After our pitch at the Global Social Venture Competition (GSVC) Global Finals, Jim Collins, the VP of Innovation at IDE and one of the GSVC judges concluded by saying, “You [Watsi] brought a great poker hand to a blackjack tournament.” His statement couldn’t have been more true.

Watsi was the only non-profit in the GSVC Global Finals and our save lives now figure out how we make money tomorrow approach didn’t go over very well. 

We knew we were going to have to convince the judges that we would be financially sustainable. So, instead of having the financial section of our plan state “TBD” (we always thought it made more sense to get proof of concept before deciding on a financial sustainability plan), we basically chose three of our dozen or so potential revenue models and tried to sell the hell out of them.

The judges saw right through our facade.   

We learned a lot from GSVC, received some amazing feedback from the judges, and got some new ideas for possible revenue models to add to our growing list.

But the best lesson we learned is to stay true to what we believe. Instead of trying to fit ourselves into a particular mold, depending on what we think judges or investors want to hear, we aren’t going to be afraid to say, “We don’t know.” 

We don’t know if our pilot project will be a success. We don’t know how we are going to make money. We don’t know where Watsi will be in a year. But there are a few things we do know…

We know saving lives comes first. We know we will guarantee donors that 100% of their donations go towards funding life-changing medical treatments. We know running a non-profit isn’t free and we will need to make money to cover our overhead (and we have dozens of ideas for how to do so). And most importantly, we know that if we are solving a real problem, and people believe in what we are doing, we will find a way to pay the bills.

Out of 600 teams from 50 countries, Watsi won the People’s Choice Award at the GSVC Global Finals in Berkeley this past weekend. It seems that people really do believe in what we are doing, and if that belief translates into action, together, we will prove to the world that saving lives can in fact come before making money.

-Chase 

All Watsi patients are required to sign a legal waiver granting Watsi permission to publish their personal information online for the purpose of fundraising on their behalf. Watsi’s Medical Partners are responsible for explaining the waiver to patients in their native language and sending a signed copy to Watsi.

Obviously, patients are usually more than happy to sign the waiver in exchange for a life-changing medical treatment. However, it is because patients are desperate for care and willing to do whatever necessary to receive it, that we have the added responsibility of doing everything possible to protect their privacy, regardless of the fact that they grant us permission to publish their personal information.

Our team has spent an enormous amount of time debating medical ethics. However, it wasn’t until we arranged a call with Steve Pantilat, the former Chair of the Ethics committee of the Society of Hospitalist Medicine, that we were introduced to the least information necessary rule, which we eventually adopted as our own.

The least information necessary rule means that we will only publish personal information about patients that is necessary for their profiles to be fully funded within a reasonable amount of time. For example, we plan to only publish patients’ first names, because lack of a last name probably won’t preclude a profile from being funded. However, we plan to publish photos, because we think that establishing a personal connection between the patient and the donor is essential for the funding of the profile. 

Initially, we will have to make the call as to what information is necessary and what isn’t, but in the future, we hope that through A/B testing our donors will confirm and/or deny our initial assumptions.

What information do you think we should publish?

- Chase

Chase, a Watsi co-founder, directs the overall vision and mission of Watsi. Prior to Watsi, Chase worked at Pacific Community Ventures, where he built the group’s first double bottom line loan fund. Previously, he served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Costa Rica, where he founded three successful microfinance institutions. He also worked with Fonkoze, the largest economic development bank in Haiti, where he established a national health program that resulted in the distribution of multivitamins to more than 13,000 children the year of its inception, and has since grown to ten times the size. Chase graduated cum laude from UC Santa Barbara with a BA in Global Socioeconomics and Politics.

Follow Chase on Twitter at @chaseadam17