Lakewood Man Reinventing the Funeral Home Industry

Ever heard of a Death Café?

If not, that’s OK. The topics of death and dying aren’t always the most comfortable subjects.

The Lakewood resident who helped launch eFuneral — a burgeoning online funeral planning website — is now hosting a couple of free public workshops to talk about those very topics.

(And, yes, one of them is called a Death Café)

Mike Belsito launched eFuneral, along with partner, Bryan Chaikin, in June 2011, following the unexpected death of Belsito’s cousin.

In just a couple years, the start-up company has continued its ascent. More than 75 hospice organizations, hospitals and nursing homes now recommend eFuneral to families they serve. 

“I think eFuneral appeals to people because we're empowering people to make more informed choices,” said Belsito. “To some, funeral planning is daunting. It's not easy to get pricing information or understand the quality that various funeral homes provide.”

The Cleveland-based start-up has been getting all sorts of media attention lately — from The Atlantic to Money Magazine.

Now, the eFuneral founders are hosting a couple of free “in-person” events for the first time to help bring the message home. 

Belsito says the Death Café concept is “sprouting up” all over the world. In a nutshell, a Death Café is less-formal get-together where topics like death and dying “can be talked about in a more relaxed setting.”  This will be the first event of its kind hosted in the Cleveland area.  It’s slated to take place at Gypsy Bean Coffee in the Gordon Square neighborhood of Cleveland on April 10.

And tonight, eFuneral is hosting the event 10 Things You Need To Know About Advance Planning at the Lakewood Public Library starting at 6 p.m. The free workshop will feature an estate planner, financial planner and a social worker to discuss advance planning.   

Before launching eFuneral, Belsito and Chaikin were both early employees at Findaway World and worked closely together there to — wait for it — launch new products.

Then Belsito’s cousin died unexpectedly.

“It happened suddenly, and since there were several funeral homes located just within a few miles from us — we weren't sure which was better than the other and what prices they charged. It became clear that it wasn't easy to be an informed funeral consumer — and this was the big problem we wanted to solve.”

Since then, the company has added five full-time employees and one part-time employee — including an on-staff licensed independent social worker.

“It would normally take people hours or even days to get this information,” said Belsito. “Yet eFuneral makes it possible to reduce this to a matter of a few minutes.”

The best part?

“There’s no cost for families to use the bulk of our services,” added Belsito.