Ambitious. Curious. Down-to-earth.
Meet Chai Pilaka, a senior at the University of Southern California. A late stage co-founder of his company, this Computer Science major hails from Hyderabad, India. This semester, he’s continuing work on Drops, a system which allows users to round up and donate money to their favorite charities through their everyday purchases. Chai was inspired to join Drops when he realized he could pursue both his passion for technology and philanthropy. In the future, he and his team hope to help nonprofits create more impact quickly and efficiently!
What’s the premise of your company?
Non-profits often face problems when it comes to recurring donations. Many host 1 or 2 annual fundraising events to acquire enough donations to sustain existing programs or plan out future events. Most donors also contribute via one time donations which in the long run actually hurts the non-profit. The amount of donations from these events or donors cannot be predicted and so planning for future initiatives and scaling as a non-profit becomes increasingly harder.
What is the purpose of your company?
In order to solve the problem of recurring giving, Drops ties in a donor’s everyday purchases to their donations. By rounding up their every purchases, the donors are able to support their cause throughout the year and the non-profits have a predictable source of income that helps them in execute their existing programs as well as scale with newer initiatives based on predictable donation streams.
Where did the idea for your company come from?
The origin story is that Shea, the other founder, was living with a bunch of friends and they decided that they would roundup their purchases the entire month and if it added up to a certain amount they would buy groceries for the apartment. If it didn’t hit a certain number, then the money would be donated. He soon saw the application of this concept at a larger scale and decided to starting working on Drops.
What inspired you to start your company/project?
I joined Drops as a late stage co-founder. Personally, I always wanted to establish a solid financial base for myself before diving into nonprofit ventures or philanthropy. When I read about Drops on the Incubate USC page, I realized that I could pursue both my passion for technology and philanthropy at the same time right out of college.
How has the scaling process gone while working simultaneously with banks and nonprofits?
The hardest part of our venture is actually user acquisition. We use third-party API’s to conveniently process bank information and nonprofits are more than happy to get on board as most see the potential of Drops at large scale.
However, on the user front, it is on us to educate people about the impact of their donations let along donating through Drops. Since we are not a typical social enterprise involving some sort of a physical product, we found other ways to keep the users engaged and make Drops worthwhile for them. One way in which we do that is by sending stories, pictures and videos of people that the users have impacted directly to their phone at the end of the month.
How was the transition when your cofounders graduated?
If it wasn’t for the fact that I have already spent 3 years at USC, I probably would have already dropped out for Drops. It’s definitely been interesting to work on it with the other three cofounders having graduated.
We have a home/office located three blocks from USC that we affectionately call the “Droffice” (Drops-Office), “Drouse” (Drops-House), or “Drome” (Drops-Home) depending on our mood. I try to be there as much as I can outside of school.
What is your vision for the future of your company?
The long term vision of the company is to become an all-encompassing tool for non-profits around that world that takes the burden of marketing, fundraising and scaling away from these non-profits so they can focus on creating more impact quickly and efficiently.
Why do you think entrepreneurship is important?
I think entrepreneurship is simply a tool for problem solving. The traditional sentiment towards entrepreneurship or businesses is that they are profit driven. But we can see with the rise of social enterprises and entrepreneurs that it is a great way to create long term impact and tackle core issues that the world faces in a sustainable way.
Favorite food?
Biriyani, the dish that my city is famous for!
Favorite TV show?
Currently, Narcos!
Fun fact about you?
Hit me up for coffee and we can talk more! ;)
Come out to Founders Roundtable to chat with Chai about where Drops is now and how they plan to change the nonprofit landscape (and also drop him a line to catch some coffee)!
Spark SC champions the entrepreneurial spirit at the University of Southern California. Through initiatives like 1000 Pitches, the Startup Career Fair, and Project Launch, we inspire students to participate in a culture of innovation at USC and beyond. Learn more about what we do and how to get involved at our website, sparksc.org.
