By Alyssa Mease/The Times of Trenton
After the unexpected death of her uncle two years ago, Rachel Zeldin found herself helping to plan a funeral for the first time.
Without any experience, she turned to the internet, which the 27-year-old said she uses to plan everything from dinner out to vacations. Her uncle had not made any preparations and Zeldin said she found the process overwhelming. Within a 10-mile radius of her parents’ home in Yardley, Pa., she said there are 70 funeral homes. She spent three days calling around to inquire about the services they offered.
She wasn’t able to find a website that compared all of them in a similar format, and there were no reviews of the services online, she said.
After the unexpected death of her uncle two years ago, Rachel Zeldin found herself helping to plan a funeral for the first time.
Without any experience, she turned to the internet, which the 27-year-old said she uses to plan everything from dinner out to vacations. Her uncle had not made any preparations and Zeldin said she found the process overwhelming. Within a 10-mile radius of her parents’ home in Yardley, Pa., she said there are 70 funeral homes. She spent three days calling around to inquire about the services they offered.
She wasn’t able to find a website that compared all of them in a similar format, and there were no reviews of the services online, she said.
Seeing a need in the market, Zeldin, who worked in finance in Canada, quit her job and created imsorrytohear.com, a funeral planning website that offers a directory of funeral homes, information about planning funerals and space for comments and reviews.
The website is live in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, but Zeldin said she plans to expand it to New York, West Virginia and Maryland soon.
“There’s TripAdvisor to plan your vacation, there’s Urbanspoon to find a restaurant, there’s WeddingWire to plan your wedding, but here we are planning a major life event and there isn’t one tool that can give us all of our answers. That was really frustrating,” Zeldin said.
I'm Sorry to Hear allows users to search for specific services, such as cremation or a traditional Greek burial, and gives them the ability to leave comments about their experiences.
“I want to say that I’m looking for a funeral home within a 10-mile radius of me that specializes in cremation. So instead of making 10 phone calls I can make three,” Zeldin said.
Getting attention
Since the site launched in October, it has been getting about 1,000 visitors per month. Zeldin said she is looking forward to having that number go “up, up and up” as the site spreads to more states.
“About 30,000 people die in Pennsylvania each month. So if that many people die but only 1,000 visit my site, I know there’s a lot of room to grow,” Zeldin said.
She said she never imagined being a part of the funeral planning industry, and she doesn’t have a desire to be a part of it other than the educational aspect. She imagined she would work for an international company, but after doing that for five years, she was unhappy, she said.
“I was frustrated with this gap in the market, and I wasn’t satisfied with my job anyway, and I wanted a job that made a difference in the world,” Zeldin said.
I'm Sorry to Hear is still in the awareness-building phase, Zeldin said. She is trying to generate more site traffic and reviews.
“It’s so difficult to plan a funeral without any prior experience. When I go out to eat I ask my friends about their experiences at restaurants. I go to Yelp or Urbanspoon. This is the same thing. Even though it’s a sensitive thing, I think it’s our responsibility to tell one another so we can make better decisions,” Zeldin said.
More than a list
Zeldin spent five months studying graphic design in Tel Aviv, Israel. She wanted to learn how to create business cards and advertising materials, but hired a boutique graphic design firm out of Toronto to create the website.
She then moved back into her parents’ house and hired two local employees to gather information about funeral homes in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. In Pennsylvania alone, there are 1,600 funeral homes, she said.
“So my website isn’t a directory, that wasn’t my aim. My aim was to provide more than a directory, so I identified what information I would want to know if I was planning a funeral. What professional organizations do they belong to? Are they corporate owned? The soft data,” Zeldin said.
Her employees spent about a month going through the list of funeral homes in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware and verifying that the information on their websites was correct. That information, along with funeral planning checklists, casket guides and a glossary of industry terms was uploaded to the website.
Zeldin spends her days going to networking events and working out of coffee shops or her home. She writes an educational blog each week, which can be found on the website. She has applied to be a part of accelerator programs, which are three-month programs put together by investors to help start-ups get off the ground, she said. She also provides all of the user name and password support to users and manages advertising accounts with Twitter and Google.
“I hope I get to the point where I can hire people full time. I don’t want to be that Fortune 500 company, but I want to hire a team to maintain the site,” Zeldin said.
Reaction from funeral homes has been mixed, Zeldin said.
Some funeral directors think the website is a good idea but are unsure what to do with it, and others think of it as just another directory, she said. Zeldin said she hopes that as more people add reviews of funeral homes, the site will look more like an educational resource.
“I wanted to do something that made an impact, and it was only after we went through the funeral planning for my uncle that I realized that this is where I can make an impact. I can find this information for people and give it to them on a silver platter. And I like what I’m doing. It’s more about consumer advocacy and education than it is about funerals,” Zeldin said.
