Ventures

Most urban funeral homes don't own crematories. They rely on third-party providers, destroying margins (often 40%+ lost to outsourcing) and creating chain-of-custody nightmares. Families have no visibility into the process.

We operate a tech-enabled central cremation facility serving 100+ funeral homes. Funeral directors retain the family relationship; we handle all technical operations with transparent tracking, quality controls, and simple per-case pricing.

Target: Metropolitan areas with 200+ funeral homes and limited crematory infrastructure.

• Revenue: $450 per cremation (market rate: $300–600)
• Unit economics: 55% gross margin at scale
• Payback period: 18 months on capex

• Pilot market selected (Chicago metro)
• 22 funeral homes under LOI for partnership
• Facility site identified; permitting in progress
• Tech platform in beta (tracking + compliance)

Seeking $4.5M Series Seed to acquire facility, complete buildout, and fund 12 months of operations. Target: 500 cases/month by Month 18.

Memorial product market is polarized: $50 commodity urns on Amazon vs. $5,000+ artisan pieces. The $500–$1,500 segment—where most families actually want to shop—is poorly served by outdated funeral home selection rooms.

A DTC brand with 12 core SKUs, modern aesthetic, and accessible pricing. Manufactured on-demand to eliminate inventory risk. Marketed directly to families online while offering funeral homes white-label integration at wholesale.

TAM: $2.8B annual memorial product spend in US (2M+ cremations/year).

• Average order value: $750
• Gross margin: 62% (DTC), 38% (B2B wholesale)
• CAC: $85 (paid social + SEO)

• Product line finalized (12 SKUs across 3 categories)
• Manufacturing partners identified and contracted
• Brand identity and e-commerce platform complete
• Pre-launch waitlist: 340 families

Seeking $1.8M Seed to fund inventory, customer acquisition, and first 18 months of operations. Target: $2.5M revenue Year 1.

Grief support ends when the funeral ends. Families are left to navigate the hardest months—6, 12, 18 months post-loss—without structure, community, or guidance. Existing services are either clinical (expensive therapy) or ad-hoc (support groups). Cost creates barriers for those who need help most.

A nonprofit longitudinal grief infrastructure providing milestone-based outreach, peer matching, and warm handoffs to licensed professionals. Services are free or sliding-scale to eliminate financial barriers. Structured as a 501(c)(3) to prioritize mission over margin and enable philanthropic funding.

Blended nonprofit funding strategy:

• Foundation grants (focus: mental health, community wellness)
• Individual donations and planned giving
• Corporate sponsorships from funeral service industry
• Fee-for-service contracts with municipalities and health systems
• Earned revenue from professional training programs

• Clinical framework developed with grief counselors
• Pilot partnerships: 8 funeral homes (450 families/year)
• Platform MVP in development
• Network of 40 licensed therapists committed to pro-bono hours
• 501(c)(3) application in progress

Seeking $2.2M in philanthropic capital and grants to launch nonprofit, build platform, and fund 24 months of operations. Target: 5,000 active families served by Month 18, all at no cost or sliding scale.

Deathcare education is stuck in 1950. Most professionals learn via apprenticeship (quality depends entirely on mentor) or through outdated mortuary science programs. There's no scalable, competency-based training for the skills that actually matter: family communication, ethical decision-making, modern operations.

An online academy offering micro-credentials in specific competencies: difficult family conversations, cultural competency, compliance automation, pricing transparency, etc. Scenario-based learning with role-play simulations and peer review.

Revenue: Individual subscriptions + B2B enterprise licenses for funeral home chains.

• Individual: $149/month or $1,200/year
• Enterprise: $5,000/location/year (unlimited staff)
• State CE credit partnerships generate referral revenue

Currently in stealth development. Curriculum design underway with industry advisors. Platform architecture finalized. Target public launch: Q3 2026.

We're operators first, not software vendors. As we build and scale Metro Cremation Logistics and our other ventures, we're developing best-in-class operational technology—not to sell subscriptions, but to run better businesses. When we identify operators who share our commitment to quality and transparency, we license our tools to create network effects and industry-wide standards.

• Real-time case tracking with mobile scanning (originally built for our central cremation facility)
• Automated GPL generation and pricing compliance (tested across our B2B funeral home network)
• Family-facing portal with transparent updates (deployed in our consumer-facing ventures)
• Incident management and audit trails (regulatory compliance infrastructure)

We don't offer public SaaS subscriptions. We license to:

• Strategic partners in our cremation network who meet quality standards
• Regional operators we may acquire or partner with long-term
• Institutional buyers seeking enterprise deployment (private equity-backed chains, municipal operators)

Licensing generates ancillary revenue while strengthening our core operations and creating industry-wide quality benchmarks.

• Platform deployed internally across 3 pilot facilities
• Core workflows validated (intake through final disposition)
• Family portal NPS: 78 (industry avg: 42)
• 2 strategic licensing discussions underway with regional operators

This technology infrastructure creates defensibility across all our ventures, reduces operational risk, and generates margin improvement through automation. Licensing revenue is secondary to the strategic value of running better operations and setting industry standards.

Deathcare is a necessity, but access is unequal. Low-income families face impossible choices: burial they can't afford vs. direct cremation with no ceremony. Municipal programs exist (indigent burial funds) but are poorly designed, under-funded, and stigmatizing to use.

We're exploring how municipalities can partner with private operators to create dignified, accessible baseline services—sliding-scale pricing, community memorial spaces, and pre-planning education—without creating bureaucratic nightmares or displacing existing businesses.

• Stakeholder interviews: 12 municipalities, 8 community organizations
• Policy framework draft in development
• Pilot city identified (pending municipal approval)
• Exploring hybrid funding (municipal contracts + philanthropic capital)

Publishing white paper Q1 2026; seeking municipal partner for 24-month pilot program; exploring 501(c)(3) structure to blend public funding with private operations.