There was no roadmap. No platform. No one accountable for the whole.
While he was facing that diagnosis, my mother started quietly doing what she always does — she started preparing. Gathering documents, trying to understand what accounts they had, looking for guidance on what actually comes next.
There was nothing. No platform. No professional who could walk her through the 50+ tasks that accompany a death. Just family members who had recently been through it themselves — and were still grieving.
What I found when I started digging: this isn't a niche problem. It's universal. Three million families go through this every year in the United States. Every one of them faces the same chaos, the same isolation, the same gaps. And the professionals who serve them — funeral directors, estate attorneys, financial advisors — absorb that chaos for free.
“That experience is why Bequestra exists. Not for a niche. For every family that will go through this — which is every family, eventually.”
More than a name. A declaration of purpose.
A gift or legacy passed forward — what we leave behind for those we love.
To bring every part into harmony — arranging chaos into a guided process.
We're from Cleveland. We're building for Cleveland first. And we're not stopping until every family has a roadmap.
5+ years in investment banking covering healthcare, insurance, and tech-enabled companies at BMO Capital Markets. Strategy and operations at AcuityMD, a MedTech SaaS startup. Industry network across NE Ohio funeral homes, probate law firms, and hospice centers.
5+ years in fixed income investment management and credit at Koch Investment Group. Previous founder experience. Deep understanding of institutional capital, financial structures, and how money moves through estate and insurance systems.
Founded a stealth startup while consulting at Deloitte. Technology consultant with experience building enterprise-grade systems. Brings a founder mentality to every technical decision — shipping fast, building right.
Every design decision, every word on the platform, every interaction is filtered through one question: is this compassionate? Grief demands it.
Families deserve to know what's happening and why. Partners deserve to see the full picture. We build trust through visibility, not opacity.
We don't add complexity — we absorb it. Every feature we build must reduce the burden on someone, not create a new one.
We start local, prove locally, and scale deliberately. Cleveland isn't a stepping stone — it's the proof of concept that earns every market after.
People don't want to face estate planning until it happens — and then they're completely lost.
Northeast Ohio has 175–200 independent funeral homes, 30,000+ deaths per year, and 80–120 dedicated estate and probate law practices. It's the perfect market to prove the model — dense, independent, and ready for coordination infrastructure.
Cleveland is Stage 1. Pittsburgh, Columbus, and Detroit come next. Then the national migration markets — Raleigh, Austin, Tampa, Houston — where people moved away from their families and need a platform to navigate death care without a local network.
Whether you're a family who needs help, a professional who wants to serve better, or a partner who believes in this mission — there's a place for you here.