Free online funeral planning service sets sights on US market

"Organising a funeral is especially hard if you have no experience of doing so and don't know where to begin," says Valerie Vetter, co-founder of aftering, a new free-to-use onlinefuneral planning resource aimed at the Irish and US markets.

“The idea for aftering came from my experience of coping with the whole funeral process when my parents died,” Vetter says. “You have only one opportunity to get it right and planning a funeral is both very personal and very daunting. If you belong to organised religion it’s easier as they have well established pathways. It’s a lot more difficult when it’s a secular funeral. There is no template.”

Vetter points out that those who are grieving are often overwhelmed and can find it difficult to absorb all of the information coming at them.

“There is a real need for a simple, clearly written, visually calming and practical one-stop shop to help people during this time,” she says. “Online offerings in this space tend to be piecemeal and impersonal. Our aim is to provide everything people need in one caring environment.”

Research by the four-strong aftering team into people’s experience of dealing with death showed that they would use an online platform to plan and prepare for a funeral. “Their key concerns were around expense and not knowing how to organise personalised funerals,” Vetter says.

“Other significant life events are well served online but not death. This is a big problem for vulnerable bereaved people who can end up spending more than they intend. They also told us about the vacuum when the funeral is over as nobody tells you how to go about organising all the painful details and form-filling that follows the death of a loved one.”

Aftering was founded by Vetter and Geraldine Sweeney in September 2014. It has been tightly bootstrapped and financed from personal resources and support from the National Digital Research Centre where the company participated in its Launchpad accelerator programme for new businesses. Vetter estimates development costs to date at around €40,000.

This is Vetter’s second start-up. She co-founded a contract digital publishing company (that is still in business although she is no longer involved) in 1999.

Vetter has dual Irish-US citizenship and the company has its sights set firmly on capturing a chunk of the $20 billion US death care industry. The company has already tested two versions of its platform in the US and a pilot version is now up and running there and in Ireland. Additional features will be added in the coming months.

“There is a lot of universality when it comes to death so it’s not difficult to straddle both markets,” Vetter says. “It is only when it comes to specifics such as legal and financial issues and suppliers that the content has to be localised. We are in the process of building partnerships and relationships with industry service providers both in Ireland and the US and will work with them to market the platform.”

While aftering is a resource for the bereaved, it also provides related businesses with an opportunity to showcase their products. “Small firms and makers of memorial items have huge challenges finding an audience due to a lack of knowledge around online marketing. Aftering aims to provide a shop window for many innovative and helpful products and services,” Vetter says.

Aftering will make its money in three ways. Funeral directors will be invited to sign up for an annual fee; it will offer a printing service for mourning stationery; and those providing products such as caskets and urns can pay to advertise. “Our mission is to guide people through a difficult time but also to create a trusted business with core values of honesty and sensitivity,” Vetter says.

Olive Keogh