Memovida: How Katia Lübbert and Manuel Kaiser Are Shaking Up the Funeral Industry
"Happy Bootstrapping" Volume #63
In episode 175 of Happy Bootstrapping I talk to Katia Lübbert, Co-Founder and CMO of Memovida, a modern funeral business headquartered in Berlin’s Prenzlauer Berg. Memovida offers nationwide funerals at a fixed price – transparent and bookable online, from quote to power of attorney.
The team is eleven people today, they’ve built six locations, handle just under 100 cases per month, and have been profitable since September 2025.
This is a summary of Episode 175 of the “Happy Bootstrapping” Podcast (German).
From PayPal and Coca-Cola to the Funeral Industry
Katia Lübbert spent more than 20 years in brand marketing – for U.S. corporations like PayPal and Coca-Cola, with agency and tech roles in between. In early 2024, she hit reset, took a break, and realized that the world of corporate brands had run its course for her. Through personal connections she came across Manuel Kaiser, who had started Memovida a few months earlier: with no background in the funeral industry, but with a founding investor and the conviction that the sector was ripe for consolidation and digitalization. Manuel personally conducted the first funeral in June 2024. By the end of 2024 Katia joined as the second co-founder and CMO.
The market Memovida operates in has roughly 5,000 providers in Germany. Most of them are small, regionally tied and run by second- or third-generation families. Digitalization barely exists. Some registry offices still prefer a fax over an email. The opening Memovida sees lies in exactly this gap between an emotionally charged topic and an operationally outdated industry.
The Model: Fixed Price, Transparent, Bookable Online
Memovida has radically simplified the offering. On the website, funerals can be configured at clear prices – a cremation in Berlin costs €2,550, all administrative paperwork included. Cremations account for 95 percent of cases; traditional burials are the exception. Anyone who starts the funnel gets a callback quickly. Most orders come in by phone – especially older relatives, who pick up the phone rather than clicking further online.
“We have to show who we are and who you’ll be dealing with – because it really is a deeply emotional topic.” – Katia Lübbert
The website does two jobs at once. It makes Memovida tangible as a team and a brand, and it removes the taboo from the price conversation. In an industry where grieving relatives are confronted with opaque quotes in their hardest hour, that alone is positioning.
99 Percent Through SEO and SEA – And Why Stuttgart Pays Off Before Stuttgart Exists
Classic performance marketing on Meta or LinkedIn plays almost no role at Memovida. 99 percent of acquisition runs through Google search – organic and paid combined. Searches like “funeral director Munich” or “cremation Cologne” aren’t huge in volume, but they’re highly intent-driven. The conversion from search query to order is correspondingly strong. Memovida builds location pages and a local footprint systematically, scaling with comparatively little effort.
“Stuttgart is already profitable for us – before Stuttgart even exists.” – Katia Lübbert
The location model is deliberately lightweight. A new location usually launches inside a co-working space, with a local funeral director on the ground handling appointments. Berlin’s Prenzlauer Berg has been the first proper storefront location since February 2025 and serves as the flagship. Munich, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Cologne and Leipzig are all live as well – six locations in just over a year, without a classic high-capex chain model.
Pre-Need, Black Friday and the Double Panic
Alongside the acute funeral case, Memovida is building a second line of business: pre-need arrangements. Anyone who plans their own funeral while still alive leaves loved ones with less stress and Memovida with a warm lead. The funnel mindset runs through everything – including a Black Friday campaign that gave away a pre-need urn for free. A polarizing move in an industry that otherwise has no hooks – and effective precisely because of that.
Still, the business remains hard to plan. Death waves can’t be modeled. Months with disproportionately many cases alternate with quieter phases. Since September 2025 Memovida has been profitable, with downward outliers. Katia’s honest take:
“We’re basically always in panic mode – either it feels like not enough customers are coming, or the numbers come in the way we want or even more, and then the team is overwhelmed.” – Katia Lübbert
What doesn’t shift: the emotional responsibility. Funerals aren’t a product you compare three times. Either you have the need – or you don’t.
The full episode is now also on YouTube (German only):
What I Learned in This Interview
Transparency beats theater. The website sells trust and price, the phone call converts. In emotionally charged markets, you need both.
Google search is the superior channel in high-intent markets. People who search “cremation Hamburg” want to book, not browse – organic results and paid ads complement each other.
An industry-outsider background can be an asset. People who don’t know the industry from the inside ask the naive questions – and stumble onto outdated standards.
Lessons for Founders
A clear price is positioning. In markets where price is taboo, transparency opens the door to the call.
Location rollout doesn’t have to pay off from day one. Co-working stages before storefronts keep capex flat.
Pre-need is long-term acquisition. Feed the funnel today, harvest tomorrow.
Operational stress comes in waves. Recession-resistant doesn’t mean predictable.
Industry clichés can become differentiation. When your competitors still fax, a modern website is already marketing.
Happy Bootstrapping is a German podcast where I interview bootstrapped founders, indie hackers, and solopreneurs about their startup journeys.
Over the years, I’ve connected with many successful entrepreneurs who have built e-commerce shops, SaaS platforms, mobile apps, content businesses, or hybrid models.
Furthermore I am a bootstrapper myself and growing my DevOps-as-a-Sercice and Web Operations Company “We Manage”.