business model, customer development, e245, engr245, lean launchpad, lean startup, stanford, startup, steve blank

1. Jenny Xia
Hacker, Designer
Patrick Schmitt
Hustler, Product Picker
Mohana Moorthy
Hacker
James Rathmell
Hustler
Maggie Xu
Designer
121 interviews
150 survey responses
We provide free & intuitive online tools to create legal wills.
These tools have behavioral nudges to prompt charitable giving.
Nonprofits pay us for donations (bequests) generated.
New market for non-profits. Low price strategy for will-makers.

2. • Deep relationships with
and knowledge of
nonprofits
• User-centered design
expertise
• Legal expertise
• Large nonprofit
organizations (e.g.
GreenPeace, AARP,
Stanford University)
• Online end-of-life service
providers (e.g. Cake,
Care.com, Grace)
• Online financial advisory
firms (e.g. Mint.com,
LearnVest)
• Key suppliers: Google
AdWords, Facebook Ads
• Sales and client
management of nonprofit
organizations
• Creation and optimization
of an intuitive will
generation product
• Customer acquisition
through paid marketing and
channel partnerships
• Nonprofit: ongoing,
cooperative, trusted
partnership
• Consumers: One-time,
trusted relationship
• Major nonprofits, including
universities and hospitals.
• Consumers: All US adults
who do not have wills or
need to update their wills,
all US adults who have wills
but did not know how to
write bequests into them,
loyal donors to non-profits.
• Nonprofits are
struggling to
increase
donations, and
“Planned Giving”
offices have no clear path
to increasing commitments.
We offer a low-cost, low-
risk, highly efficient way to
increase pledges and
donations.
• Aging Americans
need legal wills, but
view them as “scary,
complicated, and
expensive.” We provide
free, intuitive and
comforting tools.
• Nonprofits will pay us a finder’s fee for new commitments generated.
(Based on early customer interviews, we estimate they are currently
spending $5-10K per new commitment.)
Note: Potential to use platform to upsell other end-of-life services
• Customer acquisition costs: search engine marketing, potential additional
online ads using demographic targeting.
• People costs: developers & designers for online product, sales team to
sell to nonprofit organizations.
• Inside & outside sales,
fundraising conferences.
• SEO/SEM (1M+ searches
monthly), Mailing lists of
large nonprofits.

3. OUR STORY
1.
Started here, ended up in the same place.

4. Our Journey

5. FreeWill MVP 1.0

6. wills made
13
in bequests
$72,000
Can we get users?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 80 9

7. “
70% So are you a will creation company or a
donation engine?
Steve Weinstein

8. wills made
0
drop in click through
rate
90%
Can we get paying users?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 80 9

9. purchase commitment
1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 80 9
Can we get paying nonprofits?

10. “
70% We’d pay more than
you’re asking.
Ilya Sheyman, MoveOn.org
Can we get it faster if
we lend you one of our
engineers?
Mia Cambronero, Avaaz

11. increase in annual
giving
75%
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 80 9
We expected FreeWill to bring bequests,
But now, it’s even bigger than that.

12. “
FreeWill = Donation Engine

13. Avaaz donors
200k
payment to FreeWill
every bequest
generated
$400
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 80 9

14. FreeWill MVP 2.0

15. “
70% Your will is definitely valid. Of course wills
should be automated. This is 100% the future.
The lawyers will be opposed, but screw ‘em.
Ian Samuel, Harvard Law School Professor

16. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 80 9
Week 5, Week 6, Week 7, Week 8, Week 9...?
So Which Nonprofits?
“We don’t have the logistics in
place for planned giving.”
“We move slowly. But once we get
there, we’re an army and we go
big.”

17. Building a Bigger Nonprofits Pipeline
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 80 9

18. minutes on average for
testers to create a will
12.5
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 80 9
That’s it?!

19. “
70% A will is a big deal. You read it, think about it,
and make changes. Sometimes you make
mistakes, sometimes you change your mind.
Tom Xia, Tester

20. • Nonprofit expertise and
relationships
• SEO/SEM expertise
• UX expertise
• Legal expertise
• Engineering expertise
• Large nonprofit
organizations (e.g.
GreenPeace, AARP)
• Nonprofit consultants
• Online end-of-life service
providers (e.g. Care.com,
Cake, Grace, Everplans)
• Financial advisors and
online financial advisory
firms (e.g. Wealthfront,
Betterment, Mint,
LearnVest)
• Trusts & Estates attorneys
• Advisors
• Nonprofit Sales
• Donor acquisition
• Free, intuitive will
generation product
• Nonprofit: ongoing,
cooperative, trusted
partnership
• Planned giving advice
• Trusted branding
• Print/mass media
• Expand to provide end of
life services, insurance, etc.
• Medium-sized
nonprofits ($1.5M) with
proven appetite for
innovation.
• Older U.S. adults whose
children are out of the
house and self-sufficient, or
who never had children.
Predominantly women ages
50 - 75.
• Nonprofit organizations
are struggling to increase
donations, and planned
giving offices have no clear
path to increasing
commitments. We offer a
low-cost, low-risk, highly
efficient way to increase
pledges and donations
• Aging Americans need
legal wills, but creating wills
is not at the forefront of
their minds. We provide
free, intuitive and
comforting tools to help
them take this necessary
step.
• Nonprofits will pay us a $400-500 finder’s fee for commitments from users
outside their existing donor base.
• Nonprofits may be willing to pay a licensing or consulting fee for turnkey
charitable bequest solutions.
• Customer acquisition costs: search engine marketing, potential additional
online ads using demographic targeting
• People costs: developers & designers for online product, sales team to
sell to nonprofit organizations
• Inside & outside sales,
fundraising conferences,
nonprofit consultants
• “Active”: SEO/SEM
• “Passive”: nonprofits,
financial advisors/firms,
end-of-life service
providers, T&E lawyers
(solo practitioners)

21. AFTER LEAN LAUNCHPAD
2.
Let’s do this.

22. Build FreeWill with the goal of generating
$1 trillion in donations over the next twenty years.
$1 trillon

23. Financial & Operational Timeline
2017 2018 2019
Cash reserve Seed: $100k Series A: $3m
Operational milestones
Nonprofits acquired 3 10 85
Total employees ~5 (unpaid) 7 17
α
first revenues
inc.
iterate + sales
β
capital raise
relocate
hire lawyers + sales
integration tools &
analytics for NPs 3x eng team
scale sales
product / geography
expansion →
The Future1 2 3 4 5 6 7 80 9

24. Growth
Revenue Bequests
2019 $5.5m $500m
2020 $14.8m $1.5b
2021 $40.4m $4b
TAM: $100 billion
SAM: $25 billion
Target:
$2.5 billion
The Future1 2 3 4 5 6 7 80 9

25. “
70% FreeWill could be the next revolution in
philanthropy.
Premal Shah
President & Founder, Kiva.org

26. Thank
you!