DEATH is something we tend to not like to think about much less talk about. As a result, we tend to push aside this topic and not worry about it until we have no choice. This certainly was the case for Izumi Inoue and her family until someone in the family passed away suddenly.
The chaos that ensued prompted her to start up a new online service, called Bereev, which helps people prepare for contingencies in the case of their own demise or for family members to prepare for the death of a loved one.
HOW IS IT THAT YOU, AS A MALAYSIAN, ENDED UP WITH A JAPANESE NAME?
My father is Japanese and my mother is Malaysian Chinese but I was born in Kuala Lumpur and raised mostly in Penang.
DO YOU SPEAK BAHASA MALAYSIA?
I do, but I also speak Mandarin and Hokkien, which shouldn’t be surprising because I grew up in Penang. What you might be surprised to hear is that I don’t actually speak Japanese even though my dad is Japanese and my mum speaks fluent Japanese. I may have a Japanese name but I'm 100 per cent Malaysian. I’d stick out like a sore thumb if I were in Japan.
WHAT DID YOU DO BEFORE STARTING BEREEV?
I worked in sales at a tech hardware company for a few years and then moved on to do marketing in the field of logistics.
HOW DID THE IDEA FOR BEREEV COME ABOUT?
My grandmother passed away two years ago and because it was the first death in our family, we didn't know what to do, who to call or where to find her important documents. I remember seeing my family members breaking down and arguing due to the pressure of having to make big decisions on top of grieving her passing. A year later, my grandfather passed away and that was a lot different.
He’d suffered from cancer and knew he was dying so he prepared everything properly, with all the important documents and paperwork in place. I thought to myself, what he did was genius. He didn’t want to burden his family with his death so he prepared everything in advance. Seeing that made me thought how useful it would be for others if there were some kind of service that would allow people to prepare for the inevitable.
HOW DID YOU INITIALLY GO ABOUT DOING THIS?
I spoke with a bunch of people who’d gone through a death of a loved one to understand the problems they personally had to face and to validate whether what happened to my family was a common occurrence. I then did my research and came up with what I thought was the best solutions. We built a beta version to test with around 250 users and got really positive feedback from that. So we pushed forward, took all of the feedback we received and refined the product to what it is today.
WHAT’S THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE THAT YOU’VE COME ACROSS SO FAR IN YOUR BUSINESS?
The hardest thing is getting Malaysians to realise how important legacy planning is and to have open and honest conversations about death with their loved ones. Maybe people are complacent about death and maybe death is too much of a taboo topic.
HOW DO YOU EDUCATE PEOPLE ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF PREPARING FOR DEATH?
We're producing a lot of educational content for social media that highlights the importance of planning ahead, what happens if you don't and how to start planning. We're also working with life insurance companies to equip their customers with sponsored Bereev accounts as this group of people are already in the right state of mind to accept their mortality and start planning.
WHAT ARE SOME OF THE CORE FEATURES OF BEREEV?
Through the app, you can leave clear instructions on how your funeral should be conducted, who’d take care of your pets and so on. You can manage important documents like your will, your insurance policies, EPF details, medical records and so on. You can also leave behind some last words with instruction on who to send it to when the time comes.
IS THE SERVICE VERY LOCALISED OR CAN IT BE USED ANYWHERE?
There are a few categories that are localised for Malaysians but the core categories are applicable to people anywhere. We have plans for expansion in the next 12 to 24 months and will be localising the product for each market that we enter. Southeast Asia is our main focus so we'll be looking into those markets specifically.
IS IT ONLY AVAILABLE AS AN APP OR IS THERE A WEB VERSION?
It's currently a web-app for desktops, laptops and tablets. We're working on our mobile app right now.
IF SOMEBODY DIDN’T WANT TO USE AN ONLINE SERVICE AND PREFER TO DO THINGS TRADITIONALLY, IN THE OFFLINE WORLD, WHAT WOULD THEY NEED TO DO?
The closest analogy to what we're doing is your old-school lock box where you include all the documents and information you think your family needs. But there's a big downside to having a physical lock box — it can go missing. I have an aunt who lost her husband out of the blue due to a heart attack. Even though she knows he had prepared a lock-box for her, until today, eight years after his death, she hasn’t been able to find it.
DO YOU HAVE ANY COMPETITORS?
Locally and regionally, we’ve not found any competitors. So we're all alone in our journey. Some people might think this is a good thing — to not have any competitors — but it serves us better if there were more players in the field. There’d be more awareness and competition would keep us on our toes.
PRIVACY IS AN IMPORTANT ISSUE, ESPECIALLY WHEN IT COMES TO ONLINE SERVICES. HOW DO YOU ENSURE THAT YOUR DATA ISN’T COMPROMISED BY HACKERS?
Bereev is fully encrypted just like your online banking experience, meaning nobody will gain access to the contents of your plan. We're constantly running security audits and pushing out updates to fortify our security and our security efforts are led by highly-experienced security experts.
ARE YOU WORKING ON THIS FULL-TIME OR DO YOU HAVE OTHER OCCUPATIONS?
I'm all in on this! The great contrast between how chaotic things were after my grandmother’s death was, and how orderly things were after my grandfather’s death, has spurred me to make it my personal mission to change the way we deal with death.