The Booming Electronic Funeral Business

CEO Mike Belsito had an unique idea for business, one that he obtained after the death of his cousin. While he was in the process of trying to plan his cousin's funeral, he realized that there was not a place that he could go to obtain information about prices and compare services of all of the funeral homes in the area. He was troubled by this situation because the reality is that this will be the third largest expense that a person incurs in the course of his or her life. According the Atlantic, Belsito stated that "we had more information on where to go to dinner, where we're spending 40 bucks, than we did for my cousin's funeral."

Therefore, Mr. Belsito created e-Funeral, a business that complies the prices and services that funeral homes offer to their clients. Belsito noted that a funeral is required to disclose their prices and services to people who ask for that information. He took advantage of that principle and started the process of locating all of the information that he needed to start the business. In addition to that service, e-Funeral hopes to earn profits through other means, such as offering Groupons that deal with ancillary funeral services and by marketing for local funeral homes. 

See Alexis C. Madrigal, Bringing Innovation to the Funeral-Home Business (No, Really), The Atlantic, Sept. 24, 2012.

Special thanks to Brian Cohan (Attorney at Law, Law Offices of Brian J. Cohan, P.C.) for bringing this blog to my attention.