If death and taxes are inevitable, then why are businesses so well-prepared for taxes, but not for death?
“I lost both of my parents in college, and it didn’t initially spark this interest to go start a business around my experience,”
said Bereave co-founder Elijah Linder.
When Bereave co-founder Elijah Linder unexpectedly lost both of his parents during college, he never imagined that it would lead him to start a business. But in 2020, when co-founder Matt Tyner’s mother passed away, the two of them came up with the idea to create something that could have made their own experiences even slightly less agonizing.
“I’ve always had the entrepreneurial drive, but I was waiting for the right problem and mission to pursue,” Linder revealed.
To better understand how they could make the most impact, Linder and his team, including CEO Justin Clifford, held a series of interviews with individuals who had experienced loss.
“In these conversations, people would talk about who they lost and when they lost them. But then they would also mention how their manager responded,” Clifford explained to TechCrunch. “And that’s when it hit us – why were they even talking about their manager in this context?”
It became clear that navigating grief in the workplace is an immense struggle for many individuals. Therefore, Bereave decided to create a B2B product to sell to employers, who can then offer it to their employees in times of need. The platform is designed to provide resources and guidance for those experiencing loss, walking them through the necessary steps for handling a loved one’s affairs. Currently, the company has about 12 clients who pay an annual fee based on the number of employees they have – for example, a business with 100 employees would pay $1,000 per year, while a business with 1,000 employees would pay $5,500.
Clifford pointed out that most death tech companies that enter the B2B market tend to focus on a specific aspect, such as counseling or one particular piece of the puzzle. In contrast, Bereave’s approach is to bring everything together and offer a comprehensive solution.
“The mental toll of grief can be compounded by the overwhelming list of tasks that need to be done after someone passes away – such as dealing with taxes, canceling insurance, transferring credit card and bank accounts, and handling wills,” Clifford elaborated. “Our goal is to eliminate the need for individuals to think about these tasks by providing a comprehensive checklist.”
In times of crisis, having a checklist to follow can be invaluable, which is why this model already exists in other HR products. Tall Poppy, for example, offers digital safety guidance to employees dealing with online harassment and hacks, also using step-by-step checklists.
Image Credits: Bereave
Aside from offering a few days of mourning leave and maybe some counseling sessions, employers typically don’t have much support in this area. This is where Bereave comes in. On the employer side, the company provides resources that outline how to support an employee through a loss or what to do if an employee passes away. These resources are also helpful for team members, including modules that explain how to sensitively discuss loss and even suggest what kinds of food to provide for a grieving family.
“Businesses plan for everything – maternity leave, FMLA, and other expected events. But death is often unexpected and unplanned for,” Clifford emphasized. “Our software provides HR departments with the necessary tools and resources so they can act quickly and efficiently.”
The decision to create software and sell it to employers is a smart one. HR departments are more likely to seek out and pay for these types of resources, and as the Bereave team discovered during their research, the funeral industry is not always quick to adapt to new offerings. However, it will take some time for Bereave to grow into the service it aims to become.
“We are currently in the process of fundraising to create an enterprise-grade system that streamlines the process even further,” Clifford shared. “Our goal is for HR professionals and managers to be able to automate responses, so they don’t have to think about what they need to do when these situations arise.”
