What do you do when someone you love dies? Why not create an online memorial for them? That’s the idea behind SympathyTree.com, a place for people to go for comfort and to pay tribute to ones they have loved and lost. Louise Zweben, CEO, created this site after she was unable to attend a close family friend’s funeral in Scotland. Here’s an interview with Louise talking about her life as an e-entrepreneur.

1. Why did you decide to start your company? What was the inspiration?

I am originally from Scotland. I moved to California 14 years ago on assignment with Sun Microsystems, the company I worked for at that time. I had never intended to stay in the U.S. for long but then met my future husband and, well, the rest is history. We now have two daughters, aged 9 and 5, whom we adopted as young babies from orphanages in China. So, we are a very eclectic global family. Apart from my husband and my daughters, the rest of my very close knit family live in Scotland as do many of my closest friends.

Over the last 14 years, there have been several deaths in the family which has posed logistical challenges but, more importantly, has resulted in my not being able to be part of the grieving community, not being able to share in person my stories and memories, not being able to physically give and receive comfort and, as a result, not being able to heal with others.

As an “internet savvy” family (my husband has founded three successful internet companies), I posed the idea to him of how we could best use the internet to bring families and friends from around the world as a community together in this time of sadness to help honor and remember their loved ones through stories, memories, photos and videos and to create an unique online community of people to come to grieve and heal together.

2. What were you doing before starting your company?

After graduating from the University of Glasgow, I commenced my career as a semiconductor engineer, then worked across all aspects of manufacturing operations culminating in my last position as Director of Operations for a Silicon Valley start up. I changed careers 10 years ago to concentrate on starting my own business, hopefully allowing me the flexibility to start a family while continuing to pose professional challenges in an area that I had passion for. So, In these last ten years, I have been working in real estate development both in San Francisco and Hawaii developing both commercial and residential projects. I have always loved real estate and enjoy the project management aspect of taking a tangible project from concept to completion.

3. Why an online business versus a traditional (offline) one?

One of the key aspects of SympathyTree.com is the instant viral notification to friends and family around the world and the ability for anyone, anytime and anywhere to join the grieving community and contribute their stories and memories for other people to view immediately. The internet provides the perfect mechanism for this.

4. What were the main steps you had to take to start your business?

Without doubt, the number one thing for me has been market research and identifying the need. There are many online obituary sites out there where people can post a note of condolence. SympathyTree.com is very unique since we provide much more than that - a place where people can come to connect with others, to create a rich life story, to interact and remember with each other and to provide a community for people to remember, grieve and heal together. It is an experience.

5. What have been your greatest business challenges to date and how have you overcome them (or how are you working to overcome them?)

I would say that the greatest challenge to date is in getting the word out there. The feedback that I have gotten from people who have created memorials on SympathyTree.com has been overwhelmingly positive and appreciative. They have been searching for much more than the standard newspaper obituary, they have been searching for a way to create rich life stories of their loved by involving family and friends around the world.

6. What is a “typical work day” like for you?

My day starts very early with getting my daughters ready for school. Then I am CEO of SympathyTree.com until school pick-up time. My day as CEO of SympathyTree.com involves monitoring site traffic, monitoring customer queries and feedback, working with my web development company on the continual enhancement of our website (much of which is based on customer feedback), working on marketing strategies, looking for new partners and, overall, continually working to ensure a superb user experience to help those people dealing with the death of a loved one.

7. What advice would you give to other women looking to start an online business?

Passion. If you have a passion for something, do research and figure out if there is a need. If you have passion for what you do, a proven need, a dedication to customer service and a good team behind you, you will succeed.