-help packets for people who could not afford attorneys. I set out to turn these paper packets into a digital product. My co-founder Jonathan Petts spent ten years doing pro bono bankruptcies in his spare time as a corporate attorney. This is where he saw people turned down by brick and mortar legal nonprofits because demand for attorneys far exceeded supply. A judge introduced us in 2016 when she saw we were working on the same idea. Here’s how it works. A user comes to our website and takes a screener to see if they’re a good fit for our service. If they are, they answer a series of questions about their personal finances, upload their tax returns/pay stubs, and take a pre-bankruptcy education course. Our software then generates their forms, and one of our in-house attorneys reviews their forms for accuracy and completeness. If there are any issues, we follow up. When the forms are ready to file, we send them to the user. We track the user’s court notices so that we can fix any issues that may arise after filing. In 2018, we erased over $16,000,000 in debt for 400+ users. We believe that 20M Americans would benefit from filing for bankruptcy. We currently allow our users to donate what they think is fair to us after they complete the process. While we’re mostly funded by foundations and the federal government now, we hope to be sustainable through donations that we receive from our users in the future. Regulations around bankruptcy only permit attorneys providing full-representation to charge clients. We’re looking for any feedback you have on our product or how to reach new users. User stories: https://upsolve.org/fresh-starts/ https://upsolve.org/fresh-starts/ TC: https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/16/upsolve-bankruptcy/ https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/16/upsolve-bankruptcy/ If interested in donating: https://upsolve.org/donate/ https://upsolve.org/donate/ or email rohan@upsolve.org.

toomuchtodo 8y ago
This is work worth doing. Wishing your team much success. To find new users, I'd start partnering with non-profit financial counseling groups that are most likely providing this service with human effort, but are stretched thin.
- rpavuluri 8y ago
  We agree with trying to partner with other financial nonprofits, and we're continuing to work with several, such as Single Stop in NYC. One challenge we've found is that many nonprofits do not know much about bankruptcy or are afraid to make referrals due to the negative stigma. Part of our job, we've realized, is to educate them and the general public to solve this knowledge gap.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
cenal 8y ago
How do you handle security with such sensitive information being uploaded?
- rpavuluri 8y ago
  Agreed that security is super important to us because information is so sensitive and we serve a vulnerable population. We have an unusual benefit with security because the bankruptcy process only requires a short-term snapshot of financial information and the process can only happen every 8 years. We delete their sensitive information if a person finishes the process or is inactive for 3 weeks since it will be out-of-date for the forms. We soon aim to do filing on behalf of our debtors so they won't have to be concerned with personal-information filled PDFs on their devices.
gyaniv 8y ago
To find new clients I think that by introducing yourselves and your product to those "brick and mortar non profits" you said turned people away, you should be able to convince them to send your way some of the people that they can't handle. But I have to say that the idea you had about the money source sounds a bit strange to me. Your whole idea is helping people that don't have any money, so it just seems weird that you would then ask for or even want their money, because that somewhat defies the point of helping them save money (I'm sure that you probably take only small amounts, but still...). I think that working from outside donations and federal grants just makes more sense. Or maybe even excepting some money from some of the people you help after a while if they manage to get back on their feet.

149 points by rpavuluri 8y ago

toomuchtodo 8y ago

This is work worth doing. Wishing your team much success. To find new users, I'd start partnering with non-profit financial counseling groups that are most likely providing this service with human effort, but are stretched thin.

rpavuluri 8y ago
We agree with trying to partner with other financial nonprofits, and we're continuing to work with several, such as Single Stop in NYC. One challenge we've found is that many nonprofits do not know much about bankruptcy or are afraid to make referrals due to the negative stigma. Part of our job, we've realized, is to educate them and the general public to solve this knowledge gap.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]

cenal 8y ago

How do you handle security with such sensitive information being uploaded?

rpavuluri 8y ago
Agreed that security is super important to us because information is so sensitive and we serve a vulnerable population. We have an unusual benefit with security because the bankruptcy process only requires a short-term snapshot of financial information and the process can only happen every 8 years. We delete their sensitive information if a person finishes the process or is inactive for 3 weeks since it will be out-of-date for the forms. We soon aim to do filing on behalf of our debtors so they won't have to be concerned with personal-information filled PDFs on their devices.

gyaniv 8y ago

To find new clients I think that by introducing yourselves and your product to those "brick and mortar non profits" you said turned people away, you should be able to convince them to send your way some of the people that they can't handle. But I have to say that the idea you had about the money source sounds a bit strange to me. Your whole idea is helping people that don't have any money, so it just seems weird that you would then ask for or even want their money, because that somewhat defies the point of helping them save money (I'm sure that you probably take only small amounts, but still...). I think that working from outside donations and federal grants just makes more sense. Or maybe even excepting some money from some of the people you help after a while if they manage to get back on their feet.