Today we’d like to introduce you to Adelle Archer
Hi Adelle, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Garett, my co-founder, and I met while working in tech here in Austin. We have always known that we wanted to do something that was bigger than ourselves. Something that was impactful and improved people’s lives in some way. We had met while working at Bigcommerce and we knew right away that we wanted to build something together and we were very interested in the lab-grown diamond space, but we didn’t necessarily know where we’d start.
Then on the personal side of my life, I actually had my best friend and my business mentor get diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer out of the blue. And Tracy was such a huge part of my twenties and just my life in general. I think we can all count on one hand who are the people that have played big roles in our lives and we are who we are because of them. And if they weren’t a family member, why did they come into our lives and take us under their wings? Sometimes you don’t know, but you just get to be grateful for it. She was that person for me.
We had many conversations about how she wanted to be honored, and I set a really high bar because she was such an epic, legendary person so I wanted to make sure whatever we did would be worthy of her. While she knew she wanted to be cremated, she wasn’t sure what to do with her ashes. So, I began researching options, and one night over dinner, the diamond scientist we were working with for Garrett and I’s brand said, “Well, Adelle, there’s carbon in ashes. If we can figure out how to extract it, maybe I can grow a diamond from her carbon.”
Immediately I was like, oh my gosh, that is the best idea I’ve ever heard. She is such a diamond, she would love this. It became very obvious to me that this was the business that I would love to build. And even now as I tell the story of the creation of Eterneva, I think it’s so cool that Tracy is at the centerpiece of all of it. She gets talked about every single day.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
No startup or company is ever a smooth road! It’s a hero journey, where you have to slay a lot of dragons along the way, but it’s all in service of a purposeful and all-important mission. Eterneva is building a new category in end of life, so there have been plenty of dragons to slay along the way! In the very beginning, we had a very 50/50 reaction to what we did (my husband didn’t even think it was a good idea when I first old him!) but really I think that was just a reflection of our culture’s relationship with death at the time. It’s been remarkable to watch how things have changed, how open we’ve become (especially after Covid which was a huge catalyst), and now today we get an overwhelmingly positive response from the average person. There is still so much more adoption curve to go though – especially among venture capital investors (common objection we hear is “this category is a little ‘far afield’ for us”), traditionalists within our industry, and older generations (“what will my friends think if I become a diamond when I die?”)
We’ve also had to really pioneer the development of the supply chain in our space and set the bar for transparency and process integrity. We were actually not the first company to turn ashes into diamonds, but the first to really do it in a transparent and trustworthy way. When I lost my mentor, Tracy, I actually looked into having a diamond made for her, but couldn’t find a company I felt like I could trust. I wanted someone to give me confidence her ashes were going into the diamond, but no company at the time would even disclose where their labs were located. It felt sketchy. So that’s a part of why Eterneva is venture-backed – so we could build a state-of-the-art facility in Kerrville, Texas, so families can drop ashes off in person, visit for a tour, see the process first hand, and have total confidence their loved one is being handed with respect. We’ve created a real experience around this process now, to make it special and participatory. But there was truly no playbook to doing this. We had to hunt down incredibly specialized scientists from all over the world and convince them they wanted to work on this very unique idea with us. It takes a lot of passion and belief to enroll someone in your vision like that – especially in the early days!
We’ve been impressed with Eterneva, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Eterneva celebrates remarkable people and pets by turning their ashes into diamonds. It’s an intricate ten-month process to create these soulful remembrances, so we’ve created a journey as special as the diamond itself. From interactive video packaging to hand-written letters, to personalized pictures, videos, and updates at every milestone of the Diamond Journey, customers experience a level of thoughtfulness that brings brightness to their grieving. In the last few years, we’ve built the largest memorial diamond lab in the world just outside of Austin in Kerrville, so we can offer families in-person experiences and rituals – like starting their loved one’s diamond machine with us.
In the wake of losing someone, especially when you’ve lost them suddenly, family and friends can get uncomfortable and they don’t want to bother you or upset you. While well-intentioned, this can be isolating and hard for the griever. With our process, people are so excited to check in and want to know how the diamond is going and we had no idea what a strong effect this would have on our customers’ healing. Baylor University actually studied our work and found that 82% of people who came out of our process were actually doing better with their grief than someone who had done nothing at all.
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
There are a lot of shifts happening in our industry right now. The biggest one by far is the rate at which Americans are cremating. We were only 10% cremation in 1980, and we’re now approaching 80% by 2040!! With the meteoric shift comes a change in cultural outlooks and traditions. More people are saying they want a celebration of life versus a traditional funeral, seeking personalized and modern memorialization options that suit their loved ones.
As a society we’re also far more mobile today, so people often opt for cremation simply so they aren’t leaving a loved one behind when they move from state to state. When cremating, families also often divvy up the ashes so different people can do different things with them. We only need ½ a cup of ashes for our process (about 5% of what you’ll get back) and that’s enough to make up to 5 diamonds, so a little goes a long way.
We can also make diamonds from the carbon in hair, so we’re seeing a growing number of families who are burying still choosing to honor their loved one with diamonds, so they can have a portable memorial and physical connection point to their loved one.
We’re seeing some other cool trends happening in the end of life industry as well – from more eco-friendly burial options (like mushroom suits) to sustainable water-based cremation (yes, you can still create a diamond from these ashes!) to a massively growing segment of the population choosing to pre-plan and pre-arrange for their funerals. As a culture, we’re generally getting more and more open to talking about death. I believe it’s an extension of the mental health conversation that’s been normalized over the last 10 years.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.eterneva.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eterneva
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adellearcher/
- Twitter: https://x.com/eterneva
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@eterneva
Image Credits
Courtesy of Eterneva
