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I’m Sorry to Hear: ‘TripAdvisor for funeral planning’ offers info on 5k funeral homes

When Rachel Zeldin's uncle died in January 2011, she realized how hard it was to plan a funeral. There was little information online about different funeral homes. It was difficult to comparison shop.

Rachel Zeldin runs I'm Sorry to Hear, or "TripAdvisor for funeral planning." Photo by Charles Fox for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

When Rachel Zeldin‘s uncle died in January 2011, she realized how hard it was to plan a funeral. There was little information online about different funeral homes. It was difficult to comparison shop.

So she created I’m Sorry to Hear, a site she calls “TripAdvisor for funeral planning” that offers information on 5,000 funeral homes stretching from Virginia to New York. The site aims educate people around funeral planning, with resources like a casket guide and a planning checklist, as well as let users compare their funeral home options. Zeldin plans to expand to the rest of the Northeast this fall, adding listings for more than 2,500 funeral homes.

A Drexel alum, Zeldin, 29, participated in Drexel University’s summer prep program for its Incubator Competition this October. She’ll be one of six companies at the competition vying for $25,000 in cash, office space at the Baiada Insitute, Drexel’s incubator, and in-kind services.

Zeldin, the only full-time employee of the company, currently works out of a home office in Yardley, Pa. She’s on the search for a technical cofounder.

Read more in the Inquirer.

Companies: I’m Sorry to Hear / Drexel University
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