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Show HN: Hacking the cremation urn industry – Artisurn.com

10 points by matryoshka ↗ HN
I have been a fan of hn for a long time. I spent a lot of time lurking and then finally made an account. I have found a lot of the startups getting launched on or through this site as inspirational. I am not a programmer but I do consider myself a hacker. I am originally from Russia but now live in the US. This is my third business and my first online business.

I did all of the design and setup of artisurn.com myself using shopify. I would appreciate any feedback or tips from the community on any way to improve on what I have created.

I feel that the funeral business is ripe for disruption and I've chosen to start in the cremation urns category as a proof of concept. So far things have been moderately successful. I'd really appreciate any feedback. Thanks!

12 comments

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chiph
Nice site. Will there be an option for a cat's paw on the pet urns in addition to the dog paw?
detritus
I sincerely fail to understand how the listing of this site here in any way supports a supposed 'hacker ethos' or is 'disruptive' to a specific industry.

If I was only a tiny bit more cynical I'd presume you were merely fishing for linkage.

Best of luck to you in your business, of course — you've done a solid job re-styling Shopify. I just don't get what's HN-relevant here.

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DanBC
When's the last time you bought a cremation urn?
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penguinlinux
congratulations on your online business, I see some people don't like these sites here because you are not a Solo founder using some cool language or library. I admire your drive to setup a business online. One suggestion would be to reach out to pet cremation companies and offer them a catalog of your products so that they can recommend them to their clients. I had a pet parakeet die recently and I would've loved to have a nice box where to put his remains instead the boring and sad looking box I got. I would've paid good money for it and I know people love their pets.

Keep up with this great idea, add more entries in your blog and good luck to you .

matryoshka
Sorry for your loss. Thank you for your feedback. I appreciate that you have shared your experience and offered advice. It helps to know that people need handcrafted urns.
detritus
Actually, my migivings arise from a difference in culture betwen Europe and the States, I now realise — nothing, at all, to do with the conceits you've presumed.

Simply that we don't suffer the same restrictive funeraal industry that you guys appear to.

MyNameIsMK
"So far things have been moderately successful."

Please share your sales figures.HN would appreciate the insight. Your product is fascinatingly different.

matryoshka
Artisurn.com was launched one month ago and I've had 3 sales so far averaging $150.