Tumbleweed finds life in Iowa

IOWA CITY — While living in Los Angeles, Paul Richardson read about the TechStars Startup Weekend in Iowa City. It would be kicking off in just one more day.

On a last-minute impulse, Richardson got on a plane and went.

It turned out to be a wise decision. That weekend, Richardson met his co-founder and business partner, Colleen Kinsey. He was inspired to move the business — and himself — to Iowa.

And last Thursday, his startup, Tumbleweed, formally launched its website.

“The community here in Iowa, and the Iowa startup ecosystem, is what made me realize that Tumbleweed is meant to be here,” he says. “People are very warm, they're generous, they're giving of their time, and they make connections.”

Planning ahead

Tumbleweed is a virtual funeral and end-of-life planning company. It brings together funeral homes, crematoriums, estate planners, investment bankers, florists, celebration venue, and other service providers, with the goal of offering a convenient one-stop solution for making end-of-life arrangements remotely and around the clock.

“After someone has passed away, there’s a lot of paperwork, and a lot of things to get organized, and it’s hard to know where to start,” says Richardson, Tumbleweed’s chief executive officer.

“There's not really a lot of great resources and guides for all the things you need to do, like ‘Hey, did you call Social Security? Did you call Medicare? Did you cancel supplemental insurance? Did you file taxes?’ We wanted to kind of really generate the milestones necessary to get people through from start to finish.”

Richardson, however, saw a greater need than just dealing with death once it’s already happened. He notes that one out of five adults nationwide are providing care for an aging parent or grandparent, and that those people lack accessible, online resources and tools for end-of-life planning ahead of time. He believes Tumbleweed can fill that role.

Richardson also discovered interest in Tumbleweed as a value-add to life insurance products in the life and pre-need insurance policy space.

“Currently, those insurance products have two 'standard' interactions with customers; first, when they purchase it, and second, when they need to utilize it after a death,” he says. “Our product is built on customer experience and on providing support and guidance with preplanning and post-loss.”

Making the pitch

One of the first collaborators Richardson brought on board Tumbleweed was Keisha Chandler, now the company’s chief operating officer, who brought operational leadership, program management and “is a natural storyteller,” Richardson says.

However, it was his last-minute trip to Iowa that brought Richardson face to face with the soon-to-be third member of their team.

Techstars Startup Weekend took place June 9-11, 2023, at the MERGE Coworking space in Iowa City. The event served as a networking and educational opportunity for entrepreneurs, and it featured a pitch competition.

Richardson arrived with two main goals: To see if the idea for Tumbleweed would resonate, and to make a possible connection with a business partner. He got both when Colleen Kinsey of Des Moines made a pitch right before he did — with a very similar idea.

“Honestly, she threw me off my game, because she was talking about digitizing celebrations of life,” he says. “And I honestly had to pinch myself to see if I was actually awake. Because I had been talking to a lot of people about the work that I was looking at, and for most people, it's not something they are thinking about. But she was.”

The two quickly teamed up. Their ideas matched so well that they ended up winning first place together at the Startup Weekend pitch competition later that weekend. Richardson had found a new partner — and a new base of operations.

Coming to Iowa

Another individual Richardson met at Startup Weekend in Iowa City was Alex Taylor, managing director for Iowa Startup Accelerator Services. Taylor saw big potential in Tumbleweed and offered to help the team make more connections in Iowa.

“It’s very unusual to see two people from completely different places come in — one from California, and one from Des Moines — and they have the exact same idea,” says Taylor, who was present at the pitch competition. “So it was very easy for me to help steer their thought process and help them to come up with a refined strategy going forward.”

After going back and forth from California to Iowa for more events, Richardson decided to relocate the business — and himself — to Des Moines in October.

“The community here in Iowa, and the Iowa startup ecosystem is what made me realize, ‘Hey, I think Tumbleweed is meant to be here,’ ” he says. “It’s so helpful to have a place that's affordable, that’s safe, and that is comfortable. And there are a number of state funds available for businesses to apply to.”

The company launched its website last week — https://tumbleweedplan.com — and also has pages on Facebook and LinkedIn.

As Tumbleweed goes forward, Richardson hopes the company will fulfill a need that he believes has been mission.

“We're creating something that could have made a lot of people's lives easier, had they actually had access to the resources earlier,” he says. “I get to actually help create tools and resources that hopefully are going to provide a little bit of relief, whether it's in grief if someone's passed away, or if it's in the preplanning as people get older. I really enjoy the people aspect of what we do.”

To learn more about Tumbleweed, visit tumbleweedplan.com or email hello@tumbleweedplan.com.

Rob Merritt is director of communications at NewBoCo. Comments: rob@newbo.co

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