Jason Weber is building one place for families before and after loss
Jason Weber is the founder of Omuna, a digital service that helps families plan ahead and manage practical tasks after a death, including finding local providers and handling memorials and documents. The conversation explores how personal experience shaped the service, why it expanded beyond immediate crisis support, and what listening to families taught about building for a difficult moment.
Families facing loss need a clear next step more than a long list of features. Omuna’s experience shows the value of listening to families, making the service easier to use, and earning trust one family and partner at a time.
What’s the short story of how your business started, and what makes it genuinely different from the other options your customers have?
When my grandma passed, my family had nowhere to turn. We pieced everything together on our own, late at night on Google, the way most families do. Every other big life moment has a place to go: Babylist for a new baby, The Knot for a wedding, TurboTax for taxes. Loss has nothing. I’m also helping my dad plan ahead, and I wanted one place for both sides of it. That’s Omuna. What makes us different is that we cover the whole journey in one place, from planning ahead to the first 48 hours to closing the estate. We do it with full transparency, at a time when families usually get rushed, confused and upsold. We don’t replace funeral homes or attorneys. We work alongside them, helping families know what to do and when to bring in the right professional.
How did you win your first customers, and where does most of your new business come from today?
Our first families found us the way most people find help in a crisis: they were in the middle of a loss, didn’t know what to do next, and went looking for answers. We made sure Omuna was there when they did, with clear, plain-language help for the exact moments families feel most lost, like the first 48 hours or settling a loved one’s estate. Today most new families still come to us in a moment of need, and our partner portal is the next big channel. Funeral homes, attorneys and advisors can offer Omuna to the families they already serve, right when those families need it most.
What’s one decision that changed the direction of your business, and one mistake that taught you the most?
The decision that changed everything was expanding Omuna beyond what it was originally built for, helping families after a loss, to helping them plan ahead too. Families want a source of truth, one place where everything they need lives. That shift turned Omuna from a one-time crisis tool into a place families come back to.
Early on, I tried to build every feature at once. What I learned is that families don’t need everything at once. They need to know the one thing to do today. Building around that one clear next step made Omuna simpler, calmer and easier to use, and it’s still how we design everything with the family at the center.
What has changed in your industry or in what your customers expect over the last couple of years, and how have you adapted?
Families now expect the same digital experience for loss that they get for every other part of life. They research everything online before they ever call a funeral home, and more families are choosing simpler options like cremation and asking harder questions about price. At the same time, adult children are taking on more caregiving for aging parents than ever. We adapted by putting everything in one simple digital place, writing every guide in plain language, and building tools like our obituary writer and notification messages to take work off a family’s plate. We also built a partner portal so funeral homes, assisted living communities, financial advisors and estate attorneys can meet families where they already are, online.
If you were advising someone starting out in your industry today, what would you tell them to do first, and what would you tell them to ignore?
I’d recommend starting with your potential customers. In this industry, that means sitting down with real families and listening. Ask what the hardest week looked like, where they got stuck, and who helped. You’ll learn more in five of those conversations than in months of building.
It’s easier said than done, but ignore the pressure to look big early. Trust is everything in this space, and you earn it one family and one partner at a time. Also ignore anyone telling you to treat grief as a sales moment. If you put the family first, the business follows.
Thank you to Jason Weber and the team at Omuna for sharing what actually worked with Leaders Perception readers.
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