Start-up Society #61: The Death Tech Issue
Keeping the American Dream Alive
Welcome to the 61st edition of Start-up Society! This is a weekly blog that promotes nationwide entrepreneurship and highlights some of the most exciting start-ups in the country striving to keep the American Dream alive.
Make sure you check out the previous issue, if you have not already, here!
What do you do after a loved one passes away? How do you plan a funeral? What legal procedures are needed to be done in order to wrap up their affairs? These are tough questions with opaque answers. Luckily, there is a fast-growing emerging sector that is helping to bring clarity to some of these issues: Death Tech.
This week, we are going to be talking about a topic that seems depressing but is entirely essential in today's day and age — end-of-life planning. The median deal value in this industry is $2.65 million, which is up 194% from last year according to Pitchbook data. We are going to take a look at two major players in the space and dive into how they are making the end-of-life planning process easier on society.
California
Trust & Will
HQ: San Diego
Founded: 2017
Total Employees: 53 (on LinkedIn)
About the Company
- The ‘Turbo Tax of Planning’, Trust & Will is modernizing the trust and estate planning industry with an easy, fast, and secure way to set up your estate plan online.
- The digital estate planning start-up offers three products:
– Trust-based estate plan, to avoid probate with a plan for the protection and transfer of important assets.
– Will-based estate plan, for who will look after children and what should happen to assets, if something happens.
– Guardian, for parents with minor children who aren’t ready to create a complete Will.
- Customers pay an upfront setup fee based on which product they choose, and then they pay a smaller recurring annual subscription fee.
- The company has built up a number of banking and financial planning relationships with institutions such as Fifth Third Bank, AARP, and fintech savings startup Acorns. All three of these institutions also invested in Trust & Will!
- In November 2020, the company announced its $15 million Series B round of financing. The round was led by Jackson Square Ventures, with participation from Fifth Third Capital Holdings, Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures, AARP, Rosecliff Ventures, Hack VC, Actium Partners, Link Ventures, Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, Western Technology Investments (WTI), Halogen Ventures, Luma Launch, Techstars Ventures, Noah Kerner (CEO at Acorns), and Jeff Cruttenden (Co-Founder at Say and Acorns).
Meet the Team
Cody Barbo, Co-Founder & CEO
- Cody got the idea for the company when he and other team members were starting to get married, have kids and also begin thinking about whether they had a will or a trust.
- Prior to Trust & Will, Cody served as Founder & CEO of Industry, a ‘LinkedIn’ for the service and hospitality industry, where he took the company from idea to helping tens of thousands of hospitality professionals move up in their careers.
- As a volunteer, Cody serves on the San Diego State University Alumni Board and Phi Kappa Theta Fraternity’s National Foundation Board.
- Cody earned his degree in Communication from San Diego State University in 2012.
Daniel Goldstein, Co-Founder & COO
- Previously, Daniel served as the VP of Strategy and Business Development at Seamgen, a custom software firm focused on design and development of mobile and web applications.
- Prior, he served as the Director of Business Development at another custom software firm called Punchkick.
- Daniel earned his degree in Business, Finance and Real Estate from Baylor University — Hankamer School of Business.
Brian Lamb, Co-Founder & Head of Product
- Previously, Brian served as the VP of User Experience at Seamgen — where he worked alongside Daniel.
- Prior, Brian worked as a Senior Designer at Ninthlink, BASIC, and LJG Digital.
- Brian earned his Cody earned his degree in Art & Graphic Design from San Diego State University in 2006.
The Start-up Society Assessment
- Things are changing fast in the estate planning vertical. Trust & Will originally only worked in Nevada due to the state laws around digital wills, now the company has attorneys who can assist clients in multiple states. Trust & Will has also conducted the first electronic will in Florida’s history, an important center in the estate-planning industry.
- Trust & Will has fortified itself as the leader of the digital estate planning market, and as more states put in place digital wills and estate planning laws, this market is only set to expand in the coming years.
Go Deeper
Trust & Will Review: Pros & Cons
Trust & Will Raises $15M in Series B Round
Trust & Will raises $15M as digital estate planning hits mainstream
Massachusetts
Cake
HQ: Boston
Founded: 2015
Total Employees: 21 (on LinkedIn)
About the Company
- Cake provides a digital platform that makes it easier to do advance care planning and end-of-life planning.
- With thousands of articles and innovative planning tools, Cake is a one-stop-shop for all aspects of death and end-of-life including healthcare, funerals, financial and legal concerns, making meaning in your life, and curating your digital legacy.
- The start-up uses AI and NLP technology at scale to improve the user experience in end-of-life planning. In addition to consumer-facing tools, the company also has a business line building custom advance care and end-of-life planning solutions for health systems, health plans, insurance companies, and banks.
- Cake has also led the industry in providing end-of-life planning resources that address racial equity. As such, the company’s reach skyrocketed, growing more than 10x last year, and serving more than 30 million people annually.
- On July 22, 2021, the company raised $3.7m in funding. Backers included new investors AARP, InHealth Ventures (IHV), Two Lanterns, Portfolia’s Aging and Longevity Fund, Scrum Ventures, Reflect Ventures, and existing investors GoAhead Ventures, Pillar, and OCA Ventures, as well as angel investors Arnold Whitman, Bill Hambrecht, and Betsy Hambrecht. The company intends to use the funds to continue to expand operations and its business reach.
Meet the Team
Suelin Chen, Founder & CEO
- Prior to starting Cake, Suelin served as Director of The Lab @ Harvard University, advised healthcare companies on their commercial strategy at IMS Health Capital, and earned her B.S. and Ph.D. from MIT, where she engineered new medical technologies to support doctors and patients in making better treatment decisions.
- She was named to the Fortune 40 under 40 list and the Care 100 list for being one of the most influential people in care.
Alastair Brown, CMO
- Prior, Alastair served as the Chief Marketing Officer for Buoy Health — a free digital health tool.
- Previously, he was a Digital Marketing and Product consultant for a range of businesses in the Boston area. He also served in product management roles at several companies including Grommet and Tripadvisor.
- He earned his B.A. in Economics from Cornell University, his Master’s in Operations Research from Cornell Johnson Graduate School of Management, and his J.D. from Boston University School of Law.
Thomas Christmann, CTO
- Thomas has been a software developer since 1998, working for many Fortune 50 companies in his career.
- His experience includes leading a team that made mobile websites for eBay, consulting web hosters throughout Europe on Microsoft server technologies, and creating infrastructure tools for Skype for Business.
- Thomas is a German college dropout who came to the United States in 2010.
The Start-up Society Assessment
- “The pandemic sped up existing trends in consumer views on end-of-life,” says Suelin Chen, Cake’s CEO. “We’ve seen increased demand and decreased stigma around end-of-life topics. This has not only led to spiking consumer engagement but also a surge of interest from enterprises that serve these consumers and view end-of-life planning as an essential part of people’s health and financial well-being.”
- While this sentiment seems chilling, we agree with it. For better or worse, society is starting to think about death sooner and more often. Fortunately, we have Cake to make the experience of navigating mortality a bit less morbid.
Go Deeper
Cake Raises $3.7M to Expand End-of-Life Planning Offerings Amidst Growing Demand
Thank you for reading this article! Feel free to leave a comment, clap, and follow. Stay tuned for next week’s write-up, posted every Monday at 5 AM ET.
Authored by Arteen Zahiri, Rumeer Keshwani, and Elham Chowdhury
