Building a startup is tough. There is so much to do and never enough time to do it. As a result, we often have to compromise when making important decisions.

Take the color palette of our site for example. Deciding on the palette was a big decision that would ultimately impact all of our users.

How did we decide on the palette? Did we conduct a user survey, or research the various emotions different colors elicit? Nope. We didn’t have time. After asking a few friends their opinions, we made the executive decision to go with blue and grey. Why? Because we liked blue, and because grey seemed to go well with blue. And after all, Facebook is blue, and they’re successful, so it must be the best color.

This line of reasoning isn’t all that bad. Time is our most important resource, and we can’t afford to endlessly deliberate over every decision.

But this is a slippery slope. Far too often we’ve been guilty of simply copying what other startups do, and assuming (often incorrectly) that the startups we’re copying have inferred all their decisions, when in fact most of them (whether they’ll admit it or not) probably chose to go with blue, because, well… Facebook.

When we were designing the patient profiles on Watsi’s homepage, due to some miscommunication, Jesse truncated the promotion text instead of generating standalone promotion text. So instead of “John needs heart surgery” we had “John needs heart…”

I was a little annoyed. Standalone promotion text is surely better than truncated promotion text. Why? Because Kiva, Kickstarter, and virtually every crowdfunding platform on the internet use standalone promotion text. But we were pressed for time, so we decided to leave the truncated text and fix it later.

Last week we fixed the truncated text, and we A/B tested the change using Optimizely to see how much better the standalone text performed.

The results? The standalone text saw a 35% decrease in click-throughs.

We couldn’t believe it. Our ugly truncated text, which was the result of a miscommunication, actually performed significantly better than the standalone text used by virtually every other crowdfunding platform on the internet.

At the rate we’re growing, this small improvement will result in an increase in donations to the order of tens of thousands of dollars for patients in need. It’s certainly not trivial.

This was a valuable lesson for us. Moving forward, we’re not going to assume anything. And we’re not going to blindly copy other startups no matter how busy we get. Instead, we’re going to test everything. 

Look for some exciting things from Watsi.org in the future, perhaps even a rainbow logo, because, well… why not?

-Chase

We can’t keep up with you guys!

We’re funding profiles so fast that we need more Medical Partners.

If you know of a reputable international healthcare organization that can help us identify more patients, please put them in touch with us via chase@watsi.org.

Watsi is currently tied for first place in the Huffington Post’s Millennial Impact Challenge, and we need your vote to win the $10,000 grand prize!

Voting closes this Friday, and because the race is so close (we’re freaking out), a single vote could be the difference between winning and losing. Here’s how you can help us win:

• Vote for Watsi on the Huffington Post here: http://bit.ly/votewatsi (scroll down to health and wellness section)
• Forward this email to everyone you know (friends, family and colleagues)
• Post the link to vote on Facebook and Twitter

And most important, please comment here if you have any suggestions for how we can get more votes. Email lists? Blogging? Dying our hair blue in exchange for votes? We’ll do whatever it takes, and we’d love to hear your ideas.

Together, we can win this competition and raise the funds we need to save hundreds of  lives.

Hi Watsi,

Why do I Watsi and why did I share it on Facebook? 

I’m a 2-time breast cancer survivor. I have the wonderful first world benefit of insurance, a good job led by supportive people, a husband who makes enough to give me the room to take care of myself…in short, I’m rich beyond measure compared to almost everyone else in the world. I have so much to be grateful for.

Every day I get piles and piles and PILES of mail from nonprofits looking for money. I don’t blame them - I know times are tough. I’ve worked for nonprofits before and I know how things work. But it hasn’t stopped my becoming inured to the pleas. It’s like walking down a street with hundreds of hands in my way and I’ve started to feel resentful. Because of my experience, I know that the mailers I’m getting cost money, and that some of these organizations are only passing a small percentage of the donations they receive to the actual people they’re purporting to help. For instance, here in Houston, the YMCA is notorious - the president of the organization earns a whopping $600k a year. That’s just not right.

And along comes Watsi, allowing me to donate directly to someone in need. And there she is - a 60 year old woman facing cancer and the debilitating treatments on her own, without all my resources. And all my money goes to her treatment. Allelujiah!

Thank you for allowing me to share.

http://techcrunch.com/2012/08/30/watsi/