The work isn’t always pretty for Shane White and Kyle Fogarty. They’re the co-founders of Midwest Streams, a platform that offers funeral webcasting for funeral homes.

The idea of webcasting a funeral gets a weird reaction, White said. Typically, webcasts are associated with fun things, like concerts or weddings. In fact, when they first began toying with the idea of creating a webcasting platform, White and Fogarty first turned to weddings.

Them and everyone else.

“The wedding video market is saturated,” White said. “There is so much competition.”

Coincidentally, it was at a wedding that White first began to think about webcasting funerals instead. The groom’s father was a funeral director, and told White that people often request webcasting at their funeral home.

“When you think about it, there’s nothing really in the funeral industry, and funerals really suck to miss,” White said. “You don’t want to miss a funeral.”

A $12 billion industry

The concept of webcasting funerals has been gaining traction since 2011. As an LA Times article stated, “The $12-billion funeral industry is going high tech.”

At the time, not many funeral homes offered webcasting. The article quotes John Reed, a past president of the National Funeral Directors Association, who estimated perhaps 20% of funeral homes were webcasting funerals.

However, Reed also predicted that in the next five years, the tech-savvy baby boomers would hit an age that would make funeral streaming more necessary than ever. He expected almost all mortuaries to offer the service.

“Streaming is going to boom because of the baby boomer generation,” Reed said. “They grew up in a more open society and are more comfortable with technology like this.”

Now, four years later, webcasting is on the rise but the industry is still small, White said. As he and Fogarty began doing their research, they found only two other prominent funeral webcasting platforms in the market, and one of them couldn’t even be viewed on mobile devices.

“Funeral webcasting was really new, and I had no idea how to do it,” White said. “But I said, I know we can do this better.”

Launching Midwest Streams

White, an NDSU grad with a degree in computer science, said he had no apprehension jumping into what he calls the “death care industry.” As long as he can remember, he has wanted to run his own business – from starting a lawn mowing service as a 16-year-old high schooler, to a side project DJ company he runs now.

“I’ve probably had 50 business ideas that I’ve given some traction,” he said. “But I was tired of that. I liked this idea, and I decided we’re just going to buckle down and we’re going to do it.”

Using video platforms like Vimeo to iterate off of, White developed a platform specifically tailored to funeral homes. He and Fogarty launched this in March of 2015.

They now have 15 customers throughout the Midwest. They’ve webcasted about 500 funerals, and connected over 20,000 viewers to watch a funeral webcast, White said.

Funeral directors have contacted them, saying more and more people are asking for a webcasting option. They offer packages from $100-200, wherein the funeral director does the filming and Midwest Streams does the live webcasting – “very much like YouTube,” White said. They also offer a mobile app that allows users to view the eulogy statements on any device.

The hardest days, White said, are getting glimpses into the grief and loss that accompanies funerals. On one occasion, they noticed their web traffic had nearly tripled. When they looked into it, they found that the funeral was for a 19-year-old girl.

“Those are the not so fun days,” White said.

It’s not always pretty. But to celebrate a life lived is a meaningful celebration, and their work gives more people that option, White said.

Recently, a mom in Wisconsin gave birth to her child the day before her grandma’s funeral. Because Midwest Streams was webcasting, she was able to watch the funeral from the hospital, White said.

“Stories like that make it worth it,” he said.

 

Come see Shane White and learn more about Midwest Streams tomorrow, September 9, at 1 Million Cups: 9:15 am, at the Stage at Island Park.

Photos courtesy of Shane White.