We were lucky to catch up with Danitza Borges recently and have shared our conversation below.

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

In early May of 2017, I was going for a morning jog, and I was thinking about my son who was going off to college in about a month. As I was running, I was thinking about the news which had announced yet another mass shooting; more people dying unexpectedly and suddenly. I asked myself what if something tragic happened to me while running, shopping, or doing everyday life events? What would happen if I died suddenly? I’m a single parent, my son does not have any extended family. It’s just us. How would I leave him behind? Would messages from me help him to cope with his grief due to my absence? Would messages help him to continue my legacy? Would one last I love you be impactful and memorable to him? You see, I couldn’t let my son go through the rest of his life remembering only the end of my life. I realized at that moment I needed to leave him all types of messages. I wanted to wish him a happy birthday, I wanted to say Merry Christmas, I wanted to leave him personal messages that no one else could read or find on a computer. I spent the next three months googling and researching a place where I could leave these scheduled messages for my loved ones. How could I do this? Where could I leave them? I needed a place where I could leave private and secure personal messages. A place that would allow me to control their release dates. I company I could depend on and trust to make sure they were delivered per my instructions. A company that would allow me to upload messages at my leisure and make necessary changes if needed.
I realized I couldn’t be the only person in this whole world who wanted to leave messages to their family and friends. I knew how we leave people behind matters, and we have so much that still needs to be said. Since I couldn’t locate a place to leave my messages, I decided to build it. ELYS was born. ELYS became the place where I could leave the most important messages behind…….my last.
I have left documents with passwords. I have left photos of special times in my life. I have left videos of me singing Happy Birthday. I have left recipes and poems. I have left me reading a bedtime story to my future grandchildren. I have left pep talks, advice and inside jokes for my friends. I have left my love behind!
In 2020 I watched with the world the loss of life from the Covid Pandemic. I saw the news of thousands of people losing their lives to this horrific illness. I watched in frustration as I was trying to build ELYS so people could have a way of saying what they needed to say before they succumbed to the virus. I watched in agony as hundreds of people did not have an opportunity to say goodbye.
ELYS is a new concept and a new way of thinking about how we leave people after we are gone. ELYS recognizes that every person has something to leave behind for their loved ones. Loved ones who will grieve for them and most importantly miss them. Your absence will be impactful your messages will be priceless.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am Danitza Borges the founder and CEO of ELYS. ELYS is a legacy management platform that allows its clients to leave heartfelt messages to their loved ones after their passing. We solve the problem of leaving people behind in a better place. Our service allows our clients to leave impactful messages. These messages can be from documents, photos, music and videos which are scheduled on certain dates for release. Each of our client chooses a designated person as reference in order to verify death. After verification ELYS begins to deliver messages per scheduled dates. Imagine receiving a message from a past relative or friend telling you they loved you. Imagine receiving a recipe that has been handed down from generation to generation. Imagine all the possible messages the people left behind could receive. ELYS is a very new and unique concept, although there are some companies that offer legacy platforms such as books or albums to keep people close, ELYS offers the ability to leave personal, audio messages to be downloaded and revisited when needed. I am so proud that I was able to bring ELYS from an idea to fruition. ELYS began as a thought and is self-funded. It took 5 years to go from an idea to a working platform. I am so dedicated to making ELYS a service that honors people’s legacy and connection to their loved ones.

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

When starting ELYS I knew that I would eventually have to hire a frontend and backend developer. This person would have the knowledge to code and complete ELYS within two years. As ELYS was self-funded, I was always aware that the majority of my paycheck was to pay for all the needs of the development. As we completed year one, I realized that my coder had over promised his capabilities and we would not be ready to launch in two years. I had to decide if I should hire a new coder and start from scratch or trust that my employee would seek out the necessary people to help him complete on time. During this very stressful time I learned to be very resilient. I was challenged every day with past deadlines; thus, patience became my new best friend. I found that by trying to rush the coding only made matters worse. I eventually had to learn a bit of the technology in order to guide ELYS to completion..

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

At the time of moving forward with the idea of ELYS I knew that to get it off the ground I would need to personally invest all my savings. I had about $25,000 to build a website, an app and all of the technology needed to bring to service. The $25,000 I had saved over a 6-year period would have to be used. Although I had this budget, I continuously worked two jobs in order to pay for all unforeseen expenses, such as beta testing, AWS and testing systems. Each and every dollar I have spent on ELYS has come from my primary source of income.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.elys.cloud
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/elys_legacy
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danitza-borges-2a075a274
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/danitza_borges
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@elyslegacymanagement