Investor MVP Delivery Blueprint

Beloved

A digital funeral planning and memorial platform so that distance, cost or circumstance never decides who gets to say goodbye.

Prepared for: Nicole Moxey
Prepared by: Keza Studio
Version: 1.0, Investor release
Date: 29 July 2026

This blueprint is an investor-facing delivery document. It defines the MVP boundary, the commercial model, the delivery sequence and the risks, grounded in the client's own scope, phasing, user story and journey documentation.

The Vision, In Your Words

You did not bring us a feature list. You brought a grievance with the way the world treats people on the worst week of their lives, and a clear picture of what should exist instead. Everything in the pages that follow is that picture, costed, sequenced and pressure tested. Where we pushed back, we say so. Where you were already right, we say that too.

Beloved exists so that distance, cost or circumstance never decides who gets to say goodbye.

The idea is not a memorial page. A memorial page is the visible part. The idea is that one bereaved person should be able to open one link and find the service details, the livestream, the donations, the flowers, the guest list and the photographs already gathered, instead of assembling them by phone across seven suppliers while grieving.

That is a coordination problem wearing an emotional coat. Coordination problems are exactly what software is good at, and almost nobody has pointed decent software at this one, because the market looks small from the outside and uncomfortable from the inside. You are not squeamish about it, and you know the sector. That combination is the actual advantage here.

Your words, and what they became

Families should be able to invite people who cannot travel, without turning the service into a production.

Your scope notes on livestreaming

One page that holds everything, so nobody has to ask the family for the details twice.

Your user journey document, family flow

Funeral directors are the gatekeepers. If it does not save them time it will not get used.

Your notes on provider adoption

Donations and flowers are where the money already moves. We should be part of that, not beside it.

Your scope recommendation

Executive Summary

The short version of your own case, written the way an investor needs to hear it. If you only read one section before a meeting, read this one.

Around 3.1 million people die each year in the United States. Every one of those deaths triggers the same compressed, high-stakes project: arrange a service in days, inform dozens of people across several countries, coordinate a funeral home, a venue and a celebrant, and find between seven and nine thousand dollars that nobody budgeted for.

This is currently managed with phone calls, WhatsApp groups, paper forms and a last-minute streaming link taped together by a relative. There is no consumer-grade operating system for the end of life. The software that exists was built for funeral home back offices, not for the family.

Beloved is that operating system, starting with one page. A family organiser creates a private memorial page in under ten minutes. It carries the service details, the livestream, a photo gallery, a guestbook and a dignified way for people to contribute towards the cost. It is shared by private link, controlled entirely by the family, and it does not disappear after the funeral.

The MVP proves the hardest behavioural assumption in the business that a grieving family will create and share this page, and that distant mourners will attend and pay. Everything after that is expansion earned by evidence: funeral home subscriptions, a vendor marketplace, pre-need planning, and eventually white-label enterprise deployment across multi-site funeral groups.

The investment case in five lines

A non-cyclical market of 3.1M annual US deaths.
Distribution built into the product: every page is shared with dozens.
Direct cost under $1.50 per memorial against $28 of revenue at pilot.
Four revenue engines that layer rather than compete.
A credible enterprise path created by industry consolidation.

What this document commits to

14 MVP capabilities, 33 sections of specification, five delivery phases, and nine features explicitly excluded from the first release.

Vision

Your mission, stated plainly enough to survive being repeated by someone else in a room you are not in.

Mission

One private, permanent place that holds the funeral, the people and the memory built with enough restraint that a grieving family trusts it on the worst day of their life.

Beloved is not a social network for grief. It is infrastructure: quiet, private, and useful in the seventy-two hours when nothing else is.

Dignity before features

Every decision is tested against one question: would this feel right to someone who buried their mother yesterday?

Private by default

A memorial is not content. It is not discoverable, not indexed and not promoted. The family decides who sees it.

Free where it matters

No family is ever charged for the ability to tell people when and where the funeral is.

Inclusion is the point

The platform exists so that distance, cost, health or circumstance no longer decides who gets to say goodbye.

Permanence is a promise

What a family creates does not disappear when the invoice is paid. Export is always available.

Honest commerce

Transparent, capped fees. No advertising on memorial pages. No dark patterns. Ever.

Market Opportunity

The part people underestimate. This is why the market is bigger and steadier than it sounds when you describe it at a dinner party.

3.1M

US deaths per year

A market that does not respond to economic cycles.

$8,300

Average US funeral cost

Usually unplanned, usually paid within days.

$23B

US funeral services industry

Highly fragmented, with limited consumer software.

19,000+

US funeral homes

Predominantly independent, and being consolidated.

60%+

Services with absent mourners

Distance, cost, health and immigration status.

<10%

Adults with recorded funeral wishes

The pre-need opportunity, largely untouched.

Why now

Remote attendance moved from exception to expectation. Payment infrastructure made contributions trivial. And funeral home consolidation is producing exactly the multi-site buyer that needs standardised digital infrastructure. None of these three conditions held five years ago.

Why nobody owns it

Incumbent software serves the funeral director's back office. Crowdfunding platforms serve the money but not the service. Obituary sites serve the newspaper. No product treats the family as the primary user across the whole event.

Where we start

One region (South Florida) with a dense diaspora population, high remote-attendance need and a fragmented supply of independent funeral homes. Density in one market beats thin national coverage.

Market figures are directional planning inputs drawn from public industry sources, used for sizing rather than as audited research. See section 26 for the full assumption register.

Customer Segments

Everyone you described, sorted into the groups the product has to serve, with the two that actually decide whether this works marked clearly.

Demand side

The Grieving Family

Immediate family of the deceased

Core MVP

“We had four days to arrange everything, and half the family lives abroad.”

Goals

Give their loved one a service that feels right
Keep every relative informed without repeating the same call twenty times
Include people who cannot physically attend
Preserve the memory somewhere permanent

Pain points

Decision fatigue while grieving, under extreme time pressure
Information scattered across WhatsApp, email, phone calls and paper
Embarrassment and awkwardness around asking for financial help
No single place that survives the week of the funeral

What success looks like

Page created in under 10 minutes
Everyone who mattered was able to attend, in person or remotely
Contributions covered a meaningful share of costs
The page is still there a year later

The Funeral Organiser

The one person doing the arranging

Core MVP

“Everyone is grieving. I'm grieving and project managing.”

Goals

Coordinate the service, the guests, the vendors and the money
Keep details accurate as times and venues change
Delegate without losing control

Pain points

Acts as a human switchboard between the funeral home and forty relatives
Every change means another round of messages
Tracking who has contributed, and who has been thanked

What success looks like

One update reaches everyone
No guest arrives at the wrong place or time
Contribution reconciliation takes minutes, not evenings

The Distant Mourner

Friend or relative who cannot attend

Core MVP

“I was 4,000 miles away and I found out through a group chat.”

Goals

Know when and where the service is
Be present in some meaningful way
Offer support: practical or financial

Pain points

Excluded by distance, cost, illness, work, immigration status or incarceration
Awkward, unreliable streaming links shared at the last minute
No way to leave a message that the family will actually see

What success looks like

Attended remotely without technical friction
Left a message that became part of the memorial

Supply side

The Funeral Director

Owner or manager of an independent funeral home

MVP-adjacent

“I'm a caregiver, not a software company. But families keep asking about streaming.”

Goals

Deliver an excellent service without adding admin
Win families in a market being consolidated by national groups
Add digital services without hiring a technologist

Pain points

Manual paperwork, phone-based coordination and duplicated data entry
Ad-hoc streaming via a phone on a tripod, with no support
Marketing spend with no attribution; leads arrive by phone and vanish

What success looks like

More arrangements won per month
Fewer inbound coordination calls per service
Digital services become a billable line item

The Celebrant

Independent officiant or minister

Phase 2+

“I need the family's story, the order of service, and the right names.”

Goals

Gather accurate biographical detail quickly
Coordinate the order of service with the family and the venue
Build a steady referral pipeline

Pain points

Story-gathering happens over scattered calls and texts
Last-minute changes to running order and readings
Discovery depends entirely on funeral home relationships

What success looks like

Fewer pre-service calls
Bookings sourced through the platform

The Funeral Florist

Local florist with a funeral speciality

Phase 2+

“Half my funeral orders are placed by someone who isn't in the country.”

Goals

Receive accurate orders with the correct delivery time and venue
Capture remote mourners who want to send something

Pain points

Orders arrive by phone with ambiguous instructions
Missed sales because distant guests do not know where to order
Delivery windows clash with service times

What success looks like

Incremental order volume from remote mourners
Zero mis-timed deliveries

The Monument Provider

Memorial masonry and headstone supplier

Phase 2+

“Families come to us six months later, once the dust settles.”

Goals

Reach families at the right moment, weeks, not days, after the service
Present work visually and quote accurately

Pain points

Long, cold sales cycle disconnected from the funeral
No structured lead source; word of mouth only

What success looks like

Qualified enquiries attributable to the platform
Shorter time from enquiry to order

Institutional

The Church or Faith Venue

Parish administrator or clergy

Phase 2+

“We already stream weddings. Funerals are harder because nobody plans them.”

Goals

Serve the congregation and the wider diaspora
Manage venue scheduling and orders of service

Pain points

Volunteer-run AV with inconsistent results
Communication with families is entirely manual

What success looks like

Remote congregation participation
Reduced volunteer coordination burden

The Hospice & Bereavement Service

Palliative care and bereavement support provider

Phase 2+

“Families arrive at the funeral with nothing written down.”

Goals

Support families before and after death
Encourage advance planning conversations
Direct in-memory giving to the hospice

Pain points

No structured place to capture wishes ahead of time
In-memory donations arrive untracked and unacknowledged

What success looks like

Advance wishes captured
Measurable in-memory giving

The Enterprise Funeral Group

Multi-site operator or consolidator

Phase 2+

“We have ninety locations and eleven different ways of doing the same thing.”

Goals

Standardise the family experience across all locations
Add digital revenue without building software
Report performance centrally

Pain points

Fragmented tooling inherited through acquisition
Long, expensive custom builds that ship late
No group-level visibility on family satisfaction

What success looks like

Single platform across the estate
Digital attach rate per arrangement
Group-level reporting in one dashboard

Problem Statement

The frustrations you started with, written as eight specific fractures. Each one has a fix in the build.

The paperwork problem

Arranging a funeral means the same information (names, dates, venues, times) re-entered across forms, phone calls and messages, by someone who is grieving.

How Beloved fixes it

One structured record, entered once, shared everywhere it is needed.

The coordination problem

The organiser becomes a human switchboard between the funeral home, the venue and dozens of relatives. Every change means another round of calls.

How Beloved fixes it

One update propagates instantly to everyone holding the link.

The distance problem

Diaspora families, illness, cost, work and immigration status mean a large share of the people who loved someone simply cannot be in the room.

How Beloved fixes it

Scheduled livestream, timezone-aware, reachable from a link on any phone.

The money problem

The average US funeral costs between $7,000 and $9,000, usually unplanned. Asking for help is humiliating and hard to organise.

How Beloved fixes it

A dignified contribution page attached to the memorial, with transparent fees and hardship waivers.

The memory problem

Condolences arrive across a dozen channels and are lost within a week. Nothing survives the funeral itself.

How Beloved fixes it

A permanent, private memorial that families revisit for years.

The discovery problem

Families choose a funeral home under time pressure, with almost no comparable information about services or pricing.

How Beloved fixes it

A verified regional directory with real profiles, services and enquiry tracking.

The provider problem

Independent funeral homes are being consolidated by national groups and cannot fund digital services of their own.

How Beloved fixes it

An affordable digital layer that makes an independent look as modern as a national group.

The planning problem

Almost nobody records their wishes. Families guess, disagree, and overspend as a result.

How Beloved fixes it

Pre-need planning and a digital vault, the long-term expansion, built on the same trusted relationship.

Product Vision

Where this goes if the first release lands. Your ambition, staged so it does not collapse under its own weight.

The atomic unit

The memorial page

Everything in Beloved hangs off one object: a private page for one person. It holds the service details, the stream, the photographs, the tributes, the RSVPs and the contributions. It is created by the family, shared by link, and it becomes a permanent memorial the moment the service ends.

Service details & venue

Scheduled livestream

Photo gallery

Moderated guestbook

RSVP & headcount

Contribution page

Private share link

Permanent memorial

Stage 1

The page

Prove that families create, share and monetise a private memorial. This is the MVP, and it is the only thing that matters until it works.

Stage 2

The directory

Turn the funeral homes already in the flow into paying subscribers with attributable leads.

Stage 3

The marketplace

Take a commission on the flowers, monuments, transport and packages already purchased around every service.

Stage 4

The operating system

Pre-need planning, the digital vault and estate coordination convert a single event into a decade-long relationship.

Commercial Strategy

How your idea turns into a business that keeps earning after the funeral is over. This is the section that answers the hardest investor question.

Land with the family

Free, immediate, no friction. The family page is the acquisition engine and the source of every downstream relationship. Nothing is charged before value is delivered.

Expand through the provider

Funeral homes convert family volume into recurring revenue. Free listings first; paid subscriptions only once lead attribution is demonstrable in their own dashboard.

Monetise the transaction

Flowers, monuments, transport and packages already happen around every funeral. The platform sits in front of them and takes a commission without owning inventory.

Sequence regionally

One region at a time: South Florida first. Supply density in a single market beats thin national coverage, and it produces a repeatable launch playbook.

Move upstream over time

Pre-need planning and the digital vault convert a one-off event into a decade-long subscription relationship, entered through trust already earned.

Sell the platform, not the product

Enterprise groups and insurers buy infrastructure. White-label deployment turns a competitor's distribution into the platform's growth channel.

The sequencing rule

No revenue engine is switched on before the one beneath it is proven. Provider sales are not funded until family attach rate holds. Marketplace build does not begin until provider density exists. This is what keeps the burn honest.

Revenue Model

Five ways money comes in. You already identified the two biggest ones. These are the numbers attached to them.

Paid by families at the moment of highest intent. Low friction, high emotional value, no sales cost.

Stream	Who pays	Indicative price	Frequency	Phase	Note
Basic memorial page	Family organiser	Free	One-off	Phase 1	Acquisition engine. Every paid feature hangs off this page.
Premium memorial	Family organiser	$79 one-off	One-off	Phase 1	Unlimited photos, HD stream replay, custom design, no platform branding.
Forever memorial	Family / extended family	$199 one-off	One-off	Phase 1	Perpetual hosting, annual remembrance prompts, downloadable archive.
Family subscription	Family	$4.99 / month	Recurring	Phase 2	Multiple memorials, family timelines, storage, private vault.
Contribution platform fee	Contributor (optional tip) / family	3% + processor	Per transaction	Phase 1	Transparent, capped, and waivable for hardship cases.

All prices are indicative planning figures for modelling purposes and are subject to market testing during the pilot.

Pricing Strategy

Indicative tiers. Treat these as a starting position, not a decision. You know what this sector will pay.

Basic

Free

Always

Every family

Remove every barrier at the worst week of someone's life.

Private funeral page with share link
Service details, tribute and photo
Livestream link with timezone-aware schedule
Contribution page with goal and message
Guestbook and RSVP
Hosted for 12 months

Why this price

Free acquisition is non-negotiable in this category. Charging a grieving family for basic access is both commercially and ethically wrong, and it would strangle the network effect that everything else depends on.

Premium

Most chosen

$79

One-off, per memorial

Families who want the service to feel finished

The upgrade families choose without hesitation.

Everything in Basic
Unlimited photos and video, HD replay for 90 days
Custom memorial design and music
No platform branding
Printable order of service and QR memorial card
Contribution fee reduced to 1.5%

Why this price

Priced below a single floral arrangement and far below the average $8,300 US funeral. The decision is emotional, immediate, and made once, which is exactly why one-off pricing outperforms a subscription here.

Professional

$149

Per month, per location

Independent funeral homes and celebrants

A digital department for a business that cannot hire one.

Branded provider profile and full directory presence
Unlimited family pages created on the family's behalf
Lead inbox with enquiry tracking and attribution
Streaming support and staff training
Marketplace storefront (Phase 3)
Performance reporting

Why this price

Roughly the cost of one lost arrangement per year. A single additional family won pays for eighteen months, which makes the ROI conversation short and the churn rate low.

Enterprise

From $1,500

Per month, contracted

Multi-site groups, insurers and institutions

The digital layer across an entire estate.

White-label or co-branded deployment
Multi-site roles, permissions and central administration
SSO, audit logs, DPA and data residency options
API access and CRM integration
Group-level analytics and benchmarking
Named success manager and SLA

Why this price

Enterprise pricing is anchored to the cost of building and maintaining an equivalent internal platform (routinely seven figures) not to the consumer price point.

Investor Value Proposition

Why this compounds rather than just ticks along. Written for the investor across the table, but worth you knowing it by heart.

A non-cyclical market

Roughly 3.1 million deaths a year in the US alone. Demand does not respond to interest rates, recessions or consumer sentiment. Very few consumer categories can say that.

Structurally underserved by software

The category is dominated by legacy tools built for funeral-home back offices, not for families. There is no consumer-grade operating system for the end of life.

Distribution is built into the product

Every memorial page is shared with dozens of people, each of whom sees the product at the moment of highest emotional salience. Acquisition cost trends toward zero.

Two-sided, with a supply side that pays

Families provide volume and virality; providers provide recurring revenue. Neither side alone is a business, together they compound.

High gross margin

Direct cost per memorial is under $1.50 at pilot volume against $28 of revenue, before provider subscriptions. Margin improves with scale because the cost base is media and payments, not headcount.

Multiple revenue engines, sequenced

Consumer one-offs fund the product, provider SaaS creates recurrence, marketplace commission scales with GMV, and enterprise licensing provides contracted ARR. Each unlocks the next.

A defensible dataset

Provider coverage, verified profiles and memorial history compound into a directory and a network that a new entrant cannot replicate quickly.

A credible path to enterprise

Funeral-group consolidation is creating exactly the buyer profile that needs standardised digital infrastructure across dozens of sites.

Ethics as a moat

In this category, trust is the product. A free core tier, capped fees and no advertising on memorial pages are commercial decisions as much as moral ones, and they are hard for an extractive competitor to copy.

Unit Economics

What one memorial actually costs to run, and what it earns. Move the sliders yourself. The margin is real, and it is better than most people guess.

Inputs

Memorial pages per month2,000

Premium attach rate18%

Contributions per memorial$610

Paying provider locations90

Fixed assumptions

Premium price: $79
Provider price / month: $149
Contribution take: 3.0%
Payment processing: 2.9% + $0.30
Direct cost / memorial: $1.47
Blended CAC / memorial: $6.40

Monthly revenue

$78,450

Annualised run rate

$941,400

Gross margin

48.7%

Monthly gross profit

$38,207

Revenue per memorial

$39.23

Gross profit per memorial

$19.10

CAC payback multiple

3.0×

Provider LTV (30 mo.)

$4,140

Revenue mix

Premium memorials$28,440 · 36%

Contribution fees$36,600 · 47%

Provider subscriptions$13,410 · 17%

Marketplace commission and enterprise licensing are excluded from this model. They begin in Phase 3 and Phase 5 respectively and would only improve these figures.

Product Scope

The hardest section, and the one that protects you. What is in the first build, what is deliberately not, and when the rest arrives.

In the MVP14 capabilities

Family organiser account
Email or social sign-in, secure session, single owner per memorial.
Funeral / memorial profile page
Name, portrait, tribute, date, time, venue, service detail, family message.
Private share link
Unguessable token, family-controlled, revocable. Private by default.
Livestream access
Embedded or linked scheduled stream with timezone-aware countdown and guest instructions.
Contribution / support page
Goal, explanatory message, secure payments, live progress, contributor confirmation.
Guest page view
No account required. Mobile-first. Details, stream, contribute, tribute.
Guestbook & photo gallery
Moderated tributes and family-uploaded photos.
RSVP
Attending in person / attending remotely / unable to attend, with headcount for the family.
Family dashboard
Manage details, stream, contributions, sharing and guest activity in one place.
Edit & change notification
Update service details; notify everyone who has the link.
Basic admin panel
Review pages, users, contributions and platform activity during launch.
Privacy-led page settings
Private by default, explicit visibility controls, clear data language.
Mobile-responsive web app
No native app download required at MVP.
Regional funeral home directory
One launch region (Miami / Fort Lauderdale / South Florida) with basic profiles and enquiry.

Explicitly excluded9 decisions

Native iOS / Android apps
A responsive web app removes install friction at the exact moment users will not install anything.
In-app livestream infrastructure
Embedding a proven stream proves the behaviour at 1% of the cost. Build it once volume justifies it.
Full vendor marketplace & checkout
Requires supply density that does not exist on day one. Phase 3.
Florist / urn / casket ordering
Depends on vendor onboarding, fulfilment and payment splitting.
Provider self-service admin
MVP directory listings are platform-managed; self-service is Phase 2.
In-app messaging
Families already have WhatsApp and phone. Do not compete with a solved problem.
Reviews and ratings
Reviewing a funeral is culturally fraught and needs a moderation model we have not yet designed.
Multi-language and multi-currency
Deliberately deferred until the first region is proven.
Estate, insurance and vault products
Phase 4. Requires regulatory work, not just engineering.

Scope discipline is the product decision

Every exclusion above is a month of engineering not spent, and a month of runway preserved for the only question that matters in Phase 1: will families use this?

Feature phasing matrix: 17 features in Phase 1: Investor-ready MVP
Feature	Importance	Description	MVP
Family organiser account	Critical	Allows the person responsible for the funeral to create and manage the funeral page securely.	Yes
Create funeral profile page	Critical	Central page for the loved one, including name, photo, tribute, date, time, location and service details.	Yes
Private share link	Critical	Generates a private link the family can share with selected friends and relatives, keeping the experience family-controlled.	Yes
Livestream access	Critical	Lets invited loved ones attend remotely at the scheduled time using an embedded or linked stream.	Yes
Contribution / support page	Critical	Allows families to explain their need, set a goal and receive financial support towards funeral costs.	Yes
Online payment processing	Critical	Enables secure contributions and gives the MVP a clear commercial and payment flow.	Yes
Guest funeral page view	Critical	Invited guests open the private link and view details, livestream information and contribution options.	Yes
Contribution confirmation	High	Confirms to the contributor that their support was received. Adds trust and reassurance.	Yes
Family dashboard	High	A simple place to manage funeral details, livestream information, contributions and sharing.	Yes
Edit funeral details	High	Allows the organiser to update service information if times, locations or livestream links change.	Yes
Basic admin panel	High	Allows platform admins to review funeral pages, users and basic platform activity during launch.	Yes
Privacy-led page settings	High	Reinforces that pages are private by default and shared intentionally by the family.	Yes
Mobile-responsive web app	High	Families and guests access the platform from any device without a native app download.	Yes
Guestbook & photo gallery	High	Moderated tributes and family photo uploads turn the page into a lasting memorial.	Yes
RSVP	Medium	Gives the family an accurate headcount for the service and repast without phone calls.	Yes
Simple region-based funeral home directory	Medium	A lightweight directory for one starting region such as Miami or Fort Lauderdale, showing marketplace potential.	Optional MVP
Basic funeral home profile preview	Medium	Funeral home name, location, photos, contact details and basic services, enough to demonstrate the expansion path.	Optional MVP

Functional Requirements

Your product, broken into seventeen buildable pieces. Nothing here is invented. It all traces back to something you asked for.

Authentication

In MVP

Give the organiser a secure, recoverable account without adding friction for guests.

Email/password and Google sign-in
Password reset and session refresh
Guests view pages without an account
Role assignment stored separately from profile data
Rate-limited sign-in attempts

Profiles

In MVP

Represent the people and organisations using the platform.

Family organiser profile with display name and contact preference
Provider profile with logo, description, service list and location
Profile data separated from authentication records

Funeral creation

In MVP

Turn a blank page into a complete funeral record in under ten minutes.

Guided multi-step creation with save-and-resume
Deceased name, dates, portrait, tribute
Service date, time, timezone, venue and map location
Optional second event (wake, repast, committal)
Preview before publishing

Memorial pages

In MVP

The permanent artefact that outlives the service itself.

Public-by-link or private-by-invitation modes
Responsive layout with a small set of dignified themes
Transitions from 'upcoming service' to 'memorial' automatically after the service
Perpetual hosting on the Forever tier

Donations & contributions

In MVP

Let people help without anyone having to ask twice.

Goal amount, explanatory message, optional anonymity
Card and wallet payments via the payment provider
Live progress, contributor list with privacy controls
Automatic receipt and thank-you
Payout to a verified family bank account with identity checks
Refund and dispute handling

Guestbook

In MVP

Capture the words that families reread for years.

Named or anonymous tributes
Pre-publication moderation queue for the family
Profanity and spam filtering
Exportable as part of the memorial archive

Photo gallery

In MVP

Let the whole family contribute the memory, not just the organiser.

Family upload with drag-and-drop and mobile capture
Guest submissions held for approval
Automatic resizing, EXIF stripping and CDN delivery
Storage quota by tier

Video & tributes

Partial

Support the tribute film and recorded messages from those who cannot attend.

Embedded tribute video at MVP
Guest-recorded video messages deferred to Phase 2
Transcoding handled by the video provider, not in-house

Livestream

In MVP

The single feature that most changes who can be present.

Organiser adds a scheduled stream URL (YouTube Live, Vimeo or provider stream)
Timezone-aware countdown and 'how to watch' guidance
Access limited to link holders
Replay window configurable by tier
Graceful fallback if the stream fails

RSVP

In MVP

Give the family a headcount without a single phone call.

In person / remote / unable to attend
Party size and dietary note for the repast
Live totals on the family dashboard
Export to CSV for the funeral home

Notifications

In MVP

One update reaches everyone, instantly.

Transactional email for creation, contribution and change events
SMS for time-critical changes
Stream-starting reminder
Per-recipient unsubscribe and quiet-hours respect

Administration

In MVP

Operate the platform safely in its most fragile early period.

Review and, where necessary, remove pages
User and role management
Contribution and payout oversight
Directory listing approval
Content moderation queue

Search & discovery

Partial

Help families find providers: never to expose private memorials.

Directory search by city, ZIP and service type
Memorial pages excluded from search and from indexing by default
Provider filtering by service and verification status

Sharing

In MVP

Distribution is the growth engine; it must be effortless and controlled.

One-tap share to WhatsApp, SMS, email and copy-link
Rich link preview with dignified imagery
Link revocation and regeneration
Optional passcode for sensitive cases

Content management

Partial

Change guidance, help content and legal copy without a deployment.

Editable help, FAQ and legal pages
Announcement banner
Email template management

Reporting

In MVP

Evidence for operators, providers and investors.

Platform activity, contributions and conversion dashboard
Provider lead and profile-view reporting
Exportable financial summary

Audit logs

In MVP

Every sensitive action is attributable: a requirement for enterprise, not a nice-to-have.

Append-only log of admin actions, permission changes and payouts
Actor, timestamp, entity and before/after state
Retention aligned to the data retention policy

User Stories

Your requirements written the way a development team can actually work from, with the test for done attached to each one.

The person responsible for arranging the funeral and managing the page.

FO-1Must have

As a family organiser, I want to create a memorial page for my loved one, so that family and friends can access every detail in one place.

Acceptance criteria

Create profile with name, dates and portrait
Add tribute message
Add service date, time and timezone
Add venue with map location
Preview before publishing
Page created in under 10 minutes

FO-2Must have

As a family organiser, I want to generate a private share link, so that I control exactly who can see the page.

Acceptance criteria

Unguessable link generated on publish
Copy link with one tap
Share directly to WhatsApp, SMS and email
Link can be revoked and regenerated
Page is excluded from search engines by default

FO-3Must have

As a family organiser, I want to provide livestream access, so that people who cannot attend physically can still be part of the service.

Acceptance criteria

Add stream URL and scheduled start
Guests see the time in their own timezone
Countdown and how-to-watch guidance shown
Stream is only reachable from the page
Replay availability set by tier

FO-4Must have

As a family organiser, I want to collect financial support through the page, so that family and friends can help with funeral costs.

Acceptance criteria

Set a goal amount
Write a support message
Accept card and wallet payments
See amount raised update live
Contributors receive a receipt
Funds pay out to a verified account

FO-5Must have

As a family organiser, I want to edit funeral information after publishing, so that changes reach everyone immediately.

Acceptance criteria

Update date, time, venue, stream and messages
Change history retained
Notification sent to everyone with the link
No broken links after an edit

FO-6Should have

As a family organiser, I want to moderate tributes and photos, so that the page stays respectful.

Acceptance criteria

Guest submissions held for approval
Approve, hide or remove any item
Automatic profanity filtering
Nothing publishes without family consent when moderation is on

FO-7Should have

As a family organiser, I want to see who is attending, so that we can plan the service and the repast.

Acceptance criteria

RSVP totals by attendance type
Party size and dietary notes
Export list as CSV

User Journey Maps

Your journey document, turned into four walkable paths. Read the family flow first and tell us where it feels wrong.

Family organiser

Create one private place that holds the funeral, the stream and the support.

1
Arrive
User action
Referred by the funeral home, a search, or a friend's shared page.
System response
Landing page explains the product in one sentence and one image.
Emotional state
Overwhelmed, sceptical of anything that looks like a startup.
Risk
Tone failure. The page must not feel like a tech product.
2
Sign up
User action
Creates an account with email or Google.
System response
Account created, session established, empty dashboard shown.
Emotional state
Cautious.
Risk
Any friction here loses the user permanently.
3
Create the page
User action
Enters name, portrait, tribute, date, time and venue.
System response
Guided steps with save-and-resume; autosave on every field.
Emotional state
Emotional, needs frequent pauses.
Risk
Losing entered data is unforgivable in this context.
4
Add the stream
User action
Pastes the stream link and sets the start time.
System response
Validates the link, sets the countdown, generates guest instructions.
Emotional state
Relieved: the distant relatives are covered.
Risk
Unclear guidance about how to obtain a stream link.
5
Enable contributions
User action
Sets a goal and writes why support is needed.
System response
Payment onboarding and identity verification begin in the background.
Emotional state
Uncomfortable about asking.
Risk
Shame. Copy must normalise the ask and make it optional.
6
Share
User action
Copies the private link into the family WhatsApp group.
System response
Rich preview renders; share events tracked anonymously.
Emotional state
Purposeful.
Risk
Any hint of a public feed destroys trust instantly.
7
Manage
User action
Updates the venue after a change; watches contributions arrive.
System response
Change notification sent to everyone with the link.
Emotional state
In control for the first time that week.
Risk
Notification fatigue if changes are noisy.
8
Afterwards
User action
Returns to read tributes; upgrades to Forever.
System response
Page transitions from service to memorial; upgrade offered gently.
Emotional state
Grateful, reflective.
Risk
Upselling too early reads as exploitative.

Information Architecture

Who can see what, and who can change what. Sensitive by nature, so it is specified rather than assumed.

Guest surface

A single page. No navigation, no account, no menu. Details, stream, contribute, tribute, in that order, top to bottom.

Memorial page
Livestream view
Contribute
Guestbook
RSVP

Family surface

A dashboard with at most six actions. Everything else lives one level down and is reachable in a single tap.

Dashboard
Edit memorial
Livestream settings
Contributions & payouts
Moderation queue
Sharing & privacy

Provider & admin surface

Operational tooling. Denser layouts are acceptable here because the users are professionals, not mourners.

Provider profile
Enquiries & leads
Directory management
Moderation
Contributions oversight
Reporting & audit

Roles & permissions

Role	Authentication	Can	Cannot
Guest	None (link holder)	View memorial page Watch livestream Contribute Submit tribute or photo RSVP	Edit any content See contributor details Access dashboards Discover pages by search
Family member	Invited account	Everything a guest can Upload photos directly View contribution total	Edit service details Manage payouts Delete the page
Family organiser (owner)	Account	Create and edit the page Manage stream, contributions and privacy Moderate tributes Manage payouts Transfer ownership Delete the page	Access other families' pages Access platform administration
Provider	Verified account	Manage own listing Receive and view enquiries Create pages for families (Phase 2) View own analytics	View memorial pages they did not create See contribution details Contact guests directly
Administrator	Account + admin role	Review and moderate all content Manage users, roles and listings Oversee contributions and payouts Export reporting	Act without an audit trail Alter financial records retrospectively

Roles are stored in a dedicated table and evaluated by a security-definer function. They are never held on a user-editable profile record, which is the single most common cause of privilege escalation in applications of this shape.

UX Principles

The rules for how this should feel. This is where your instinct about tone matters more than any technical decision in the document.

Emotional design first

Every screen is read by someone in the worst week of their life. Language is plain, warm and free of exclamation marks. No confetti, no gamification, no growth-hack patterns. Restraint is the design system.

Measured by · Copy reviewed against a grief-sensitivity checklist before release.

Mobile-first, always

The overwhelming majority of guests open the link on a phone, in a hurry, often on a poor connection. Layouts are designed at 360px and scaled up, not the reverse.

Measured by · Sub-2-second first contentful paint on a mid-range Android over 4G.

Accessible by default (WCAG 2.2 AA)

Mourners skew older. Minimum 16px body text, 4.5:1 contrast, full keyboard navigation, visible focus, semantic landmarks, captions on video, and no reliance on colour alone.

Measured by · Automated axe checks in CI plus manual screen-reader passes on core flows.

Simple navigation

A guest should never make more than one decision per screen. The family dashboard exposes at most six actions. Depth is hidden until it is needed.

Measured by · Every core task completable in three taps or fewer.

Trust is the product

Private by default. Plain-English explanations of who can see what. Visible security cues on every payment surface. No dark patterns anywhere, ever.

Measured by · Privacy state shown on the page itself, not buried in settings.

Privacy as a design constraint

Memorial pages are excluded from search indexing by default. Links are unguessable and revocable. Contributors can be anonymous. Data minimisation is enforced at schema level.

Measured by · No memorial content in sitemaps, robots or third-party trackers.

Inclusive and culturally aware

Funeral practice varies enormously by faith and culture. Terminology is configurable, imagery is neutral, and no flow assumes a Western Christian service.

Measured by · Cultural review with faith and community partners before regional launch.

Forgiving by construction

Autosave everywhere. Undo where possible. Confirm before anything irreversible. Nothing a grieving user does at 2am should be unrecoverable.

Measured by · No destructive action without a confirmation and a 30-day recovery window.

Technical Architecture

Deliberately boring technology, chosen so the money goes into the product rather than into infrastructure nobody sees.

Layer 1

Client layer

The family dashboard, the guest memorial page and the provider console.

Choices

React with TypeScript, server-rendered for fast first paint
Responsive from 360px upward; no native app at MVP
Design-token-driven component library
Progressive enhancement: core content readable before JavaScript loads

Why

The guest page must load in under two seconds on a mid-range phone over 4G. Server rendering is not an optimisation here; it is a requirement of the use case.

Layer 2

Application layer

Business logic, authorisation, orchestration and integration.

Choices

Typed server functions co-located with the routes that call them
Server routes for webhooks, payment callbacks and scheduled jobs
Zod validation at every boundary
No secret ever reaches the browser

Why

A single deployable removes an entire class of distributed-systems failure at a stage where the team should be shipping product, not operating infrastructure.

Layer 3

Data layer

Durable storage for memorials, contributions, users and audit history.

Choices

Managed PostgreSQL with row-level security on every table
Roles held in a dedicated table, never on the user profile
Append-only audit log for privileged actions
Point-in-time recovery and daily backups

Why

Row-level security enforces access control in the database rather than in application code, which means a bug in a route cannot leak another family's memorial.

Layer 4

Media layer

Photographs, tribute video and livestream delivery.

Choices

Object storage with signed, expiring URLs
Global CDN with automatic image resizing and modern formats
EXIF stripping and virus scanning on upload
Third-party streaming provider at MVP; in-house streaming from Phase 3

Why

Media is the largest cost and the largest failure surface. Both are handed to providers who solve them at scale, so the team can focus on the experience.

Layer 5

Integration layer

Payments, messaging, mapping, analytics and identity.

Choices

Payment provider as merchant of record with managed KYC and payouts
Transactional email and SMS providers with delivery webhooks
Idempotent webhook handlers with signature verification
Retry with exponential backoff and a dead-letter queue

Why

Every external dependency is isolated behind an internal interface, so a provider can be replaced without touching product code.

Architectural principles

Boring technology. Nothing in the MVP stack is younger than the problem it solves.
One deployable until scale demands otherwise. Microservices are a Phase 3 conversation at the earliest.
Security enforced at the data layer, not by convention in application code.
Every integration replaceable behind an internal interface.
Cost per memorial is a tracked engineering metric, not a finance afterthought.
Everything a family creates must be exportable. No lock-in on grief.

Why This Does Not Cost $60k to $200k

The section to bring to anyone quoting you six figures for live video. Their number is honest for a different product to the one you are building.

Build the video pipeline

Ingest servers, a transcoding pipeline, adaptive bitrate, a CDN for delivery, WebRTC SFU servers for interactive calls, and the DevOps to keep all of it reliable under load. That is a multi-month specialist engineering effort, and $60k to $200k is an honest price for it. It is what you pay to become a streaming company.

Orchestrate pipelines that exist

A scheduled event on a memorial record, permissioned access, and an embedded player. The provider owns ingest, transcoding, delivery and interactive rooms. Streaming is a field on a memorial, not a subsystem. That is what Beloved is building.

The same seven concerns, priced two ways.
Concern	If Beloved owned the pipeline	Beloved as specified
Ingest	Ingest servers accepting RTMP from venues, provisioned and monitored.	The provider accepts the stream. Beloved stores a stream identifier.
Transcoding and adaptive bitrate	A transcoding pipeline producing multiple renditions per stream, plus the compute to run it.	Handled by the provider at no cost to the platform.
Delivery and CDN	A CDN contract, egress billing and cache strategy for spiky viewing.	The provider delivers globally. No egress on Beloved infrastructure.
Interactive calls	WebRTC SFU servers, TURN relays, capacity planning and session orchestration.	A managed room URL embedded in the page for family-sized calls.
Operations	On-call DevOps to keep the pipeline reliable during live, unrepeatable events.	No streaming infrastructure to operate. Reliability is the provider's problem.
Time to a working stream	Multiple months of specialist engineering before the first funeral streams.	Days, inside the existing memorial page build.
Cost	$60k to $200k of build, then a recurring infrastructure and ops line.	$0.42 per memorial, the streaming figure already carried in section 11.

What Beloved actually builds for streaming

A scheduled event on the memorial record: start time, provider, stream identifier and replay state.
Access control reusing the share token and role model already specified for the memorial page.
The embed and replay surface inside the existing page layout.
Reminder notifications before the service, on the notification module already in scope.
An organiser-supplied fallback link captured at scheduling time.

Every item sits inside a module already scoped in section 13: Functional Requirements. No new infrastructure layer is introduced, and no line in section 11: Unit Economics moves.

When the six-figure spend becomes the right call

Sustained concurrent-viewer volume high enough that provider terms or costs become the binding constraint.
A signed enterprise or white-label contract that requires an owned, unbranded player.
Interactive events routinely exceeding the free tier's participant ceiling.

This is a decision deferred until revenue justifies it, not a corner cut. Section 22: Scalability already sets the same rule: provider-managed streaming absorbs the spike at MVP, in-house delivery arrives only when concurrent-viewer volume pays for the fixed cost.

The honest limits

Interactive scale

Free managed rooms are sized for families: tens of participants, not thousands. Broadcast viewing has no practical ceiling, but two-way calls do.

Trigger: Hundreds of simultaneous interactive participants in a single service.

No service level agreement

Depending on a free third party means no contractual remedy during an outage. For a funeral, the event cannot be re-run.

Trigger: Mitigated rather than accepted: every time-sensitive service records a backup link at scheduling time, surfaced to the organiser and to guests if the primary stream fails.

Branding and control

An embed looks like an embed. The page around it is fully branded, the player itself is not white-labelled.

Trigger: An enterprise or white-label customer contractually requiring an unbranded player. That is a Phase 3 commercial decision, not an MVP constraint.

The quote is not wrong, it answers a different question.

$60k to $200k is the correct price for building a streaming platform. It is the wrong price for an application that orchestrates streaming platforms other people already run at planetary scale, for free. Owning the video pipeline is a business Beloved is not in.

A lean operating model for the Beloved MVP

What it actually costs you to keep Beloved running each month, and how many paid funerals cover it. The number is smaller than most people expect.

Lean infrastructure · Managed services · Usage-based growthIndicative planning assumptions, US dollars

Beloved does not need to own or operate the underlying video-delivery network during its MVP stage. By using an established livestream provider for video delivery and Supabase for the application backend, the platform can operate on a managed, usage-based infrastructure model.

Supabase can support

Family organiser accounts
Authentication
Funeral pages
Guest access records
Funeral-home listings
Contribution records
Administrative permissions
Database services
Image and document storage
Secure access policies
Stripe webhooks
Server-side functions
Basic realtime functionality
Database backups

A third-party livestream provider would handle

Video ingest
Transcoding
Adaptive playback
Video bandwidth
Stream delivery
Global content distribution
Video-player infrastructure
Potential replay hosting

Supabase runs the application, not the video

With the livestream video delivered by an established third-party provider, Supabase is responsible for the Beloved application and its data, not for transmitting the video itself.

Beloved MVP operating architecture

LAYER 1

Users

Family organiserGuest or loved oneFuneral homeBeloved administrator

LAYER 2

Beloved application

Mobile-responsive web applicationFuneral pagesOrganiser dashboardGuest experienceDirectoryAdmin tools

LAYER 3

Supabase backend

PostgreSQL databaseAuthenticationStorageRow-level securityEdge FunctionsRealtime functionalityBackups

LAYER 4

Connected services

YouTube or selected livestream providerStripe or selected payment providerTransactional email providerFront-end hosting providerMonitoring and error tracking

Beloved owns the product experience and customer relationship while specialised providers manage infrastructure functions that would otherwise be expensive to recreate.

Estimated Supabase cost at launch

Recommended production configuration
Component	Recommended setup
Plan	Supabase Pro
Database compute	Small
Authentication	Supabase Auth
Database	PostgreSQL
File storage	Supabase Storage
Access control	Row Level Security
Server-side actions	Edge Functions
Livestream delivery	Third-party provider
Payments	Stripe integration
Backups	Included production backups
Cost controls	Spending limits enabled

Estimated cost

Approximately $30

per month

A production Supabase setup using the Pro plan and Small compute is expected to cost approximately $30 per month during MVP validation, before any usage overages or optional add-ons.

Pro organisation: $25 per month
Small compute: Approximately $15 per month
Included monthly compute credit: Approximately −$10
Expected initial storage overage: $0
Expected initial database overage: $0
Expected initial function overage: $0
Expected initial authentication overage: $0

This estimate is based on published supplier pricing and the planning assumptions used in this blueprint. Actual charges may vary as supplier pricing, architecture and usage change.

Full MVP operating stack

Service	Purpose	Indicative monthly cost
Supabase	Database, authentication, storage and backend services	$30
Front-end hosting	Hosting the Beloved web application and business website	$0 to $20
Livestream provider	YouTube-based or comparable MVP video delivery	$0 direct metered cost assumed
Domain	Beloved domain and DNS	$1 to $2 equivalent
Transactional email	Invitations, confirmations and platform emails	$0 to $20
Backup streaming account	Optional Zoom or comparable fallback	Approximately $17
Monitoring	Error tracking, availability and diagnostics	$0 to $30
Keza Essential Care+	Maintenance, updates, monitoring and technical support	$200
Estimated monthly total		Approximately $248 to $319

$48 to $119

Core software infrastructure, per month

Excludes Keza Essential Care+, transaction fees, staff, marketing and funeral operations.

$248 to $319

Infrastructure plus ongoing technical care, per month

Includes the proposed $200 per month Essential Care+ package.

The existing proposal includes 30 days of Essential Care after launch at no additional cost. Essential Care+ is an optional ongoing service after that period.

How operating costs behave

Fixed or semi-fixed monthly costs

These are incurred whether Beloved supports one funeral or many.

Supabase base plan
Front-end hosting
Domain
Monitoring
Backup streaming account
Essential Care+
Basic email-service plan

Variable costs

These increase with usage or commercial activity.

Payment-processing fees
SMS messages
Paid livestream usage
Video storage and replay
Email volume
Additional database compute
Storage overages
Bandwidth overages
Customer support
Livestream operators
Customer acquisition
Refunds and payment disputes

Where the money actually goes

Beloved's early technical costs are expected to remain relatively stable. Payment processing, customer acquisition, support and operational service delivery are more likely to become material costs before the core Supabase infrastructure does.

How costs may change as the platform grows

Assumptions

12 funeral events per month
144 funeral events per year
500 to 1,500 monthly visitors
100 to 300 authenticated users
Approximately 5 MB of stored files per funeral
Livestreams hosted outside Supabase
Limited directory activity
Basic contribution functionality

Estimated Supabase cost

Approximately $30 per month
Approximately $360 per year
No expected storage overage
No expected authentication overage
No expected Edge Function overage

Estimated full software stack

Approximately $48 to $119 per month without Essential Care+
Approximately $248 to $319 per month with Essential Care+

Why storage is unlikely to be an early cost driver

Approximate annual file growth

Assuming approximately 5 MB of uploaded files for each funeral page.

12 per month0.7 GB

50 per month2.9 GB

200 per month11.7 GB

1,000 per month58.6 GB

Beloved should store compressed photographs and documents in Supabase while leaving livestream video and replay files with the selected video provider.

Product safeguards

Compress images before storage
Restrict upload file sizes
Generate thumbnails
Restrict supported file types
Avoid native video uploads during Phase 1
Apply retention rules to abandoned drafts
Review long-term memorial storage policies
Archive or move older media where commercially appropriate

Do not store original video in Supabase

Storing original video files directly inside Supabase would materially change the storage and bandwidth model and is not recommended for the MVP.

Why guest traffic does not necessarily create high backend costs

Guest-access approach

Organisers authenticate
Administrators authenticate
Funeral homes authenticate when provider tools are introduced
Guests use secure private links
Guests are not forced to create accounts unless stronger access control is required

Benefits

Lower user friction
Fewer authenticated monthly users
Easier access for older or less technical guests
Lower authentication usage
More appropriate experience for a one-time funeral event

Livestream bandwidth sits with the provider

When a guest watches an embedded YouTube or third-party stream, the video is delivered by that provider. Supabase supplies the funeral-page data and supporting media, but it does not transmit the livestream itself.

Model Beloved's monthly operating costs

Every field is editable. Choose a preset, or set your own assumptions. Nothing here is connected to a live payment, Supabase or vendor account: this is a planning and presentation model only.

Usage

Funeral events per month

Average page visitors per funeral

Average livestream viewers per funeral

Average photographs per funeral

Average compressed photograph size (MB)

Authenticated monthly users

Funeral-home accounts

Email messages per funeral

SMS messages per funeral

Average contributions per funeral

Average contribution amount ($)

Production environments

Staging environments

Infrastructure

Supabase compute size

Front-end hosting ($ per month)

Email provider ($ per month)

Monitoring ($ per month)

Backup streaming account ($ per month)

Domain ($ per month)

Maintenance and support ($ per month)

Optional paid livestream ($ per event)

Optional recording storage ($ per month)

Other software ($ per month)

Revenue

Funeral package price ($)

Funerals using a paid package (%)

Premium upgrade price ($)

Buying the upgrade (%)

Funeral-home subscription price ($)

Subscribed funeral homes

Platform transaction fee (%)

Marketplace revenue ($ per month)

Other revenue ($ per month)

Variable costs

Payment processing (%)

Payment processing fixed fee ($)

Refund allowance (%)

Customer support ($ per funeral)

Livestream operator ($ per funeral)

Marketing ($ per acquired funeral)

Other variable cost ($ per funeral)

Infrastructure per month

Estimated Supabase cost: −$30.00
Estimated front-end hosting: −$20.00
Estimated email cost: −$10.00
Estimated monitoring cost: −$5.00
Estimated livestream-provider cost: $0.00
Estimated support-plan cost: −$200
Storage generated per month: 0.06 GB
Storage generated per year: 0.7 GB
Total fixed software cost: −$284
Total annual software cost: −$3,408

Revenue per month

Funeral-package revenue: $1,188
Premium-upgrade revenue: $176
Funeral-home subscription revenue: $298
Transaction-fee revenue: $130
Marketplace and other revenue: $0.00
Total revenue: $1,792
Annualised revenue: $21,504

Variable expenditure per month

Payment processing: −$208
Refund allowance: −$17.92
Customer support: −$72.00
Livestream operators: $0.00
Customer acquisition: −$180
Other variable costs: $0.00
Total variable costs: −$477

Revenue per funeral

$149

Infrastructure cost per funeral

$23.67

Variable cost per funeral

$39.79

Gross contribution per funeral

$110

Gross contribution margin

73.4%

Monthly operating contributionⓘ

$1,031

Annualised operating contribution

$12,366

Break-even funeral events per month

3 events

Gross contribution is calculated before founder salaries, tax, insurance, legal costs, office costs and other company overhead. It is not net profit. All figures are indicative planning assumptions, not guaranteed supplier pricing or forecast revenue.

Illustrative MVP break-even

Without Essential Care+

Approximately $82 per month

Fixed software cost

Simplified infrastructure break-even

Approximately one $99 funeral event per month

With Essential Care+

Approximately $282 per month

Fixed software and technical-care cost

Simplified infrastructure break-even

Approximately three $99 funeral events per month

Default assumptions used

Funeral package price: $99
Funeral events per month: 10
Paid-package adoption: 100%
Supabase: $30 per month
Front-end hosting: $20 per month
Email, domain and monitoring: $15 per month
Backup streaming account: $17 per month
Total core infrastructure: $82 per month
Essential Care+: optional $200 per month
Payment processing: editable assumption
Support and acquisition: excluded from the initial simplified example

These simplified figures show infrastructure break-even only. They do not include payment processing, customer support, livestream operation, marketing, refunds, taxes or wider company overhead.

Example early-stage monthly model

Illustrative scenario, not a forecastEvery figure editable in the calculator above

Revenue

Funeral package revenue20 × $99: $1,980
Premium upgrades6 × $49: $294
Funeral-home subscriptions5 × $149: $745
Indicative monthly revenue: $3,019

Deductions

Estimated payment processing: −$97
Core infrastructure: −$82
Technical support (Essential Care+): −$200
Customer support (editable): −$120
Customer acquisition (editable): −$300
Other variable expenses: −$0

$2,220

Indicative gross contribution

73.5%

Gross contribution percentage

$40

Cost per funeral

$151

Revenue per funeral

Break-even at these assumptions is approximately 3 funeral events per month. Gross contribution is calculated before founder salaries, tax, insurance, legal costs, office costs and other company overhead. It is not net profit.

What this model tells us

Infrastructure is not the main commercial risk

The core software stack can remain comparatively lean during early validation.

Video does not need to drive backend cost

Using an established video provider means the most bandwidth-intensive part of the experience is delivered outside Supabase.

Margins depend on operations, not only software

Customer acquisition, support, payment processing and live-event operations are more likely to determine profitability.

Pricing can be tested without overbuilding

Beloved can validate one-time funeral packages and funeral-home subscriptions before investing in a full marketplace or proprietary video infrastructure.

Third-party accounts and ownership

The final implementation should confirm the following before launch.

Whether Nicole owns the Supabase organisation
Whether Nicole owns the hosting account
Whether Nicole owns the Stripe account
Whether Nicole owns the livestream-provider account
Whether Keza manages infrastructure under Essential Care+
Who receives vendor invoices
Who is responsible for account renewals
What happens if a third-party provider changes its pricing
How the platform is handed over if ongoing support ends

Recommended position

Wherever practical, the Beloved business should own its primary production accounts, with Keza receiving appropriate technical access for implementation and support.

Planning assumptions

The assumptions behind every figure in this section

Livestream video is hosted outside Supabase.
No native video uploads are included in the MVP.
Funeral photographs are compressed.
Guests are not required to create an account by default.
One production Supabase project is used initially.
One staging environment may be maintained during delivery.
The Supabase Pro plan is used for production.
Initial traffic remains within the published included usage limits.
YouTube or a similar provider is used for the initial livestream experience.
Payment-processing fees are charged separately.
SMS is optional and usage-based.
Infrastructure prices may change.
All figures are planning estimates based on July 2026 assumptions.
Commercial projections are illustrative and are not guaranteed forecasts.

A scalable cost base from the beginning

Beloved can launch using a lean managed infrastructure model.

With a third-party provider delivering the livestream video, Supabase can provide the database, authentication, file storage, administrative functionality and server-side services for approximately $30 per month during initial validation.

The wider software stack may reasonably remain within approximately $48 to $119 per month before ongoing maintenance and support. Including the proposed Essential Care+ service, the indicative operating range becomes approximately $248 to $319 per month.

This means Beloved does not require significant upfront infrastructure expenditure merely to validate the core product. Its larger commercial costs are more likely to arise from:

Customer acquisition
User support
Payment processing
Livestream operations
Partner onboarding
Sales and marketing
Compliance
Business administration

Investment follows demand, it does not precede it

Beloved can validate demand with a low fixed technical cost base, allowing future infrastructure investment to follow demonstrated usage rather than precede it.

Third-Party Integrations

What gets bought rather than built. Every line here is money and months you do not spend.

Category	Service	Purpose	Phase	Build vs buy
Payments	Stripe (or equivalent regulated PSP)	Contributions, premium upgrades, provider subscriptions, KYC and payouts.	Phase 1	Buy. Merchant-of-record status removes money-transmission exposure entirely.
Livestreaming	YouTube Live / Vimeo, provider-managed	Scheduled stream embedded in the memorial page with replay.	Phase 1	Buy. Proves the behaviour at negligible cost; revisit at Phase 3 volume.
Email	Transactional email provider	Page creation, change notifications, contribution receipts, reminders.	Phase 1	Buy. Deliverability is a specialist discipline.
SMS	Twilio	Time-critical service-change alerts and stream reminders.	Phase 1	Buy.
Maps	Google Maps Platform	Venue location, directions and directory geocoding.	Phase 1	Buy.
Media	Object storage + image CDN	Photo and video storage, transformation and global delivery.	Phase 1	Buy.
Authentication	Managed auth with Google sign-in	Organiser and provider accounts, session management, password reset.	Phase 1	Buy. Never hand-roll authentication.
Analytics	Privacy-respecting product analytics	Funnel, activation and retention measurement. Never on memorial content.	Phase 1	Buy, with strict scoping.
Moderation	Automated content classification	Profanity, spam and abuse filtering ahead of family review.	Phase 1	Buy the classifier, own the policy.
AI	Managed model gateway	Tribute drafting assistance and planning guidance.	Phase 4	Buy the model, own the prompts and the guardrails.
Identity verification	PSP-native KYC	Verifying the organiser before contribution payout is released.	Phase 1	Buy, via the payment provider.
Support	Helpdesk with shared inbox	Family and provider support with SLA tracking.	Phase 1	Buy.

Security & Privacy

Grief data is sensitive data. This is the section that keeps you out of trouble, specified from day one rather than bolted on.

Access control

Row-level security on every table. Roles stored in a dedicated table and checked through a security-definer function, never read from a client-editable profile record. Least privilege by default.

Encryption

TLS 1.3 in transit, AES-256 at rest for database and object storage. Signed, short-lived URLs for all private media.

Link privacy

Share tokens are cryptographically random, revocable and regenerable. Memorial pages carry noindex directives and are excluded from sitemaps by default.

Payment security

No card data ever touches platform infrastructure. PCI scope handled by the payment provider. Webhook signatures verified before any state change.

Fraud prevention

Identity verification before payout, hold periods on first payouts, anomaly detection on contribution velocity, contribution caps for unverified organisers, and a published takedown process.

Data protection

GDPR and CCPA-aligned rights processes: access, export, correction and erasure. Data minimisation enforced at schema level. Documented retention schedule with automated purge.

Auditability

Append-only audit log capturing actor, timestamp, entity and before/after state for every privileged action, retained for seven years.

Content safety

Automated filtering, family-side moderation by default, escalation path for abusive or impersonating content, and a rapid takedown SLA for fraudulent memorials.

Operational security

Secrets in a managed store, no production secrets in source control, mandatory review on every change, dependency scanning in CI, and quarterly access reviews.

Resilience

Daily backups with point-in-time recovery, tested restore procedure, and a documented incident-response runbook with defined notification obligations.

The non-negotiable

A memorial page is private by default, excluded from search indexing, reachable only by an unguessable link that the family can revoke. If that promise breaks once, the product is finished so it is enforced in the database, not in a route handler.

Scalability

What happens when it works. Only three things actually grow, and all three are handled.

Dimension	Load pattern	Approach
Read traffic	A single shared page can produce thousands of concurrent reads in minutes.	Static generation and edge caching for published memorial pages, with cache invalidation on edit. Read replicas added when database read load exceeds 60% sustained.
Media delivery	Photos and video dominate bandwidth and cost.	CDN-first delivery, responsive image variants generated on upload, modern formats, lazy loading, and lifecycle rules that move media older than twelve months to cold storage.
Livestream concurrency	Highly spiky: near zero, then hundreds of concurrent viewers for ninety minutes.	Provider-managed streaming absorbs the spike at MVP. In-house adaptive-bitrate delivery only once concurrent-viewer volume justifies the fixed cost.
Write traffic	Modest and predictable: page edits and contributions.	Standard connection pooling and indexed queries. No sharding required within the modelled horizon.
Background work	Notifications, receipts, media processing and payouts.	Queue-backed jobs with retry, idempotency keys and a dead-letter queue. Scheduled jobs for reminders and lifecycle transitions.
Multi-region	Required from Phase 3 as expansion begins.	Edge rendering globally with regional data residency options for enterprise and international customers.
Team scalability	The real constraint on delivery speed.	Modular boundaries inside a single deployable, typed contracts everywhere, and a documented service extraction path if and when ownership needs to split.

Analytics & KPIs

The numbers an investor will ask for at month six. Instrumented from the start so you have answers.

Category	Metric	Definition	Target
Acquisition	Memorial pages created / month	Published pages, excluding test and duplicate records.	250 by month 6; 2,000 by month 18
Acquisition	Provider-referred share	Proportion of pages created via a funeral home referral or provider account.	Above 40% by month 12
Activation	Time to publish	Median minutes from account creation to first published page.	Under 10 minutes
Activation	Completion rate	Started pages that reach publish.	Above 70%
Engagement	Guests per memorial	Unique visitors to a published page within 30 days.	45+ median
Engagement	Remote attendance rate	Pages with at least one livestream viewer.	Above 60%
Engagement	Tributes per memorial	Approved guestbook entries within 30 days.	12+ median
Monetisation	Premium attach rate	Published pages upgrading to a paid tier.	12% at pilot; 22% at scale
Monetisation	Contribution volume per memorial	Gross contributions received per page with contributions enabled.	$420 at pilot; $700 at scale
Monetisation	Revenue per memorial	Total platform revenue divided by published pages.	$28 at pilot; $52 at scale
Supply	Paying provider locations	Locations on an active paid subscription.	75 by month 12; 480 by month 36
Supply	Provider logo churn	Monthly cancellations as a share of active accounts.	Below 3% monthly
Retention	Memorial revisit rate	Pages revisited more than 30 days after the service.	Above 35%
Retention	Forever tier conversion	Pages upgraded to perpetual hosting within 12 months.	Above 8%
Quality	Stream success rate	Scheduled streams delivered without a reported failure.	Above 99%
Quality	Support contacts per 100 memorials	Inbound support tickets normalised to volume.	Below 9
Trust	Fraud takedown time	Median hours from report to removal of a fraudulent page.	Under 4 hours

Success Metrics

What good looks like, so you can tell the difference between progress and motion.

Product

Families can create a complete, private memorial page in under ten minutes and a guest can attend remotely without any account.

Time to publish under 10 minutes
Completion rate above 70%
Stream success rate above 99%

Commercial

The platform earns durable revenue from both sides of the market, not from one hopeful transaction.

Premium attach rate above 12% at pilot
75 paying provider locations by month 12
Contribution volume above $400 per memorial

Operational

The platform runs safely with a small team, and cost per memorial falls as volume rises.

Direct cost per memorial under $1.50
Support contacts below 9 per 100 memorials
Zero unresolved data incidents

Trust

Families and providers treat Beloved as a safe place, and the market treats it as a legitimate operator.

Fraud takedown under 4 hours
Zero memorial content indexed without consent
Provider verification coverage at 100%

Investor

Metrics are reproducible, cohorts improve, and the expansion path is evidenced rather than asserted.

Monthly cohort reporting from month one
Improving attach rate across successive cohorts
Two enterprise contracts in pipeline by month 30

Product Roadmap

Five phases from the first release to the platform you described. The order matters more than the dates.

Investor MVP

Months 0 to 4

Prove that a family will create a private page, share it, stream the service and receive support, and that guests will pay.

Unlocks

Core family and guest experience
Payments and contributions live
Launch-region directory seeded
First revenue and first cohort data

Revenue engine

Premium memorials + contribution fees

Proof point before the next phase

500 memorial pages, 12% premium attach, 60%+ of pages with at least one remote attendee.

Funeral homes

Months 4 to 10

Convert the supply side. Turn a directory into a subscription business with measurable lead attribution.

Unlocks

Provider self-service admin
Full profiles, packages and ZIP search
Lead capture, verification badges
Professional plan billing

Revenue engine

Recurring provider SaaS

Proof point before the next phase

75 paying locations, <3% monthly logo churn, attributable lead volume per location.

Marketplace

Months 10 to 20

Monetise the transactions already happening around every funeral, starting with flowers.

Unlocks

Vendor storefronts and catalogue
Checkout, payment splitting and payouts
Advanced livestream infrastructure
Multi-region rollout

Revenue engine

Commission on GMV

Proof point before the next phase

Marketplace GMV per memorial above $85; commission revenue exceeding contribution-fee revenue.

Digital legacy

Months 20 to 30

Move upstream from death to life, the relationship starts before it is needed.

Unlocks

Pre-need planning and wishes
Digital vault with verified release
Family timelines
Insurance and hospice partnerships

Revenue engine

Consumer subscriptions + partner rev-share

Proof point before the next phase

Pre-need subscribers reaching 15% of monthly memorial volume.

Enterprise platform

Months 30 to 42

Become the standard infrastructure layer for funeral groups and institutions.

Unlocks

White-label deployment
Multi-site administration and SSO
Public API and CRM integrations
International expansion

Revenue engine

Enterprise licensing + API

Proof point before the next phase

Two group contracts above $50k ARR each; >40% of revenue recurring and contracted.

Risk Assessment

The things that could go wrong, named honestly. None of them are fatal, and each one has a response.

TechnicalLikelihood: MediumImpact: Severe

Livestream fails during the service: the single most unforgivable failure mode.

Mitigation

Use proven third-party streaming rather than in-house infrastructure at MVP. Pre-service test flow, fallback audio-only link, visible status, and a recorded replay obligation on every paid tier.

TechnicalLikelihood: MediumImpact: Medium

Media storage and delivery costs scale faster than revenue.

Mitigation

Tiered storage quotas, aggressive image optimisation, cold storage after 12 months, and CDN caching. Forever tier priced to fund perpetual storage from the outset.

CommercialLikelihood: MediumImpact: High

Free tier cannibalises premium; attach rate stays below 8%.

Mitigation

Upgrade prompts placed after value is delivered, not before. Continuous price and packaging testing. Provider-sold premium as a second channel that does not depend on family self-serve conversion.

CommercialLikelihood: MediumImpact: High

Funeral homes refuse to pay, or see the platform as a competitive threat.

Mitigation

Position as a lead source and service differentiator, never as disintermediation. Free listings first, paid only after demonstrated lead value. Provider advisory group from month one.

LegalLikelihood: HighImpact: High

Handling contributions may trigger money-transmission, charitable-solicitation or escrow obligations by state.

Mitigation

Use a regulated payment provider as merchant of record with managed onboarding and KYC. Specialist counsel before launch in each state. Clear terms defining the family, not the platform, as the beneficiary.

LegalLikelihood: MediumImpact: High

Sensitive personal data of the deceased and mourners across multiple jurisdictions.

Mitigation

Data minimisation at schema level, encryption in transit and at rest, documented retention, GDPR/CCPA-aligned rights processes, DPAs with every processor, and privacy review before each release.

OperationalLikelihood: HighImpact: Medium

Moderation load and emotional burden on a small team.

Mitigation

Automated filtering first, family-side moderation by default, clear escalation policy, staffing model that scales with volume, and psychological support for moderators.

OperationalLikelihood: MediumImpact: Medium

Provider onboarding is manual and does not scale beyond one region.

Mitigation

Self-service claim-and-verify flow prioritised in Phase 2; bulk import for group operators; region playbook documented from the first launch.

AdoptionLikelihood: HighImpact: Severe

Families never hear about the product in the 72 hours when it matters.

Mitigation

Distribution through funeral homes, hospices and faith venues rather than paid consumer acquisition. Every shared page is an impression, the product is its own top of funnel.

AdoptionLikelihood: MediumImpact: Medium

Cultural resistance to digitising grief.

Mitigation

Human-first design language, cultural advisory input, opt-in everything, and framing around inclusion of absent loved ones rather than technology.

FinancialLikelihood: MediumImpact: High

Revenue per memorial is too low to fund provider-side sales.

Mitigation

Sequence spend: consumer economics fund product; provider expansion funded only once attach rate and contribution volume are proven. Milestone-gated hiring.

FinancialLikelihood: MediumImpact: Medium

Payment disputes, chargebacks and refund exposure on contributions.

Mitigation

Identity verification before payout, payout hold periods, fraud scoring, contribution caps for unverified organisers, and reserve provision in the financial model.

ReputationalLikelihood: MediumImpact: Severe

A fraudulent memorial page solicits contributions.

Mitigation

Verification before payout is released, not before the page is created. Anomaly detection on contribution patterns. Rapid takedown SLA. Published trust and safety policy.

ReputationalLikelihood: MediumImpact: High

Perceived as profiting from grief.

Mitigation

Free core product, transparent and capped fees, hardship waivers, no advertising on memorial pages, and a published ethical charter that the pricing model visibly honours.

Assumptions

Everything this document takes as given. If one of these is wrong, tell us, because the numbers move.

Market

Initial launch region is South Florida (Miami / Fort Lauderdale), with pricing in USD. National expansion follows regional proof, not before.
US annual deaths of roughly 3.1 million and an average funeral cost in the $7,000 to $9,000 range are used as the sizing basis. Figures are directional planning inputs, not audited market research.

Demand

A meaningful share of every funeral's attendee list cannot attend in person. Remote attendance is treated as a persistent need, not a pandemic artefact.

Product

Embedded third-party streaming is sufficient to prove the remote-attendance behaviour. In-house streaming is deferred until volume justifies it.
Guests will not create accounts. Every guest-facing flow must work from a link alone.

Pricing

Premium attach rate of 12% at pilot rising to 22% at scale. This is the single most sensitive assumption in the model.
Contribution platform fee of 3% (1.5% on Premium) is acceptable to families and contributors. Subject to testing.

Costs

Infrastructure costs are modelled on managed cloud services with CDN delivery: under $1.50 of direct cost per memorial at pilot volume, falling with scale.
Payment processing is modelled at 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction and is passed through, not absorbed.

Supply

Funeral homes will list for free and convert to paid subscriptions only after demonstrable lead attribution, typically 3 to 6 months after listing.

Legal

A regulated payment provider acts as merchant of record, removing the need for the platform to hold money-transmitter licences. This must be confirmed with counsel per state.

Delivery

The MVP is deliverable by a small senior team in approximately four months, assuming payment onboarding and legal review begin in week one.

Team

Provider-side sales capacity is not funded until Phase 2, and is gated on Phase 1 metrics.

Future Opportunities

The version of this that exists in three years if the first release lands. Your longer ambition, kept on the record.

AI planning assistance

Phase 4

A sensitive assistant that helps families write a tribute, structure an order of service, compare provider packages and understand what happens next. The value is not novelty, it is removing decisions from people who cannot make them.

Value: Raises premium conversion and materially reduces time-to-publish.
Principal risk: Tone. Any output that feels generated undermines the entire product. Human review on anything published.

Pre-need & legacy planning

Phase 4

Individuals record their wishes, music, readings, budget and provider preferences while healthy, and share them with family or a chosen provider.

Value: Converts a one-off, unplanned purchase into a multi-year subscription relationship.
Principal risk: Long payback; requires trust before need exists.

Digital vault

Phase 4

Encrypted storage for documents, policies, account details and letters, released to named recipients on verified death.

Value: High-margin recurring revenue with extremely low churn.
Principal risk: Custodial responsibility and verification design must be near-perfect.

Estate & post-death administration

Phase 4

Guided checklist covering notifications, account closures, probate steps and benefit claims, the six months nobody prepares for.

Value: Extends the relationship well beyond the funeral and opens professional-services referral revenue.
Principal risk: Jurisdictional complexity; must be guidance, not regulated advice.

Insurance & financial integration

Phase 4 to 5

Distribution partnerships with life and final-expense insurers, embedding planning into the policy relationship.

Value: Access to millions of policyholders at effectively zero acquisition cost.
Principal risk: Long enterprise sales cycles and strict compliance requirements.

Family timelines

Phase 4

Linking memorials across generations into a family record, a genealogy layer built from primary, consented sources.

Value: Creates a durable network effect and a genuinely unique dataset.
Principal risk: Sensitivity around linking family data without explicit consent.

Marketplace expansion

Phase 3 to 5

Beyond flowers and monuments into catering, transport, celebrants, music, printing and memorial jewellery.

Value: Every added category increases GMV per memorial without increasing acquisition cost.
Principal risk: Quality control across a long tail of small suppliers.

International expansion

Phase 5

UK, Ireland, Caribbean and Commonwealth markets share language, diaspora patterns and remote-attendance need.

Value: Diaspora communities are the highest-value users of remote attendance anywhere in the world.
Principal risk: Regulatory, cultural and payment localisation per market.

Why Beloved Wins

The closing argument for your idea, in one page. Take this into the room.

Right problem

Not a feature looking for a market. Every family faces this, every year, and the current experience is genuinely broken.

Right sequencing

The MVP proves the hardest behavioural assumption (that families will create and share a private page and that guests will pay) before a dollar is spent on marketplace infrastructure.

Right economics

Zero-marginal-cost distribution, high gross margin and four revenue engines that layer rather than compete.

Right tone

This category punishes anything that feels like a startup. Beloved is designed with restraint, and that restraint is the competitive advantage.

Right timing

Remote attendance is now expected, not exceptional. Funeral-home consolidation is creating enterprise buyers. Payment infrastructure makes contributions trivial. None of this was true five years ago.

Right scope discipline

This blueprint says no to more than it says yes to. Fourteen MVP capabilities, nine explicit exclusions, and a phased path that earns each next investment.

Every family will face this. Almost none of them will be ready. Beloved is the first product designed for that exact moment and the first with a commercial model honest enough to survive it.

Source Documents

Your own source documents, kept alongside the blueprint they produced.

Proposal: Digital Funeral Planning Platform MVPPDFThe originating commercial proposal covering vision, delivery approach, scope and investment.Proposal_for_Digital_Funeral_Planning_Platform_MVP_2_1.pdf · 67 KB MVP Scope RecommendationWordRecommended MVP boundary: what is included, what is deliberately excluded, and why.MVP_Scope_Recommendation.docx · 221 KB Feature Phasing DocumentExcelThe full feature matrix across all five phases, with importance rating and MVP flag.Feature_Phasing_Document.xlsx · 15 KB User StoriesWordRole-based user stories for families, guests, providers and administrators.User_Stories.docx · 217 KB User Journey FlowWordEnd-to-end journey flows for the organiser and the guest experience.User_Journey_Flow.docx · 220 KB

For Nicole

What we need from you next

This document is deliberately finished enough to act on and deliberately open where your judgement should decide. Three things unlock the build.

01
Confirm the MVP boundary
Read section 13 and tell us if anything in the excluded list has to move in. Everything moved in pushes the first release out, so we would rather argue about it now than in week six.
02
Name two friendly funeral directors
The provider side is the harder adoption problem. Two real providers who will use an early build and complain honestly are worth more than any amount of research.
03
Set the pricing you are comfortable defending
Section 10 gives indicative tiers. You know what families and providers will actually accept in this sector better than a spreadsheet does. Your number wins.

This is your idea. We have done the part where it gets tested against numbers, and it holds. Keza Studio.