SURVEY TIME!!!

[Sarlon]

Hey guys, I've been talking about it for a little while and now I'm moving onto the next step. I'm needing a little bit of market research for my business plan. All I need you guys to do is read over this idea, tell me what you think you'd pay for this year to year, and tell me your general age range.

Any ages are welcome, but just put in 18-25, 26-35, 36-45, or up.

Taken almost word for word from our website. PM me if you'd like the website itself.

Upon first seeing our name, I must admit that some grim visions may have popped up in your head. However it’s nowhere near as morbid as you think.

In truth, our business is based off a similar concept to ‘time capsules’, something that is intended to be unearthed months or even years down the track – in this case, after ones death specifically.

How it works is for a nominal fee, we will provide a ‘capsule’ USB device on which you will be able to store information you wish your next of kin to have if you pass away, such as links and passwords to social media sites or bulletin boards that you frequent on a regular basis, or possibly a video clip for the children, the only limitation is the size of the capsule itself. During the setup process you will be required to designate one primary and one backup recipient who will receive the capsule upon notice of your passing away.

Once the capsule has been returned to us, it will be stored away, after which time no one will have access to it with the sole exception of the owner of the capsule who can request it be sent back out to them so that they can modify the information on the capsule. As the owner is the only one that can access the capsule until their death, it is strongly recommended that they leave a note in their will or let their next of kin know they have set up a death capsule so that it is known we should be contacted.

Upon receipt of a signed and validated copy of the capsule owners death certificate, the capsule will be UNSEALED and sent to the next of kin, at which point it will become their property and all storage transactions ceased.

Pros of using a ‘life capsule’
- A safe, secure digital medium that is kept OFFLINE, thus rendering it safe from being hacked or compromised
- Peace of mind in knowing that your important information is safely stored away in case something happens
- Cheaper than a ‘safe deposit box’
- Able to be updated with relative ease.

[kansasgal]

I would pay about $25 a year (what I pay now for a safe deposit box) with a $25 set up one time fee

[Kagato]

There is no way we could go that cheap with our overheads, we'd go bankrupt within the year.

Don't forget we need to cover:
Postage
Electricity
Phone
Internet
Web hosting
Legal fees
Wages for staff
And a ton of other stuff

At what would be $2 per month before tax, we'd likely need a bare minimum of 2500 customers to even hope to be able to offer those kinds of rates

[Kheldarson]

You may want to think about having a number of extra services then to give customer pricing levels. Because kansasgal's suggested price seems to be on par with the online services doing the same thing you are.

[Kagato]

That's the crux of the issue. We are NOT online. We are an OFFLINE service to allow for added security and prevent data compromise

[Kheldarson]

And that's going to be the crux of all your issues. You're trying to provide a service which is provided for FREE by other companies to a limited extent. Yes, you're more secure, but a customer is still going to ultimately ask how important that extra safety is when being charged say...$50-100/yr over a less secure method that charges $20/life.

So you might figure out a couple more features that you can add to give levels of protection. And your base layer could be the cheapest and underpriced bit, but that will at least get you the business to convince people to pay something more cost effective for you for more perks.

[Kagato]

I'd like links to these sites then because the only places I can thInk of that could offer those sorts of cheap rates are backed by massive companies like banks, in comparison we are a 2-person startup. We don't have millions of dollars to absorb startups.

[Kheldarson]

http://www.thedigitalbeyond.com/online-services-list/

[KabeRinnaul]

Price and customer base are inversely proportional (except in certain cases involving luxury goods, but things normalize again at a higher scale after that). That's the law of demand, Economics 101 (well, 201 where I went, but point still stands). Regardless of whether they're other small start-ups or operations backed by large financial institutions, they're still your competition and what you'll be compared to. Your main issue is going to be either finding cheaper ways of handling things, or convincing people that offline storage merits the higher price. If you don't think you can handle start-up costs, then you might consider a funding source like Kickstarter.

And for the record, I wouldn't pay more than about $20 yearly, or maybe a one-time fee of $50 or less, and then only if I felt some pressing need for the service.

[Kagato]

We tried kick starter and indiegogo. Kick starter does not support business startups, indiegogo was a flop as we did not get any contributions despite apparent interest.

[kansasgal]

There is no way we could go that cheap with our overheads, we'd go bankrupt within the year.

Don't forget we need to cover:
Postage
Electricity
Phone
Internet
Web hosting
Legal fees
Wages for staff
And a ton of other stuff

At what would be $2 per month before tax, we'd likely need a bare minimum of 2500 customers to even hope to be able to offer those kinds of rates

And that is the problem, as others have said. You have to convince people they NEED this over what they already have...I already have backups, a safe deposit box and a flash drive that has all of this information. I would pay for something like this, because it has been brought to my attention (my house burned down) that sometimes you need something extra as well.

But, I would not pay a huge amount for it. It's not a necessity, it's a luxury, and right now I would have to choose between this and some other luxury that I want.

[Ironclad Alibi]

- Cheaper than a ‘safe deposit box’

I would pay about $25 a year (what I pay now for a safe deposit box) with a $25 set up one time fee

There is no way we could go that cheap with our overheads, we'd go bankrupt within the year.

Will your service be cheaper than a safe deposit box or not?

Another factor to consider is that death is not the only event that will trigger a need for the information being stored. The person may develop Alzheimer's disease, or something may happen to put them in a coma, or they just may go missing. And who owns the capsule in case of divorce? These are contingencies that need to be considered in your business plan.

[Draper Mel]

How would this be better than if I purchased my own high quality thumb drive or external hard drive, updated it occasionally and kept it in a safe deposit box?

Or even just printed this information out and kept it in a safe deposit box?

[Mytical]

Draper..this is if you passed on. Who would have access to that safety security box, info, etc. Once you passed on, they retrieve the info and send it to whoever you designate.

[Kheldarson]

Draper still has a good question. You can leave the contents of a safety deposit box to an executor in your will. Might take longer than the proposed service here, but still.