He was a 24-year-old Peace Corps volunteer on a local bus when it happened. A woman boarded at a small town called Watsi. Her son needed a medical procedure they couldn't afford. She worked her way down the aisle, asking strangers for help.
Chase gave her what he had. The bus moved on. He didn't stop thinking about it.
Two years later, Watsi became the first nonprofit to go through Y Combinator. It connected small donors around the world directly with patients who needed medical care — no overhead, no bureaucracy, just the name and face of one person who needed help, and another person who wanted to give it.
The origin of something that has now helped thousands of people was one moment of inconvenience and one question: couldn't this work better?
That's how most great things start. Not with a plan — with a moment you couldn't shake.
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