‘Rest in Peach’, A Death Management Business Model by TBS students won the Best Innovation Award at the 88 INNOVBIZ Competition.

Monday 23 January 2023

     When death has something to do with you, the Work hard, Die fast team of the 4th year students from the Integrated Bachelor’s and Mater’s Degree Program in Business and Accounting (IBMP), Faculty of Commerce and Accountancy, Thammasat University which consists of Jiranan Khamsaen, Suphanan Pitaktrairong, Ramita Manitchotpisit, Panyaporn Homhem and Jirathun Sakulchangsatjathai therefore initiated the ‘Rest in Peach’ business model, a comprehensive death management service platform. They were able to win the Best Innovation award at the 88 INNOVBIZ Compeititon: Designed for Better Life, Better Society, Spark startup ideas to drive Thai society organized by Thammasat University at Puey Ungphakorn Centenary Hall and Park, SDGs Lab, Thammasat University, Rangsit Campus.

     Ramita Manitchotphisit revealed that the name of the team "Work hard, Die fast" was inspired by the fact that the team members were on internships while working on this project. Therefore, the idea was to use this phrase as the name of the team to remind the team to work efficiently and not putting too much pressure on the body and mind. Most importantly, it's a team name that also corresponds to the main theme of the Rest in Peach project, which is relevant to death management.

     As for the starting point of the project, one of the team members has a personal interest in death. The other members as well noticed that people around them also had an interest in death, including a number of people on social media that started death-related conversations and discussions. When looking at the death management market in Thailand, there is still room for new entrants to enter the market.

     Jiranan Khamsaen further revealed that the pain points which relates to death management encountering by people in the Thai society are as follows: 1. The complicated preparation process, difficulties in accessing information and scattered data; 2. The general public does not know that they are able to express their last will and or that the family does not know about the dead one’s last will; 3. In addition to the grief, there is also a problem on funeral arrangements which require certain assistance; 4. Various important memories that we still wish to keep for the loved ones; and 5. Funerals are expensive and the government has insufficient subsidies. As a result, not everyone has access to their preferred funerals.

     All the aforementioned problems make the team to realize that although we are not able to choose to be born but we should be able to choose to die well and everyone reserve the right to die well. We therefore initiated the ‘Rest in Peach’, startup project as an intermediary platform to provide comprehensive death management services. ‘Rest in Peach’ is a name that rhymes with ‘Rest in Peace’, which refers to having a peaceful resting and the word ‘peach’ was used to make death appear less dreadful and can reach users of all genders and ages.

     Suphanan Pitaktrairong mentioned that all members of the team are involved in working and making decisions in every part of the progress of this project. The main responsibilities are divided into 4 sub-teams as follows: 1. The Research Analysis team is a team that searches for information in both Primary research and Secondary research to support our services, market players, consumer needs, etc.; 2. The Strategy team is a team that thinks of strategies to reach customers and design products that are distinctive from the current market and come up with strategies that allow our startups to grow; 3. The Prototype team is a team that is responsible for designing the UX/UI of the Rest in Peach platform to be practical and easy to use. Finally, 4. The Finance team is the team that calculate expenses, service pricing and startup valuation.

     Panyaporn Homhem added that the team has developed product development-style growth strategies, with new features being released continually to cover the end-to-end services and draw more customers to the platform. Additionally, the team sees this model as a business model that can be realized in the future because of the team's research and interviews with groups of people. The management of death in our country is still considered a real problem. In the present era, people are starting to have more awareness of death and are more open to talk about death, and that opinions about death or more specifically to not wanting to die and be a burden to the loved ones is becoming more common than ever, therefore derived the concept of designing their death in advance. The fact that we are able to connect every death management service together with technology will possibly make designing death more practical and of reasonable prices.

     “For the feeling towards receiving the award, the team is very pleased to receive the Best Innovation Award in this competition besides the cash prize, the plaque or other various prizes, the team feels that this dedication has been recognized and rewarded. In addition, the team expects that the Rest in Peach startup idea will be developed further until it can be realized in the future.” Jirathun Sakulchangsatjathai concluded.

Photo credit: 88Innovbizofficial Page