Vedika Goel set up India's first after-life service 'With You'

How can family stay connected with their loved ones after death? Entrepreneur Vedika Goel has set up India's first online after-life service which allows people to make their last wishes known, by leaving messages for loved ones.

With her venture ‘With You’ she says there will communication, thoughts and messages with your family members even when you’ll not be around. Not only financially, we need to secure our emotional needs too. Your sweet videos, messages or even documents are stored safely with platform for as long as you live and after your death this service will provide those messages to your family whenever you want it to be.

Vedika speaks to Ria Das about her concept, plan and way forward with this idea.

Tell us about ‘With You’…

For me, With You is the one stop insurance issues solution for everyone, say financially or emotionally.  It works on the after-life space. You record your last messages, video or documents and after your life you choose your family to be the owner of all these personal stuffs. Just register with us and choose a date of delivering. Bingo! You can also decide monthly or one time message delivering process. It’s all up to you of how you want your loved ones get over you after your death.

Also recently, we found out that in India, there are lots of unclaimed insurance policies and the amount is more than 4,500 crore. Nobody is even looking into this area. Reason is most of the people don’t even know that the person they loved their whole life has left something for them. Even after knowing, they are confused of how to claim those or search about it. With our service, you can easily do that. You can get all the legal documents and it gets cater to your family. So, it solves both the problems. As we say, “Emotions ka insurance”.

Your sweet videos, messages or even documents are stored safely with platform for as long as you live and after your death this service will provide those messages to your family whenever you want it to be.

What was the idea behind starting ‘With You’?

The idea was to solve a very simple pain point which is present in everyone’s life, currently we refuse to recognize it. That is losing beloved ones and how to cope up with it. Honestly, when I started I didn’t know that there are official terms for this issue. It’s called complicated grief. Recently, while researching about this matter I came to know about it. Even Harvard is also working on it. So, the whole idea is just to help someone get over a loss in an easier way.

When did you decide you wanted to be a digital entrepreneur?

Now, this is a little long story. My first entrepreneurial-ship project was in school in 11^th standard. It was a very small project though. I was one of the head in charges. But, the kind of adventurous rush it gave me, I was so amazed by it. Before that, I never felt so good about anything else. One day, one of my friend was sitting and applying which college to choose for next education level, next to her I was sitting and writing down what kind of service I can provide to the society.  There was a line in my entrepreneurship classes that I remember every time - once you recognize a problem, you just know what to start with. The idea just pop up somehow like that way in my mind, but I was too scared to tell anybody since I was just a student back then, and chatting about the idea of my own business with someone in that age would have made it a joke. With time and experience, last year only I took this decision to make it large.

My inspiration: I’m a die-hard fan of writer Robin Sharma

What inspired you to do what you do?

My personal experience taught me of listening to other people. This idea was not the first thing that struck me. Be it my family or friends, when I started listening them carefully I felt that this is the one that I always wanted to do for our society but was too scared to put it in front of other persons. When they started apologizing for their loved ones sudden death, that why they weren’t prepare and one last goodbye might have helped. It was the point I felt the necessity of this site. I used to be very scared, rather I used to think that there is no youth probability that I fall badly by face but it’s better than let something collapsed inside me. Then I finally start it.

As a female entrepreneur, what are the challenges you faced?

Making people believe in me and my thought was a big task that time. When I passed that situation through, lack of inventors was another one. Even if I got good investors, I rejected many of them for two reasons. I meet two kinds of people during that phase. One type wanted to invest just because it started by a female and another type hesitated to invent because it started by a female. Either of these cases, I wasn’t very comfortable with.

Who is your inspiration in life?

There is no particular person, but I’m a die-hard fan of writer Robin Sharma. Whenever I read his books, I feel so inspired. You know, let me do what I feel like doing and let me give all in. the future we’ll decide later.

What's your winning mantra?

Listening to the heart. There will be lots of people on the way to your dream, who might discourage you or you might get lots of criticism. You just have to listen to your heart.

This service is getting its best because of the digital boom in India. If someone like me wants to start something up, this the right time I must say.

What is With You’s future? Did you meet your goal or yet to be there?

Obviously, yet to come. But, the number of investors I’m getting right now, I’m very satisfied. In future also, I’m sure it will get increased. Responses that are received by many digital platforms like SheThePeople.TV are encouraging. Other way, I’m getting more request from various parts of India, that there are so many new comers want to join With You. So, on a very positive note, we’re growing.

What do you think of the digital boom in India?

This service is getting its best because of the digital boom in India. If someone like me wants to start something up, this the right time I must say.

How does Digital India empower women?

I think, it’s giving the space to a woman that was always needed to be there. But, nobody ever cared. Now it’s booming because, you’re sitting at home and blogging, it reaches to thousands of people. That’s how you’re connecting to India.

Believe in your dreams and don’t let anyone stop you, not even yourself.

Vedika Goel on SheThePeople.TV

India is growing with a large number of women entrepreneurs- it's a season of change?

It’s a very proud feeling to know that soon every entrepreneur hopefully would be women. It’s a great empowerment for us.

What do you think of the startup culture in India?

Now in India everything is a startup culture. From, blogging to watching video, behind everyone’s mind there are small ideas growing to make a difference. This is the best way of developing India.  If every mind starts thinking about startups, India will be somewhere out of the sky where we always wanted it to be.

One message for all young entrepreneurs…

Believe in your dreams and don’t let anyone stop you, not even yourself.