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Last Post Sends Emails and Letters to Loved Ones When You Die
Last Post is a London-based startup that hopes to help people leave last messages for their loved ones upon death. The company notes that, "1 person dies every 30 seconds in a car crash." Their goal is to help you setup letters today to leave for others. I have to admit it’s a bit of a different startup than we typically cover on CN.
What I don’t see on the site is how they know when the account holder has died. Last Post offers a variety of account plans which I’ve commented on below. The paid plans allow you to include printed pieces which you mail to the Last Post offices in London. Naturally anyone who creates an account with Last Post assumes they will be around long enough to deliver the mail and messages to your loved ones.
The free account allows you to send 10 emails immediately upon death. They also offer yearly paid plans from GBP 9.99/year to GBP 29.99/year. This is where it gets interesting. The paid plans allow you to pick a date past death to send the letters. Let’s say you pick a date 5 years after death on an anniversary. The account holder pays the yearly fee until death. After that, Last Post notifies the recipient about the letter and then that recipient must pay the yearly fee until the letter is sent (in this case 5 years). This might be the most interesting business model I’ve seen lately.
There are so many songs about passing and not being able to say goodbye. Last Post is trying to change that – while I am not sure about their business model, I think the concept is a good one.
Incredibly odd but also interesting. I’d love to read a follow up with info on how they know someone has died.
Wow, not sure about this startup. Interesting concept, but your first sentence in the 2nd paragraph also makes me wonder – Do they search the obituaries? Or what?
Rex
Just when it seemed like all the original ideas had been used up a startup comes along that makes me stop and say, “wow, that’s different.”
Different isn’t always good, but in this case I think that what they are trying to do by giving people an opportunity to say goodbye is actually a good idea.
Like you said about not being sure about their business model, I’m also not sure about the yearly subscription model and how well it will work. I think the free account would be just fine for pretty much everyone.
I’m also confused about how they find out the person died. Searching the obits seems to be a bit labor intensive. Now it would be nice if your account was tied to your Social Security number (in the US for example) and they were linked into a public records database so that when you were flagged as deceased it would then trigger your letter to be sent.
But I don’t think I’ll be heading over to Last Post to test out the service just yet.
Very interesting!
Good question too – I assume they have to be notified either by the account holder if he knows he’s going to die – or by his friends/relatives afterwards. Seems tricky. But interesting concept.
Hmm, I think I’d have to pass on the “pay after your friend/relative is dead” part.
No doubt the message any of my friends would send would be something on the order of… “Haha, I knew you would pay the fee!”
I agree with you Allen. They have to change that business model where: “Last Post notifies the recipient about the letter and then that recipient must pay the yearly fee until the letter is sent (in this case 5 years)”
That’s just morbid and I’m sure they would get sued. Why not have the person writing the letter just pay extra for that feature?
I do think this is a nice service that would help a lot of people deal with the tragedies of life.
Hi, my name is Andrew Campbell and I’m the CEO and Founder of LastPost.com. Just to clarify, we don’t charge recipients of Last Posts. When the sender dies, all the recipient has to do is keep their personal details up to date and let us know if a delivery condition is met.
Letters can be sent immediately after death, at a fixed time after death, or at any time after death. The only condition we have for an any time after death letter is that the recipient must be alive at the time of your death. It could be your 1 year old great grand child and you might want the letter delivered on the day of their graduation or wedding.
We offer 10 free emails for delivery at death without any catches. The emails are free and will always be free. Obviously, we hope that people who use the free email service will eventually upgrade to a paid for letter but we will not be bombarding them with emails trying to convince them to do that.
Several people asked how we know when somebody has died. When you register with Last Post, we send you a PDF membership certificate. The certificate has your membership number on, a few words to explain that you are a member of our delayed mail service, and instructions for somebody to follow in the event of your death. You print out the certificate and file it with your fill or personal affects. Then whoever executes your will or deals with you affairs after death, faxes, emails or posts a copy of your membership certificate and death certificate to us so we can verify your death.
If you have sent an email or letter after death, we will notify the recipient and ask their permission to send it. This is so we don’t upset anybody, it also discourages people sending malicious letters and emails, and enables the recipient to let us know if they don’t receive it. If a letter is due for delivery at some point in the future, we will inform the recipient that a letter is stored for them and they will take over account housekeeping and let us know when any delivery conditions are met.
I did a BBC radio interview today and the interviewer asked what would happen if somebody told us the condition was met when it wasn’t. I said that would be like opening your Christmas presents early but we won’t be checking if somebody is actually getting married or graduating.
We’ve had quite alot of media interest in LastPost.com, it’s a talking point and people are usually split on whether receiving a letter or email from a deceased loved one is unsettling or welcome. I had the idea for the site in a dream, I had 17 year old twin daughters and found out I had a terminal illness, I woke up thinking I had to write a letter to them so they had something to remember me by. I would love to receive a Last Post. I lived with my grandmother when I was growing up and she died when I was 15. If I received a letter from her, I would treasure it.
If anybody has any more questions about LastPost.com, I would be happy to answer them.
Andrew Campbell
LastPost.com