After.com
After.com emerged from a simple but powerful observation: cremation rates in the United States have skyrocketed from just 10% in the early 2000s to over 50-70% today. This dramatic shift represents what the founder calls a "one chart business"—a business model that can be built entirely around a single, compelling trend. The founders recognized that as cremation became the majority choice for end-of-life arrangements, there was a massive opportunity to modernize and streamline an industry that had remained largely unchanged.
Based in Provo, Utah, the After.com team built a service that handles the complete cremation logistics. Rather than owning cremation ovens themselves, they operate as a logistics platform. Customers can either pre-plan their cremation or arrange services after a death occurs. The company then coordinates with cremation providers, manages the entire process, and provides real-time tracking—similar to the Domino's Pizza Tracker—so families can see exactly where they are in the process at any moment. This transparency and ease of use represent a stark contrast to traditional funeral industry practices.
The TAM (Total Addressable Market) is literally everyone on earth, as death is inevitable. The service typically costs around $2,500, and with cremation becoming the dominant choice in America and increasingly globally, After.com is positioned at the intersection of a massive demographic shift and a fragmented, outdated industry ripe for disruption.
Similar Companies
247.ai
$25.0M/mo247.ai, founded by PV Cannon in 2000, is an AI-powered customer service automation platform serving over 150 enterprise customers with $300M+ in ARR. The company raised only $20M from Sequoia (2003) and bootstrap, achieving 10% net profit margins while maintaining a 12-month CAC payback period and 100% net revenue retention. Despite a security breach setback around 2018, 247.ai has recovered and recently achieved 20% new revenue booking growth in their best quarter.
iCIMS
$13.3M/moiCIMS is a bootstrapped SaaS provider founded in 1999 that dominates the talent acquisition software market as the #2 player, serving 3,500 enterprise customers with an average monthly spend of $4,000. The company exited 2017 with $160M ARR and is targeting 25%+ annual growth while maintaining profitability, recently acquiring Text Recruit to expand into candidate messaging and recruitment advertising.
Zoom
$12.0M/moZoom is a freemium SaaS video conferencing platform founded by Eric Yuan in July 2011 after he left Cisco to build a next-generation collaboration solution. The company has grown to 850,000+ paying customers across individual, SMB, and enterprise segments, generating over $12M in monthly recurring revenue with approximately 100% year-over-year growth. Rather than focusing on customer stickiness or aggressive growth targets, Zoom emphasizes customer happiness and organic word-of-mouth acquisition, which has proven highly effective in driving viral adoption.
Madwire
$10.0M/moMadwire is a comprehensive SaaS platform for small businesses (1-100 employees) that combines CRM, payments, invoicing, billing, e-commerce, and multi-channel marketing tools in a single platform. Founded in 2009, the company has grown to $120M ARR serving 20,000 customers with an average revenue per user of $500/month, while maintaining strong unit economics ($3,000-$4,000 CAC with 3-month payback) and recently turning profitable with a focus on reaching 15-20% EBITDA margins. The company is exploring an IPO within 12-18 months without having raised substantial capital beyond an initial $7.5M.
SwiftPage
$7.0M/moSwiftPage is a CRM and marketing automation platform founded in 2001 that targets small businesses. Under CEO John Oshel's leadership since 2012, the company scaled from 60,000 customers with $26.2M revenue in 2015 to 84,000 customers today with an estimated ARR of $36M+, maintaining 1.5% monthly logo churn and a 6-7 month payback period with a sub-$500 CAC.