5 Funeralpreneurs Who Are Changing The Landscape of Funeral Service in 2018

The times, they are changing.

And it’s not necessarily funeral homes that are changing the nature of the funeral profession.

Rather, it’s individuals, who we are coining “Funeralpreneurs” who are going a bit off the beaten path to forge a new way for the funeral profession.

These individuals went against the grain based on their own experiences with death and the death care profession, and for that, they deserved to be celebrated.

Here are 5 of our top picks for next gen funeralpreneurs who are changing the game:

 

1. Louise Winter, Founder of Poetic Endings

SOURCE: The Guardian

 

Bespoke Funeral Director, Louise Winter, is someone who knows the fine balance between celebrating , and remembering. We think Louise is someone who should be recognized for her personalized approach to death and funerals, that embodies a need for the balance between tradition and full-on life celebrations.

“I’m getting people to engage with the funeral as much as they are comfortable with, and deal with the difficult emotions that go with these situations – hopefully in a healthy, supportive and productive way so they can process their grief better… but it’s not simply about turning [the funeral] into a party,” Louise said in a recent interview with The Guardian.

Louise’s business, Poetic Endings, is an independent funeral firm which offers families the kind of care Louise saw a lack of in the current funeral profession. And because of this, she has received some pretty epic praise, like The Good Funeral Guide, who says Louise is “Challenging the existing inadequacy of funerals on every level” and “bring[s] a beauty and an emotional intelligence to the experience of arranging a funeral”.

To learn more about Louise and Poetic Endings, click here.

 

 

2. Adelle Archer, founder of Eterneva

Eterneva founder Adelle Archer.CREDIT: Brian Vu

 

Adelle Archer was recently named one of the most influential entrepreneurs under  30 by Inc. Magazine for her memorial diamonds company, Eterneva. Archer launched Eterneva after the death of her deeply respected mentor, Tracey Kaufman. Because of her dedication to creating something meaningful, Archer’s business isn’t just inspiring, it’s successful, too. In fact, in the first year, she generated nearly $280,000 in sales, and is projected to make $2 million in revenue this year.

To learn more about Adelle Archer, check out her company website here.

 

It’s not just Archer’s success that’s admirable though. It’s her approach to her success. Instead of launching her memorial diamonds business in the deathcare space, Archer skipped the funeral industry all together and instead sought out non-funeral related publications to spread the word about her business. As a result, Archer is being recognized by people in all industries, and drawing attention to the innovations happening in the funeral profession. This inspired us to see the potential for success and innovation that is not confined by the walls of the funeral industry.

 

3. Tyler Yamasaki, founder of Parting.com

Tyler Yamasaki’s story is similar to Adelle Archer’s, whereas his innovative idea was fueled by an emotionally-driven experience that sparked a service-based need. The story goes that when Yamasaki lost someone close to him, he was very disappointed in how hard it was to find a reputable funeral home, and especially how hard it was to funeral home pricing. After his 5-day struggle to find a funeral home, he felt incredibly inspired to pair up with a team of two other entrepreneurs to create Parting.com.

Through his research, Yamasaki found that 85% of funeral homes were owned by individuals, and that most of those aren’t using technology to manage or market their businesses. This should come to no surprise, however we love that a young entrepreneur has set out to solve this issue of a fragmented industry with a heart-based mission.

On their website, Parting’s mission is listed as:

To empower you with the information to easily find the best funeral service providers. Each of us have experienced first hand how this can be an overwhelming task, and our goal is to make even just one portion of this process easier during your difficult time.

Parting.com has quickly became the “Yelp” or “Angies List” of the funeral profession, listing 15,000 of the 28,000 funeral homes in the United States.

To learn more about Tyler Yamasaki and Parting.com, check out his website.

 

 

 

4. Suelin Chen, CEO of Cake

Source: Twitter

 

After working for years in the healthcare industry, Suelin Chain found herself thinking a lot about how much room for improvement there was in end-of-life care. “We will all die one day, and we all experience loss multiple times throughout our lives–it is so crazy to me that this universal thing we all experience is something we reflect on so rarely and communicate about so poorly,” she says.

When Chen discovered that only  1 in 4 people have an advance care plan in place, she founded Cake, an online planning platform which is, according to their website, “the easiest way to discover, store, and share your end-of-life preferences”.

We love how easy it seems to navigate Cake, and really appreciate their goal, which is to “empower people to live in accordance with their values all the way to the end” says Chen. Cake does all the heavy lifting for you and covers all the necessary topics for making end-of-life decisions – from healthcare to legalities and even life celebration ideas.

To learn more about Suelin Chen and her company Cake, check out her website.

 

 

  1. Felicity Warner, Founder of Soul Midwives

 

Felicity Warner was once a journalist in Healthcare before she took on a career role that could be seen as taboo too many. Warner found herself interviewing many young women who were dying of breast cancer, and soon found out the harsh truth about what it’s like to be dying.

She says that in her interviews, “they were all saying the same thing – how lonely it felt to be dying. They were becoming increasingly distant from their friends and family, who couldn’t cope with the reality and masked it with platitudes, such as, ‘you’ll soon be feeling better.’”

With Warner, however, these dying women found someone who could truly hear them. “I wasn’t too busy, like the doctors who were treating them, and I wasn’t scared of death in the way those close to them were,” she said in a recent interview.

So, Warner became what she calls a Soul Midwife, and started her Soul Midwifery School called Soul Midwives, a UK-based school that prides itself in being “non-medical, holistic companions who guide and support the dying in order to facilitate a gentle and tranquil death,” according to their website.

 

Creating the future of funerals

As a profession, we’re well into some big changes. And it doesn’t take an individual – it takes a collective of people who are ready to embrace a new era. We’re so proud of these 5 Funeralpreneurs for creating the future of funerals, and we want to continue to celebrate and highlight these individuals.

If you know anyone changing the game in a big way with an innovative business idea, let us know in the comments below!

 

Leave a Reply

Note: You can use basic XHTML in your comments.

  1. Andrew Briggs

    We are the world’s only specialist builder of electric hearses.

  2. Lana

    Joseph Bernado is a young, innovative embalmer, funeral director, and inventor. His website mortuarymagic.com just has some ofthe innovative instruments that i personally use daily. His research and science behind his work is second to none. He has a solution for basically anything. He not only invents embalming based instruments and applications, he also has an app called funeralnav thats meant for processions in case someone gets lost , is late, etc. He has some more amazing software and embalming supplies coming out. He had a booth at the NFDA 2017 Conference in Boston. His dedication to educate others to better their techiniques is truly from the heart and he will be the inovator of the year 2109 in this feild without question.

  3. Gail Rubin

    Where’s Caitlin Doughty, founder of The Order of the Good Death, the Death Positive movement, and industry rabble-rouser?

  4. Adelle Archer

    Thanks for the love y’all! We love what you guys are doing as well!

  5. Rilee Chastain

    Gail, we talk about Caitlin a lot in our posts, and will definitely mention her in future ones too! We love her work! Thanks for sharing.

  6. Rilee Chastain

    Thanks for sharing this, Lana! We’ll consider adding Joseph to our next round of Funeralpreneuers!

  7. Rilee Chastain

    We love you, Adelle!

  8. How To Get More Done In Less Time Thanks To Your Funeral Home Website – Philadelphia Insurance Group

    […] of. Plus, you get the power of unique features and tools that help you to be the most successful funeralpreneur you can […]

  9. What Makes a Funeral Home Successful During a Pandemic? – Parks Superior Sales

    […] this goes for your funeral home’s branding, too. Think about funeralpreneurs like Caleb Wilde for example. He’s not trying to be anyone but himself. And now he has a […]