The idea started with some wine and family on a Christmas Eve night.

Passingon co-founder Kayla Burrows, who has been a licensed funeral director for nine years, said she was dishing on challenges she’s seen in the funeral industry over the years. She and her brother Connor, who is a co-founder and a SAIT grad in supply management, talked that holiday night about how they could fix these issues.

“Those frustrations actually stemmed back to my time working in funeral homes,” she said.

“Families have essentially not much to work on. There’s not actively resources that are up to date that give them all their options.”

Kayla said that if there were resources out there, they were often pushing people in one direction or another.

So, Kayla and Connor, along with fellow co-founder Will Warren, launched Passingon Funeral Services, a one-stop online location where people can easily find the information and services in times of most need. It’s a network of resources from funeral homes to burial needs.

They started by making sure there was access to quality information. Kayla said most people know of a funeral home in their area, but not much past that.

“When that time comes, and you are faced with that, it’s already a very, very difficult time. You’re vulnerable. It’s a lot to kind of think through,” she said.

“I think I realized that people were panic selecting funeral homes because they just don’t know.”

She said most people are forced to select a funeral home within 24 hours, and the hospital needs to be aware of where they’re going, so they can begin the transfer process.

Passingon users are asked questions about their needs and that leads them through an online selection process to find the right funeral home fit for them. They also handle the vital statistics paperwork – one of the only online providers to do so, Connor said.

“It just makes it easier for both ends,” he said.

They’re a cross-Canada network of services

Kayla said initially, they wanted to focus on at-need clientele, streamlining the process and making it a better experience overall.

Where they’ve seen a lot of interest, however, is in pre-arrangements.  They also service those folks whose loved ones are facing imminent death.

Kayla said they’re able to provide services anywhere in Canada. They cover as many aspects of the funeral as they can – they have a directory, a marketplace (flowers, limo services, markers, etc) where everything can be selected.

The process is free right now for those that use it. They work with various merchants by exposing people to those products. All of the transactions are still done through funeral homes or merchants. They’re the connection point.

They sought out the Alberta Catalyzer – Velocity program to help them continue building a system that could connect people to the resources they need. Kayla said they’d never started a company before and were looking for ways to elevate Passingon.

“We need to learn but also to be around like-minded people and create more of a network,” she said.

“That’s exactly what we found here.”

Their goal is to nail down the system here in Canada – plus work with organizations like Alberta Health Services to get the right resources into people’s hands.  From there they’re looking at collating resources in both the United States and the UK.

“Passingon is an online funeral network that aims to guide users step by step through the funeral process, beginning to end, allowing them to compare, filter and connect with the best funeral homes for their specific needs,” Kayla wrote via email. 

“We are the most up-to-date and unbiased resource of funeral home listings in Canada, and list all funeral homes across the nation.”