Facebook’s Death Problem And The Start-Up That Seized It

Chances are if you are on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn, you have been invited to reconnect with the dead— a friend or acquaintance who recently passed, but lives on in that ever-ubiquitous social algorithm, nudging you to write on their wall or add them to your professional network.

Social networks have had an increasingly difficult time tackling the “death problem.” According to ComScore, people aged 55 and older continue to be Facebook’s fastest growing demographic. With that aging inevitably comes dying: Some one million people on Facebook passed away last year. Based on current trends, another 50 million users are expected to die in 2015.

Recognizing their shared experience and the dearth of tasteful memorial sites online, the three quit their day jobs—Good and Huneycutt from McKinsey and Co., Adler from prestigious Portland-based advertising firm Wieden & Kennedy—to fly to San Francisco, check into the airport hotel and start cranking out code for 1000Memories.com.

Several months later they applied and were accepted to Paul Graham’s Y-Combinator program. By demo day, 1000Memories.com was born. The site allowed family and friends to upload bios, leave messages for the deceased, share photos, stories, songs and videos. The site now includes a foundation tool allowing loved ones to set up a foundation in memory of the deceased and collect donations to a cause of their choice. To avoid the ickiness of funeral home pop-up ads, the team has shunned the traditional advertising model in favor of a “freemium” approach. The site is free for all to use, but will soon include an option to upgrade, or order a book of shared photos and memories.

Today, the San Francisco start-up will announce it has raised $2.5 million in a Series A financing led by Greylock Partners. A list of premier angel investors also participated, including the always-prolific Ron Conway, Flickr co-founder Caterina Fake, Floodgate Capital’s Mike Maples, Keith Rabois, Chris Sacca and others. The round brings total funding to $3 million since the company graduated from Y-combinator last August.