WHO REALLY NEEDS YOU?

When Justin Crowe came up with a new form for human ashes, he thought the concept would sell itself to consumers. But he hadn't figured out who his real customer was.

- FRANCES DODDS

The company Parting Stone offers a novel service: It turns the ashes of deceased humans and animals into pretty little stones-like river rocks. And when Justin Crowe founded Parting Stone in 2019, it seemed obvious who his first customers should be. “Our research showed that while 1.6 million American families choose cremation through a funeral home each year, there are already 75 million people in the United States living with pet and human ashes at home,” he says.

In other words, Crowe planned to skip the hassle of persuading funeral homes to offer Parting Stone's "solidified remains" as an alternative to traditional cremation. Instead, he'd sell his service directly to those 75 million consumers with an urn in the basement.

But when the company launched, things didn't go as planned. Crowe had to step back and reconsider his strategy. In doing so, he realized that numbers aren't everything. Sometimes sales hinge on something less quantifiable: trust.