Do you have your Meet the Drapers episode transcript?

Tim Draper:               Good, I learned something about myself. Okay, so let's bring on the entrepreneur's.

Jesse Draper:                But first, let's take a look behind the scenes.

Cody Barbo:                  My name's Cody Barbo, the founder and CEO of Trust and Will.

Dan Goldstein:              And I'm Dan Goldstein, also one of the founders.

Cody Barbo:                  Our company, Trust and Will, is building a simple, safe and secure way to setup your estate plan online.

Dan Goldstein:              We started the company to help families. We've had personal instances where estate planning was challenging and hurtful within our own family structures and so we thought there was a better way to do it.

Cody Barbo:                  So if you've ever heard of a will or if you've heard of a trust, we make it easy and affordable to do it.

Dan Goldstein:              And we're using technology to do it.

Jesse Draper:                Well welcome to Meet the Drapers.

Dan Goldstein:              Thanks.

Cody Barbo:                  Thanks for having us.

Jesse Draper:                So give us your pitch.

Tim Draper:                  But first, tell us which ones trust?

Cody Barbo:                  Trust. I'm will. I'm Cody Barbo.

Dan Goldstein:              And I'm Dan Goldstein.

Cody Barbo:                  And we're the co-founders of Trust and Will. For Trust and Will, we are modernizing the $185 billion estate planning industry. And it's crazy to think that 150 million people have gone through this process with attorney's taking weeks of their time, spending thousands of dollars to set it up. Only for the stack of papers to end up in a filing cabinet or a box in the garage, never to be touched again. And it's in these moments-

Tim Draper:                  Well it does get touched, it's when you end your life. Then it gets-

Cody Barbo:                  If they're found.

Tim Draper:                  Oh if they ... okay.

Cody Barbo:                  If they're found.

Tim Draper:                  Well lawyers usually keep those too, right?

Cody Barbo:                  Some good lawyers.

Tim Draper:                  Okay.

Cody Barbo:                  Yeah, yeah. So when these documents, they end up in the box in the garage collecting dust, they often challenged or lost. And it honestly can tear families apart.

Dan Goldstein:              And there's usually two deciding incidents for somebody to even setup and estate plant to begin with. Either one, you need to appoint guardians for your minor kids, or the second reason is you have an asset that you need to protect. A home, a business or an inheritance of some sort. And so we've designed a suite of products, from simplest to most complex. All of our products are online.

Dan Goldstein:              We have a product called guardian for new parents, this three click way in order to elect legal guardians for your kids. We also have the last will and testament, it's the staple of an estate plan. And then we also have trust services. Our business model is pretty direct and pretty easy to understand. Our customers pay us up front, a fee, to set up the documents. And there's a subscription that we're rolling out in the fall as well, in order to store your documents digitally if something were to happen.

Cody Barbo:                  So we move fast. We started the company in October. We launched nation wide in April. We have thousands of clients. We've signed up a nation life insurance partner. A national credit card company. And most importantly is we have a brand that resonates with the consumer.

Tim Draper:                  Are they paying you or is it free for a while and then they pay when they store stuff?

Dan Goldstein:              So we're adding between 250 and 300 new customers every single week. And then our conversion rate through the funnel, it's about a 15% conversion rate through the funnel to a complete document.

Tim Draper:                  Tell us how you get paid. Where's the money?

Dan Goldstein:              To see your documents, to download or to order them online, you have to pay and then they receive their documents and then as, right now, the laws are all changing, they're going digital. And so as they go digital, we're allowed to store those documents in the Cloud then and charge a subscription to have them there as well.

Tim Draper:                  This has got to be a subscription business, because you really want people to pay and pay and pay all the way until they die.

Cody Barbo:                  Right.

Dan Goldstein:              Exactly.

Cody Barbo:                  I mean that's honestly why we're here today. We're here raising $2 million with about half of the round soft committed from our existing investors. And really it's because the laws are changing. So starting July 1, there was three states that passed law to allow for an all digital estate plan.

Tim Draper:                  Why do you want to do this? Did somebody die?

Jesse Draper:                That's so morbid. What?

Dan Goldstein:              We get asked that questions actually.

Cody Barbo:                  It's a reality. No, I'm happy you brought it up.

Jesse Draper:                Okay good.

Cody Barbo:                  It's reality. So for me personally, I've seen the way that this probate court essentially affected my mother in the law and the relationship she has with her siblings. They don't talk to each other than through attorneys. And for me, I have one younger brother, I love him he's one of my best friends, he was best man at my wedding. And I would hate for anything like that to happen. Luckily our parents, their affairs in order, because hey, we started an estate planning business. But it's something that I would never want to have happen, not only to myself and my brother, but to all the families out there that haven't gone through this process.

Jesse Draper:                And how much does it cost for one of these packages right now?

Cody Barbo:                  For the current will it's $129 for a couple and $69 for an individual. For the guardian product, the introductory price point, $59 to set it up.

Siri Srinivas:                  Is there any friction at all in getting people to use an online platform, where they might have maybe gone to a lawyer?

Dan Goldstein:              We're targeting young married families. And their situation is rather simpler than a complex estate plan.

Siri Srinivas:                  Are you targeting customers who are already thinking about estate planning?

Dan Goldstein:              We have chosen the approach from a couple different of our channels to go direct to the consumer. So we go direct to them on social. And what we've realized is that we can acquire customers for a much cheaper price by going direct to them, because it's a back of the mind process.

Bill Draper:                   That's pretty expensive for you to do that. You can't charge as much as it costs to you to go reach them I would think?

Dan Goldstein:              Right now, we are acquiring users between $4 to 5$. And then our acquisition to customer is between-

Bill Draper:                   Well how does it become ... because the internet?

Jesse Draper:                Yeah.

Dan Goldstein:              Yeah.

Cody Barbo:                  Yeah.

Bill Draper:                   Don't they want to eventually talk to somebody in person?

Jesse Draper:                But no, pops, they don't want to talk to somebody.

Cody Barbo:                  For millennials.

Jesse Draper:                It's crazy. Well I have a question, how do you know that someone's not setting up a fake will?

Dan Goldstein:              It still needs to signed, witnessed and notarized. But they're still required to check identification of the person who's signing it.

Tim Draper:                  Who's the CEO?

Cody Barbo:                  CEO, COO. But we're in this 100%.

Tim Draper:                  And who writes the code?

Dan Goldstein:              Yeah, so I spent the last six years of my career in custom software development. So as we were starting the company, we recruited developers that I'd worked with and then had a product as well from an agency that I was at prior.

Tim Draper:                  And how do you know each other?

Cody Barbo:                  Yeah, we've been friends for years. In my last company, in the early days when we were at a pitch competition, Daniel was there and he came up to me after we won, which was great. Through that, we became close friends.

Bill Draper:                   You've got a really good idea here, because if you could cut out the legal fees, that's a big price-

Tim Draper:                  By the way, our attorney who does our legal work for the estate, charges $925 an hour.

Dan Goldstein:              Yeah.

Cody Barbo:                  That's wild.

Dan Goldstein:              That's a lot of money.

Tim Draper:                  I hope this gets more and more complex so that we can use it.

Dan Goldstein:              Yeah, and the goal over the next 18 months is, as we roll out additional complex trust services as well. We will be handling revocable living trusts to start, simple trust and they complex trust. And also building out an attorney network as well, so that when people do want to speak to an attorney, we can amortize the cost of those attorney's across all of our users, as opposed to just having a $925 an hour for a phone call.

Tim Draper:                  Terrific. Well thank you so much for coming to Meet the Drapers.

Cody Barbo:                  Yeah, thanks for having us.

Dan Goldstein:              Thank you guys.

Jesse Draper:                Thank you guys.

Tim Draper:                  This is great.

Jesse Draper:                Thank you.

Cody Barbo:                  It was fun. It was really cool. I was a little nervous and anxious going in, but when you're around a family it makes you feel like family.

Dan Goldstein:              They want you to have a good time and Tim makes a lot of dad jokes.

Dan Goldstein:              The Drapers were funny. They just have a funny little dynamic and you could tell, I come from a family that's similar and it's great.

Cody Barbo:                  If I was to do something differently, I actually would have just preferred a dialogue. They just kind of interjected, but it actually worked out better for us, because the rest of the pitch flowed out much more natural and conversationally.

Dan Goldstein:              It seems like Jesse understands our business model the best, because we're targeting a target demographic that she fits under as a new parent, or like a newly new ... she's not a new parent.

Cody Barbo:                  We have a mission of helping everyone leave a lasting legacy. Legacy is one of these weird words, that despite what most people think, it's actually defines the property or money you leave behind in your will. If you believe in us, go to our public page and we'll see you on the other side.

Dan Goldstein:              High five.

Jesse Draper:                So, what do the judges think? Oh wait, I'm a judge. What do we think guys?

Bill Draper:                   I think it's ... you know, so many things are going online, just one more thing and there is competition, it's very true. But it's quite possible that this could take off. I'm just worried that people who are serious enough about a will would somehow get a lawyer involved.

Tim Draper:                  I think they're going after a great market. I think people are ready for this. I do know an expert system could do just as good a job for me in getting my questions answered as any kind of a lawyer. I do see this all going online. They do have a lot of competition.

Jesse Draper:                What do you think Siri?

Siri Srinivas:                  I'm thinking perhaps I should write a will. I have never had that thought before, which is interesting because I think they're targeting my demographic. People who are not really thinking about their assets. But I should back up and say we love the legal tech industry. Hundreds of millions of dollars. Most entrepreneur's won't touch it because it's complex and investors won't touch it because it's complex. So I think there's a huge opportunity there. And what about tax, perhaps good for tax planning. They have the opportunity to be doing full estate planning.

Tim Draper:                  They have a great name and brand is really important in this.

Jesse Draper:                Let's vote. What do you think?

Tim Draper:                  No, we're not going to vote, you've got to go to the crystal ball.

Bill Draper:                   Oh I feel it coming.

Tim Draper:                  We trust in the will of the crystal ball. Okay you got it?

Bill Draper:                   Thumbs up.

Jesse Draper:                Thumbs up.

Bill Draper:                   Thumbs down.

Jesse Draper:                Thumbs down.

Tim Draper:                  Thumbs all around.

Jesse Draper:                Thumbs all around. And then whatever you want.

Tim Draper:                  And then you go which way you want to go.

Jesse Draper:                Do you want up or down?

Siri Srinivas:                  Up.

Jesse Draper:                Oh wow. You're always trying to be like [inaudible 00:14:44].

Tim Draper:                  I'm sideways with a little bit ... I'm like at a 60.

Bill Draper:                   You're not very decided.

Tim Draper:                  I'm like 59%.

Jesse Draper:                He has seen a lot of legal companies.

Tim Draper:                  I have.

Jesse Draper:                But what do you think? Would you invest in Trust and Will because you can. This is the only show on television where you can crowd fund for these companies and you could actually own a piece of the equity. So go to meetthedrapers.com and work with republic to invest $10, $1000, or nothing. Just vote for them and support them.

Tim Draper:                  So let's bring on the next entrepreneur.