6 ms·
Stories from our first two years
- markbnj 12y agoPretty cool stuff, guys. Congratulations on two years.
- ajiang 12y agoTruly awesome work and an inspirational journey. You guys are a huge motivation for folks in tech to strive to actually make the world a better place.
- kumarski 12y agoagreed. I funded Watsi on a recurring basis just because of the awesomeness of the story and it's impact.
- reubensandwich 12y agoThis is a really incredible and moving use of technology. I will be contributing soon!
- joshdance 12y agoLove this. Great story telling. A side question, I love that 100% of donations go to medical care. How does the team fund their operational costs?
- redraga 12y agoDonors have an option of "tipping" Watsi apart from the donating to the patient's treatment. But I'm not sure if this alone covers their operating costs.
- giarc 12y agoFrom their Google Doc transparency file. "100% of every donation to patients on Watsi directly funds medical treatment - our overhead costs are covered by optional donor tips, cause marketing partnerships, and private donors, foundations and corporations." https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1KQ2uWkJf5-5f34uttGmAhPcQPxmgq8HsnsIfwFr9Do4/pubhtml# https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1KQ2uWkJf5-5f34uttGmA...
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- gracegarey 12y agoThanks, Josh! Our operational costs are covered by foundations, philanthropists, and donors who leave an optional tip during checkout. More in our FAQ: watsi.org/faq
- djcary 12y agoChase, Watsi's founder, spoke at start up school last year. Donate first, then watch his talk and then donate again. Make sure you look for the tip option on the checkout page if you want to help cover Watsi's operational costs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlT3UhC7NwQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlT3UhC7NwQ
- rooster8 12y agoOne of the best startup up school talks. Hard to watch this and not feel like you want to work for Chase by the end.
- marquis 12y agoA problem with internationalization: One difficulty with wanting to contribute to projects like this is that you don't get tax credits on donations outside of your home country, which means I or my business cannot contribute any significant amount. I understand it would be a mountain of paperwork (and probably a loss in terms of accounting costs) for Watsi to be registered as a non-profit in every country.
- lubos 12y agoIs this some kind of Scrooge McDuck excuse? If your income tax rate is 30%, on $1,000 donation, you get only $300 back in tax credits. If donation is not tax-deductible, then you won't get $300 so don't donate $1,000. Donate only $700.
- marquis 12y agoAre you not then further taxed on that $700 as it must be classified as cash spending?
- lubos 12y agoNo, you are not. Freely given donations for which nothing is given in return are outside the scope of VAT, GST or sales tax.
- marquis 12y agoWhere I pay taxes, I cannot donate money to non-profit registered in another country and write off the tax. Therefore, if I am a business my donation is taxed as cash spending. If I have already paid PAYE tax, I cannot apply for a tax refund on my donation. My country is not subsiding another country's non-profits. Neither is yours. An example from the U.S.: http://nonprofit.about.com/od/fordonors/qt/internationaltaxded.htm http://nonprofit.about.com/od/fordonors/qt/internationaltaxd...
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- dvdhsu 12y agoIn celebration, most of the patients on their website are just $50 away from being funded: https://watsi.org/ https://watsi.org/. Go fund one of them!
- AlisdairO 12y agoWhat a wonderful thing to have created. I know I'm just some random dude on the internet, but you should all be incredibly proud of yourselves. I've been meaning to start donating for some time now, and the $50-to-funded thing pushed me to do it. The act of funding a person rather than an organisation really connects me with the importance of giving the gift - it de-abstracts the situation somehow, and brings home the fact that for not-that-much-really money you can completely change someone's life.
- Dolimiter 12y agoA great startup. But the linked webpage... when did design like that become normal?
- daeken 12y agoI know I've beaten this drum on HN in the past, but one of the things I most love about Watsi is that you can set up a monthly automatic donation: https://watsi.org/monthly https://watsi.org/monthly This makes it absolutely trivial to set it and help someone out every month, without having to do anything yourself (and thus, no way to forget it!) They really do amazing work; congrats on two years, guys.
- watsithrowaway 12y agoWatsi is incredible. I really love what they do and envy those who created it. It's also a nice surprise to see Watsi and I share the same birthday. I'm a 26 year old, somewhat privileged white male. I have accomplished nothing in life. I'm still struggling to graduate from college which I'd spent 6 years of my life for. I get depressed thinking about it, and just want to dedicate everything I have as a human being to work for some humanitarian organization similar to Watsi so I could feel like I'm good for something. Of course, then I realize these organizations don't exist to help privileged people like me to figure out what we want in life, but to help people who have real problems. I'm such a cliche. I applaud Watsi team not because they're a bunch of wonderful people who have great talent, but because they wanted to use their talent to make the world a better place. I wish I had your courage. I'll donate whenever I can, which doesn't amount to much, but every bit helps. I hope. PS: This thread should be about Watsi but I couldn't help share what I feel. I hope you don't take it the wrong way. Thank you.
- staunch 12y agoThe greatest YC startup to date, by far. Good job and congrats!
- keerthiko 12y agoI don't often tear up reading something posted on HN, let alone a company's website... I really wish my mobile internet was good enough to watch Chase's talk right now. Edit: Also want to express that I'm proud of the Humble Bundle community! The games industry has made us lose faith in humanity a bit recently. It is heartwarming to hear we're regaining ground.
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- mamoriamohit 12y agoYou inspire me everyday, Watsi.
- wellboy 12y agoAwesome, for me Watsi is one of the most inspirational startups right now. Reminds me that if someone can, doing amazing startups is the right thing to do!
- charlie_vill 12y agoI am a student in Boston, born and raised in El Salvador, and I can attest the extent to which organizations like Watsi are helping save the lives of people like you and me. Chase, I'm giving up a cup of coffee a week; that's twenty bucks you can count on.