IfGone exists for one reason: to give you a safe place to store messages for your loved ones — released only when you're no longer here. Everything the business does is focussed on fulfilling that purpose — from the careful design of the way you store or retrieve information, to the sustainable investing goals of the business.
Most businesses start because someone spots a gap. This one started in an A&E waiting room.
My name is Ash, I'm IfGone's founder. I'm a 40-something man living in London, UK. I have a wife and two teenage children. A short while ago I had a health scare — I thought I was dying and rushed to the closest hospital. As I was leaving the house, my wife said (and I'm paraphrasing here) 'Don't die, I won't be able to turn the lights on.'
Most people would consider this a very strange thing to say. But for me, this was a sign of the deepest love from my wife. You see, I'm a tinkerer and a nerd. I like playing with electronics and one of my hobbies has been, over the last few years, to attempt to turn the house into a 'Smart Home'. There have been successes and failures — the lights have been one of the failures. Each room's lights are controlled by a single computer.
If I'm not around, some of the lights never come on, or won't go off. I know the buttons to press or the computers to poke to make it happen. When I am there, I am quick to get everything as it should be, but when I'm not — my wife sometimes has to sit in the dark, or choose a different room.
So as I sat in the Accident & Emergency waiting room, I lamented the fact that I had no way to write detailed instructions for my wife & kids on how to turn the lights on. If I did die, things at home would work for a while, then come crashing down. There had to be a way to write instructions, messages, love letters — whatever — to people you care about for that unexpected moment where you are gone.
That is where IfGone came from. It is designed to provide peace of mind to those people who do so much hidden work to keep everyone's lives running smoothly. Its purpose is to be a trustworthy messenger, no matter how far into the future it is required, to make the life of someone dealing with your loss just a little bit easier.