Helping Canadians deal with death in the digital age

Learning from the pros

Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, Amplify Your Business, produced by Amplomedia in partnership with Troy Media, will interview professional entrepreneurs who are currently in the trenches growing their businesses. Through insightful conversations, we will be unpacking their common business challenges and identifying the lessons every business owner needs to learn so they can accelerate their own business growth.

“We get into the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to entrepreneurship,” says Lance Johnson, Amplomedia’s founder and marketing veteran and our host. “And it’s the failures that often lead to the greatest lessons, so be prepared to hear some uncomfortable and very REAL conversations about what is required to create successful businesses.”

Today we’re joined by Erin Bury, co-founder and CEO of Willful, a death tech business. Death tech is an industry that strives to push how Canadians deal with death into the digital age. It’s moving from paper-based processes like drafting wills, estate planning, estate executing, etc., into the online world. Willful, as a business, sits firmly in the pre-planning stages of death: drafting wills, getting power of attorney documents and building out other plans that will help families when their loved one passes away and ensure their voice is heard after they’re gone.

Last year, Erin and her co-founder Kevin Oulds went in front of the Dragons on Dragon’s Den Canada, seeking a $500,000 investment, which they successfully secured.

Today’s Guest

Erin Bury

Erin is an entrepreneur, speaker, startup advisor, and former technology journalist. She is the co-founder and CEO of Willful, an online estate planning platform that makes it easy for Canadians to create a will in less than 20 minutes. Erin spent six years as Managing Director at Eighty-Eight, a Toronto-based creative communications agency that works with clients in the technology and consumer space. Among its clients are Lyft, Telus, and Sony Pictures Television. At Eighty-Eight, she led strategy, new business, client relations, and agency communications.

Erin has also held senior roles at BetaKit, a publication that reports on emerging technology and innovation worldwide, and Sprouter, a social network for entrepreneurs. While at Sprouter, she handled all communications, marketing, and PR, securing coverage in the Wall Street Journal, Inc. Magazine, Profit Magazine, and other technology publications and growing the network to over 100,000 members. Sprouter was acquired by Postmedia in 2011.

For interview requests, click here.

Our Host

Lance Johnson

Lance Johnson is the president of Amplomedia, an innovative digital marketing agency specializing in motion graphic video production and digital marketing services. He leverages more than 20 years of experience in marketing and business strategy to help clients identify how best to engage their audience while effectively communicating their messages with clarity and impact.

For interview requests, click here.

The opinions expressed by our columnists and contributors are theirs alone and do not inherently or expressly reflect the views of our publication.

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Troy Media is an editorial content provider to media outlets and its own hosted community news outlets across Canada.