We recently connected with Cory McCaskey and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Cory McCaskey, thanks for joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

Before I’m Gone™ was created from real life. It wasn’t created in a boardroom or from a market trend.
This was built from from life changing events and loss.
From watching people we love go through some of the hardest moments imaginable.
Over the past several years, both of us experienced situations that completely changed the way we looked at life, family, and preparation.

One of us survived a life-altering accident and over a month in a coma that forced him to confront how quickly everything can change. The other lost multiple family members in a very short period of time while also walking beside his spouse while battling cancer and Type 1 diabetes. During the same season, more diagnoses continued to hit close to home — parents, cousins, loved ones fighting battles that no family is ever truly prepared for.

And through all of it, there was one feeling we kept coming back to:

Nothing prepares you for what happens after loss. Not emotionally. Not practically.

When someone passes away, families are often left trying to navigate grief while simultaneously figuring out funeral arrangements, legal documents, accounts, belongings, passwords, unanswered questions, and final wishes… and so much more — all during one of the most emotionally overwhelming periods of their lives. At the same time, there’s another side of grief people rarely talk about enough:

The longing. The feeling of being lost. The wish that you could hear their voice one more time. See their face again. Hear one more story. Receive one more piece of guidance. That realization stayed with us.
We began asking ourselves a question:

Why is there no place where someone can truly prepare everything their family will one day need — emotionally, practically, and personally?
Not just finances.
Not just paperwork.
But memories. Your stories. Video Messages. Final Wishes.
Step-by-step Guidance. Love even after life.

The solution eventually became Before I’m Gone™.
We built it to help people preserve their voice, their personality, their memories, and the things that matter most — while also helping families avoid confusion, uncertainty, and unnecessary burden during loss.

The platform allows people to leave future video or audio messages for milestones like birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, or difficult moments. It allows them to organize important documents, create Will and Trust templates, document belongings by simply snapping a picture on your phone, preserve your life’s stories and recipes, prepare final wishes… and so much more — all in one secure place.

At its heart, Before I’m Gone™ exists for one reason:
To help people continue taking care of the people they love… even when they’re no longer here to do it themselves.
This company was built from some of the hardest moments of our lives.
But our hope is that it becomes something that brings comfort, clarity, peace, and connection to families for generations to come.
We are certain that anyone who has felt the pain of losing someone will instantly understand how important this is.
We know that we cannot change the past but our goal is to change the future.

Cory McCaskey, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Personally, spending years in Real Estate I saw it frequently. People passing away and things getting tied up in probate. People are grieving while trying to figure out what needs done- we’ve been there. What if there was a Final Preparations checklist that unlocked every step as they are going through it? It grew from there.
You see, Before I’m Gone™ was created to solve a problem almost every family eventually faces — the emotional and practical chaos that follows loss.
When someone passes away, loved ones are often left grieving while simultaneously trying to figure out funeral arrangements, legal documents, accounts, passwords, personal belongings, unanswered questions, and final wishes. Most families are forced to make important decisions during one of the hardest moments of their lives, often without guidance or clarity.

At the same time, there is another side of loss that people carry forever — the longing to hear someone’s voice again, receive one more message, hear one more story, or feel connected to the person they lost.
Before I’m Gone™ was built to help solve both.

We help people prepare emotionally, practically, and personally by giving them a secure place to preserve their voice, memories, stories, guidance, wishes, and important information — all in one guided platform designed to help families feel supported instead of overwhelmed.

What Sets Before I’m Gone™ Apart?

What makes Before I’m Gone™ different is that we are not just focused on paperwork or finances.
Most traditional planning tools focus only on legal preparation.
We believe legacy is much bigger than that.
Before I’m Gone™ combines emotional legacy preservation with practical preparation in a way that has never truly existed in one platform before.

Users can:
• preserve stories, recipes, memories, or anything that you can record
• leave future messages for birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, and life milestones that are delivered after the vault is unlocked
• organize important documents and accounts
• create Will and Trust templates
• document belongings and final wishes by snapping a picture and giving a command
• guide loved ones step-by-step through responsibilities after loss
• prepare memorial preferences and keepsakes like your Eulogy, QR Code, Guided Life Story
• and so much more

Everything is securely organized in one place and designed to evolve as life changes.
At its heart, Before I’m Gone™ is not about preparing for death.
It is about continuing to take care of the people you love — even when you are no longer here to do it yourself.

What Are We Most Proud Of?

What we are most proud of is not simply the technology or that we are humbly pioneering the future of funerals, legacy planning and remembrance..
It is the purpose behind it.
Before I’m Gone™ was built from real experiences with loss, illness, grief, and uncertainty. This was never about creating “just another website, app or platform.” It was about building something we genuinely wish existed during some of the hardest moments of our own lives!

We are proud that this platform has the potential to reduce confusion, lessen emotional burden, preserve family connection, and help people feel seen, heard, and remembered long after they are gone. If this platform gives even one family more clarity, one person more peace, or one child the opportunity to hear a parent’s voice again years later — then it has already accomplished something meaningful.

What Do We Want Potential Clients and Followers to Know About Us?

We want people to know that Before I’m Gone™ was built with heart. This is not a company built to exploit grief.
It was built because we have lived through it and we wanted to change that for ourselves in the future as well as others. We understand how quickly life can change and how deeply people wish they had more time, more conversations, and more answers after loss.

Everything we build is centered around one simple goal:
Helping people protect the ones they love.
We believe legacy is not just about what you leave behind financially.
It is about the memories, stories, guidance, and love that continue living on through the people who matter most.

That is what Before I’m Gone™ exists to preserve.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

We could fill a full day discussing our struggles and overcoming adversity but one of the most defining parts of this journey was realizing that Before I’m Gone™ was not being built during calm seasons of life — it was being built in the middle of the storm.

While developing the platform, both of us were simultaneously facing some of the hardest personal moments of our lives.
There were hospital visits.
Cancer diagnoses within our families.
Losses that came too quickly and too close together.
Conversations no family is ever fully prepared for.

One of us was still carrying the emotional weight of surviving a life-altering accident that completely changed the way life was lived moving forward. The other experienced the heartbreak of losing multiple family members within a short period of time while also standing beside a spouse battling cancer and Type 1 diabetes. And while all of this happened, we commenced building.

Not because it was easy.
But because every difficult moment reinforced why this platform needed to exist.
There were nights where work stopped because real life became more important. There were moments where grief, fear, and uncertainty could have easily caused us to walk away from the vision entirely.

But instead, those moments deepened it. Because this platform was never built from theory. It was built from lived experience. There is such a thing as life insurance but for us we wanted to build after-life assurance. Every challenge reminded us that families deserve better preparation, more clarity, and a way to preserve the parts of people that matter most before it’s too late. Resilience for us was not pretending everything was okay.

It was continuing to build something meaningful while life kept reminding us exactly why it mattered.
That is what makes Before I’m Gone™ so personal to us.
And it is why we believe so strongly in the impact it can have for other families moving forward. You can never be ready but you can be prepared.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Absolutely — and honestly, this part of the story matters more than people realize because it shows that Before I’m Gone™ was not built by Silicon Valley executives or people disconnected from real life. It was built by normal people who lived through difficult experiences and decided to create something meaningful from them. Before this journey, our backgrounds were completely different.

One of us spent years in all aspects of real estate — helping families through major life transitions, building relationships, and understanding just how emotional and personal “home” and “legacy” truly are. The other built a career in the window industry, running and growing their businesses rooted in hard work, customer relationships, and surveying everyday people.

Neither of us came from the tech world. We weren’t software developers sitting around trying to invent an app because it sounded trendy.
In fact, when the idea for Before I’m Gone™ first came to life, we quickly realized we had entered an entirely different world than the industries we came from.
There were moments where we had to pivot constantly. We had to learn technology, user experience, development processes, legal considerations, security infrastructure, branding, and how to take something deeply emotional and turn it into a platform that people could actually use in a meaningful way.

Very early on, we realized that if we were going to build something this important, it had to be done the right way.

That led us to hiring and working hand-in-hand with one of the top development teams in the country — collaborating closely through every stage of the process to help bring this vision to life with the level of care, functionality, and security it deserved.
Even then, there were still moments where we underestimated how difficult the transition into the tech space would be.
There were features we originally imagined one way that had to be completely rebuilt another way. There were moments where we had to slow down, listen to feedback, rethink the user experience, and make difficult decisions about what truly mattered most. But in many ways, not coming from the tech industry became one of our greatest strengths. Because we approached this like real people — not like software companies.

Every decision came back to one question:
“What would actually help a family in this moment?” That perspective shaped everything. We were not trying to create the flashiest platform.
We were trying to create the most meaningful one. And the truth is, building Before I’m Gone™ required humility. It required learning completely new industries while still carrying the responsibilities and realities of everyday life.

That journey reminded us that resilience in business is not about pretending you have all the answers.
It is about being willing to adapt, grow, listen, and continue moving forward because you believe deeply in the purpose behind what you are building.
That is exactly what this journey has been for us.

BeforeImGone.com – Love Protected. Legacy Preserved

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.BeforeImGone.com