Parting Stone website traffic increases after Shark Tank episode
Parting Stone CEO Justin Crowe being congratulated by Sharks Lori Greiner and Kevin O’Leary on ABC’s Shark Tank
Earlier in April Parting Stone and its CEO Justin Crowe appeared on an episode of Shark Tank looking for potential investors to help move the company along into the mainstream of post-cremation remains options. And, while that happened as the company took an investment offer from well known Sharks Kevin O’Leary and Lori Greiner, a secondary result of the airing was the publicity that the company received.
According to CEO Crowe the company was prepared to begin collecting data from those who may call or visit the website after the show. Crowe mentions in a New Mexico Angels article, “. . .Parting Stone has seen a 900% increase (in web traffic) over the past week.”
According to the same article, the equity offer that Crowe accepted on Shark Tank included $400,000 for a 10% stake to be split by O’Leary and Greiner. It also included royalties to be paid to the two investors until their investment money had been paid back.
Funeral Director Daily take: I’m of the opinion that death care, and especially cremation disposition death care, will continuously move into more niche applications moving forward. What I mean by that is that a death care client that is cremated will have many options for the final disposition of their body. . . . of which solidified remains, such as Parting Stone would be one of.
Other options for cremated remains may be earth burial in an urn, entombment in a niche, scattering, jewelry, and more. I also think each funeral home or cremation operation, or individual family counselor, that deals with families in this environment will have their own modus operandi of which they prefer. That bias is simply there as there will be (or already are) so many choices that it will be almost impossible for funeral directors to mention all of the options during the arrangement conferences.
In other words, funeral directors or family counselors will have an opportunity to help many of those families make decisions. But if they don’t know of your process or final disposition method, it is difficult to recommend it. The Shark Tank episode may have made many, even in the death care profession, more aware of solidified remains.
While it is a one-time deal to appear on Shark Tank and getting a couple of investors to come along on the business ride is nice, it may turn out that the most valuable piece of the experience to Parting Stone will be the exposure to the estimated 4.2 million watchers on that evening. It certainly won’t hurt their business to let those millions know that there are other options for disposition of cremated remains.
Disclaimer — The author of this article is a shareholder in Parting Stone.
More news from the world of Death Care:
- Indigenous Fijian funerals adapted to balance between culture and survival. University of Hawaii News (HI)
- More than 60% of funeral directors nationwide are about to retire. Do you want this job? Article with voicecase available. Carolina News and Reporter (SC)
- A new back-to-the-land movement for the end of life. Minneapolis Star Tribune (MN)
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In addition to the initial airing, Shark Tank also is available to stream on demand and the show often does updates on different companies that have appeared so they will likely benefit from even more exposure in the future.