I got the chance to speak with Rohan Pavuluri, co-founder and CEO of Upsolve, about what he’s working on at his startup, and any advice he/she has for emerging entrepreneurs. Upsolve is a nonprofit that helps low-income families file bankruptcy for free, using an online web app. To date, Upsolve has helped families relieve over $200 million in debt.
Startup Spotlight #3: Upsolve
Upsolve founder Rohan Pavuluri.
Problem: Millions of low-income families are trapped in debt and would benefit from filing for bankruptcy. But it costs $1500 on average to hire a bankruptcy lawyer, which many people cannot afford.
Market: We help people in debt from medical bills, layoffs, and predatory loans. Our users generally have over $10,000 in debt, less than a 600 credit score, and earn under the median income.
Solution: We built a web app that helps people file bankruptcy for free. It's like TurboTax for bankruptcy.
Team: I started Upsolve my sophomore year at Harvard in 2016, and our CTO is Mark Hansen, who comes from the civic tech world. Our Board Chair and co-founder Jonathan Petts is a former corporate bankruptcy lawyer.
Recent Success:
Pavuluri: Using software to low-income families through a very complicated legal paperwork process.
Recent Struggle:
Pavuluri: Building trust with a vulnerable population that you can't meet in person and is rightfully skeptical of free services is a hard challenge that we continue to tackle.
Founder Advice:
Pavuluri: Don't overlook lower-income and working-class consumers as a segment of the population you can serve through software.
Three Cool Founders You Should Know About:
Pavuluri: Here are three founders you should check out next!
Alex Godin, Founder of Lemontree: Lemontree sells affordable meal kits to families in need of food.
Justin Wenig, Founder of Coursedog: Coursedog is a SaaS platform that eliminates the manual work in class scheduling for universities.
Tyler Weitzman, Founder of Black SMS: Black SMS for iPhone lets you easily encrypt iMessages that self-destruct with Touch-ID protected keys.
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