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

[matryoshka]

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!

[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 .

[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.

[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.

[chiph]

Nice site. Will there be an option for a cat's paw on the pet urns in addition to the dog paw?

[matryoshka]

Thank you for your kind words. The paw print is intended to be either a cat or a dog paw print. You also have an option of selecting a personalized cat tag that can go on the urn's lid instead of the standard paw print. See design #4 here: http://artisurn.com/collections/pet-urns/products/segmented-....

[sejje]

http://artisurn.com/

[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.

[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.

[DanBC]

When's the last time you bought a cremation urn?