Dize Hacioglu is the CTO of Chicago’s mRelief, which offers an easy-to-use platform that helps families connect to SNAP food benefits. Since it was founded in 2014, the non-profit mRelief has helped 2.8 million Americans unlock $1 billion in food stamp benefits.
Chad talks with Dize about how the platform helps people navigate the often complicated food stamp benefits system, what her role as CTO looks like as a CTO who codes, and how she hopes to help facilitate the growth of the mRelief program and team.
mRelief (https://www.mrelief.com/)
Follow mRelief on Twitter (https://twitter.com/mRelief_form), Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/mRelief/), Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/m_relief/), or LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/mrelief.com/).
Follow Dize on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/dizehacioglu/).
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Transcript:
CHAD: This is the Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots Podcast, where we explore the design, development, and business of great products. I'm your host, Chad Pytel. And with me today is Dize Hacioglu, the CTO of mRelief, an easy-to-use platform that helps families connect to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Since it was founded in 2014, the non-profit mRelief has helped 2.8 million Americans unlock $1 billion in food stamp benefits. Dize, thanks for joining me.
DIZE: Yeah, thank you so much for having me.
CHAD: And thank you for all of your work at mRelief. It's a big help to everybody.
DIZE: It's my pleasure, and it's really an honor to be able to do the work that we do.
CHAD: Speaking of that work, tell me a little bit more about what the platform actually does for people.
DIZE: So mRelief is an easy to use platform that's accessible over text messaging or web that helps folks find out if they qualify for SNAP, formerly known as food stamps, and helps them apply in certain states or connect with community-based organizations who can help them apply if they'd like further assistance.
CHAD: So it's a pretty focused product, right? [laughs]
DIZE: Mm-hmm.
CHAD: But I'm sure that there's a lot going behind the scenes in order to make that pretty focused product happen. Is that right?
DIZE: Yeah, that's right. That's right. Yes, there are a lot of moving parts.
CHAD: [laughs] So what's involved in figuring out whether someone is eligible or not?
DIZE: So there are actually a few patterns that we've discovered as we've been expanding our work from just one state where we were just in California for a while and then expanding it nationwide. We found that eligibility typically falls into a couple of different buckets. So we've been able to turn that into code that helps guide people through the typical questions of eligibility and takes them through the flow based on their state's eligibility of requirements.
CHAD: I guess my next question was going to be without mRelief; how difficult is this for folks?
DIZE: So I think most folks typically apply hoping that they're eligible, and they'll only really find out after the application process has been complete. They may have wasted time at the office, time filling out the application, time waiting for a phone call from the office only to find out that they are not eligible.
CHAD: So you mentioned you started just in California, and you've been expanding from there. You mentioned there are patterns that you found. How different are things state to state? And what does your growth trajectory look like throughout the United States?
DIZE: The biggest differences between states are income limits, the threshold that a family has to fall under in terms of monthly gross income to be able to qualify. So that has been a big data collection research project that we've done to be able to expand to all 50 states. And from their past eligibility, applications also