Cake, the start-up that helps you prepare for your end of life

How about sending your loved ones a message from the Hereafter, via your Facebook account, after your death? Or turn your ashes into a pendant-mounted diamond? Or to have a Viking burial? Cake, a free website, allows you to plan your funeral and stores your last wishes in the cloud (obviously!), Which will be communicated to the person of your choice. The platform is organized into several themes – burial, commemoration, health, digital… – and has the merit of forcing us to ask delicate questions: AC / DC or Mozart for the ceremony? Biodegradable casket or shroud? What to do with his photos on his phone? Who should I entrust with medical decisions if I am no longer lucid? Do these questions sound a bit macabre? “No,” retorts Suelin Chen, the site’s co-founder. Until now, this kind of discussion took place only at the doctor’s or the notary’s. This preparation, she says, “must be seen as a celebration of the moments of her life (hence the name, by the way, of Cake) and it is a gift to your loved ones”.

The long dusty funeral directors industry is modernizing and several start-ups have been created to allow the future deceased to leave clear instructions, which, at least in theory, avoid family quarrels. Suelin Chen came up with the idea for Cake when she was working in the healthcare industry. “There is a big gap between the wishes of individuals and reality. 80% of Americans, for example, say they want to die at home, but 80% actually die in hospital. And then she was constantly faced with the dilemma: should we resort to medical treatments that prolong life even if the quality of life suffers?

Embedding your ashes in a coral reef

With Mark Zhang, a specialist in palliative care, in 2015 she launched the start-up which tackles all subjects related to death: how to write your obituary, the 25 best Beatles songs to play at a funeral, 9 tips for face a rapacious family… Depending on your tastes, the site even concocts the ideal epitaph for you. “The idea is to present options. Most people want to be cremated, but they don’t know that we can do a lot of things with the ashes: integrate them into an artificial coral reef, compress them into a 33 rpm record, send them into space … », Continues Suelin Chen. Cake users have no shortage of original ideas: one wants an urn on the theme of Harry Potter, another wants us to put in his beer … a case of beer.

The Boston start-up is not alone in modernizing the death market. Good Trust offers a service which “cleans” the digital accounts of the deceased, closes them, puts an end to subscriptions… Memories allows its users to send a video or a message to their loved ones. The ad shows a kid whose grandfather has just died. Many years later, on his 18th birthday, he receives a text. When he opens it, it’s a video of his grandfather wishing him a happy birthday and saying: “I’m very proud of the great young man you have become.” I will always be near you. ”

Ten times more visitors to Cake in six months

Cake has raised $ 3 million from investors and derives its income from partnerships. Since the pandemic, traffic has exploded. “It is now less taboo to discuss his death. People are more aware of their mortality, ”says Suelin Chen. In January, the site recorded 200,000 monthly visits. It’s over 2 million today. Visitors are also younger. Those under 35 represent 47% of traffic. Cake has adapted its offer. She created a Covid Medical Preferences form, developed an entire section on Zoom funerals, which have become very popular, and expanded on examples of condolences.

When, in April, Suelin Chen learned that a colleague’s grandfather had died from the virus, she was unsure how to show her sympathy without sending an overly impersonal message. She therefore consulted… Cake and was inspired by an article on the site. She had soup and cookies sent with a card: “If and when you feel like it, I would very much like you to tell me about your grandfather.”