Among the first set of graduates from a new San Jose incubator is a tech company using the power of the crowd to help people pay their medical bills.
HealthDonor is similar to Kickstarter or Indiegogo in that users create profiles, set fundraising goals and upload videos and photos that tell their story. Unlike those sites, though, all of the campaigns must be collecting donations to fund healthcare-related supplies or services.
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Several HealthDonor-like sites have emerged over the past few years as crowdfunding has taken off, including YouCaring.com, GoFundMe, GiveForward and Watsi. What’s interesting about the site is how it positions itself as a resource not just for individual giving but for use by charities and hospitals.
Its website describes it also as a white-label solution where charities can create profiles for the individuals they sponsor, as well as where hospitals and clinics can help recoup the cost of emergency care provided to underinsured individuals.
The company is tonight’s demo day lineup for Spartups, a four-month mentorship program with partners that include Rackspace, Microsoft BizSpark, Amazon Web Services and Google for Entrepreneurs.
Its claim to be the “perfect healthcare tool for the uninsured or underinsured,” might be a stretch, but the site seems to be providing a financial Band-Aid for some individuals – a few of the campaigns have raised more than $7,000 to cover medical expenses. Spartups says the company has also partnered with a large nonprofit in the U.S.
HealthDonor was founded by friends Jason Taillie and Andrew Watson, whose mother battled multiple sclerosis without health insurance, and launched in August 2012.