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I made a $2M funeral startup and became a monster

theguardian.com

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Re: I made a $2M funeral startup and became a monster

#41

Post by rualca »

beaconstudios wrote: post #39
rualca wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Funerals are traditionally handled by the church, You're somehow assuming that a religious organization does not operate as a corporation, even down to the invoices.

Charging money does not make something a corporation. Though I'm aware of the financialised nature of some American churches, I'm talking from a British perspective where that isn't the case (as far as I am aware, I don't personally attend church). Either way, I don't think there's as much moral hazard if you're charging someone at cost as part of a communal service, compared to trying to squeeze as much profit as po…

> Charging money does not make something a corporation.

In your opinion, other than the different taxation schemes, what's the difference between a religious organization and a corporation?

Specially if both types or org charge to provide the exact same service.

Re: I made a $2M funeral startup and became a monster

#42

Post by beaconstudios »

rualca wrote: post #41
beaconstudios wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Charging money does not make something a corporation. Though I'm aware of the financialised nature of some American churches, I'm talking from a British perspective where that isn't the case (as far as I am aware, I don't personally attend church). Either way, I don't think there's as much moral hazard if you're charging someone at cost as part of a communal service, compared to trying to squeeze as much profit as po…

> Charging money does not make something a corporation. In your opinion, other than the different taxation schemes, what's the difference between a religious organization and a corporation? Specially if both types or org charge to provide the exact same service.

if you mean some televangelist megachurch then sure, they're basically the same thing.

I was thinking of local parishes, which have historically existed as a communal centre and hub of support for a community.

I genuinely don't understand how you'd think that enlisting a professional service versus your local community to deal with a bereavement would not be different? That's like saying that the only difference between paying somebody to be your friend versus having a legitimate friend is only different because money changed hands?

Re: I made a $2M funeral startup and became a monster

#43

Post by deadlyllama »

beaconstudios wrote: post #37
rualca wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wishing that a service should be provided by a community instead of a business does not address the fact that it is a service, and one which has a constant demand and an inherent need to be offloaded to a third party. Once specialization is demanded from the service, the "communal" label becomes meaningless.

It /did/ used to be provided by communities. Funerals are traditionally handled by the church, an arrangement which seemed to work for a long time and doesn't contain the dilemma of impersonal and potentially exploitative interactions that entail commercial transactions. Communities have specialisations too. Unfortunately the community seems to be dying with the secularisation of society which only leaves government…

Even when the church holds the funeral - often at no charge if its a member of the church who has died, and for a small suggested donation for others - a funeral director handles the body. And that costs thousands and thousands of dollars. My Dad's church funeral cost NZ$15,000 and the church would have seen less than NZ$1,000 of that.

Re: I made a $2M funeral startup and became a monster

#44

Post by beaconstudios »

deadlyllama wrote: post #43
beaconstudios wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It /did/ used to be provided by communities. Funerals are traditionally handled by the church, an arrangement which seemed to work for a long time and doesn't contain the dilemma of impersonal and potentially exploitative interactions that entail commercial transactions. Communities have specialisations too. Unfortunately the community seems to be dying with the secularisation of society which only leaves government…

Even when the church holds the funeral - often at no charge if its a member of the church who has died, and for a small suggested donation for others - a funeral director handles the body. And that costs thousands and thousands of dollars. My Dad's church funeral cost NZ$15,000 and the church would have seen less than NZ$1,000 of that.

That's a tremendous amount of money. I'm sure the church bringing in professional services to handle funerals is a more modern innovation too. The ideal in my head is that it would be entirely handled by the community - I presume this ideal existed in the past, though I'm not sure how far back you'd have to go per-locality. In the UK where I live, churchgoers also are typically buried by a funeral director, so I'm not talking about something that still exists AFAIK.

Also, I'm sorry for your loss.

Re: I made a $2M funeral startup and became a monster

#45

Post by 55555 »

jiofih wrote: post #14
55555 wrote: post #4

A common source of loss for investors. Funding someone in a moment of strength who ends up not having the nerve to follow through on what they said they could do. Or weakness, depending on whether you look at it from a business perspective or a moral perspective.

Yeah, they should have found a stronger con man.

Yes. If you're going to hire a mercenary, you should hire one who is unbothered by killing. But don't just take their word for it; many people will be confident they can do a job that few actually can.

Re: I made a $2M funeral startup and became a monster

#47

Post by wutbrodo »

fuzxi wrote: post #35
wutbrodo wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don’t want to read into this too far but I hope the author doesn’t blame himself for all this I dunno, the whole "business turned me into a monster" bit is a little thin given that he opens his story with a VC pitch that he secures by melodramatically faking grief over his uncle's death. The guy seems like a little bit of a psycho, who became a little more of a psycho through desensitization.

The business idea is solid at its core but he describes getting turned down because he didn't superficially "fit" as a funeral director. People tell sob stories for little gain all the time, so I don't think telling a small one to get his company off the ground makes him a psycho.

De gustibus non est disputandum, I suppose. Faking crocodile tears over a family member's recent death is well over the psycho line for me, and "but he had to if he wanted to get money!" is not an especially convincing rebuttal.

Re: I made a $2M funeral startup and became a monster

#48

Post by dangus »

AndrewOMartin wrote: post #20
foxyv wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just a funny thought, but ladders about 3 feet tall are significantly more dangerous than the ladders in wind turbines. Not that they are more pants poopingly scary though. https://cultureofsafety.thesilverlining.com/safety-blog/2013...

Similar thoughts on the same idea here. Taking The Emergency Exit From A Wind Turbine - Tom Scott https://youtu.be/UWSckm8zTc8?t=80

I thought of my original comparison because I had watched that video!!

Re: I made a $2M funeral startup and became a monster

#49

Post by dangus »

foxyv wrote: post #6
dangus wrote: post #2

I don’t want to read into this too far but I hope the author doesn’t blame himself for all this. I thought the article was an indictment of our culture’s relationship with death more than anything being wrong with Grace itself. So many families simply don’t have a plan for what happens after they die. They leave it until the death actually happens, a time when nobody really wants to be talking money. Of course, Grace…

Just a funny thought, but ladders about 3 feet tall are significantly more dangerous than the ladders in wind turbines. Not that they are more pants poopingly scary though. https://cultureofsafety.thesilverlining.com/safety-blog/2013...

I guess I'll have to bump my ladder limit down to 2 feet! ;-)

Re: I made a $2M funeral startup and became a monster

#50

Post by foxyv »

rightbyte wrote: post #19
foxyv wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just a funny thought, but ladders about 3 feet tall are significantly more dangerous than the ladders in wind turbines. Not that they are more pants poopingly scary though. https://cultureofsafety.thesilverlining.com/safety-blog/2013...

If elderly would climb wind turbines I guess those numbers would change.

Or if people climbing 3 foot ladders did so in full harness using an ascending device.
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