By Sarah Linn
The Tribune (San Luis Obispo, Calif.)
WWR Article Summary (tl;dr) Adelle Archer’s startup “Eterneva” honors deceased loved ones by turning their ashes into diamonds.
The Tribune (San Luis Obispo, Calif.)
Just a couple months after appearing on ABC’s hit show “Shark Tank,” a San Luis Obispo High School graduate is back in the national spotlight.
Adelle Archer, co-founder of Eterneva, was named to Forbes magazine’s “30 Under 30” list for consumer technology for 2020.
“I was in shock when I saw the list hit and my name was at the top!” Archer, 29, wrote in an email.
It’s just the latest achievement for Archer, whose Austin, Texas-based business that honors deceased loved ones by turning their ashes into diamonds.
She was named to Inc. magazine’s 30 Under 30 list of Rising Star entrepreneurs in 2018.
In October, Archer and Eterneva co-founder Garrett Ozar went on “Shark Tank” in hopes of securing an investment for their company, which creates lab-grown diamonds out of the carbon from cremated human or animal remains, also known as cremains, as well as hair from pets and people.
The process take 10 months and results in gems ranging in price from $3,000 to $20,000, Archer told the “Shark Tank” investors.
Founded in 2016, Eterneva now employs 14 people and is looking to end 2019 with $2.5 million in sales, Archer said in October.
On “Shark Tank,” Archer and Ozar made a deal with billionaire businessman Mark Cuban, who agreed to invest $600,000 for a 9% stake, which values the company at $8 million.
Cuban nominated Archer for the Forbes list, calling her “one of the most ambitious and visionary entrepreneurs I’ve invested in recently.”
“Eterneva … has a huge mission to transform the cultural conversation around death, dying, and grief. They’re growing like crazy, and Adelle is a big driving force behind it,” Cuban said. “Adelle is a shining example of a female enterpriser and a non-coastal breakout story.”
According to Forbes, the annual “30 Under 30” list offers “a wake-up call to cynics who think they have seen it all.”
“The young, creative and bold minds on this year’s 30 Under 30 list are proof positive that the future will be new, exciting and profoundly different,” the magazine said.
Judging the Forbes list’s consumer technology category for 2020 were Jeremy Liew, partner at Lightspeed Ventures; Anjali Sud, CEO of Vimeo; Hans Tung, managing partner at GGV Capital, and Nick Weaver, CEO of Eero.
The judges selected entrepreneurs who are “seizing the moment of a personalized digital revolution,” Forbes said.
More than 15,000 people apply for Forbes “30 Under 30” list each year, Archer wrote, “so we are so incredibly humbled and blown away that we made it!”
“It’s especially cool to see us in the consumer tech category,” she added, “because that’s really how we view ourselves — as a modern consumer technology that’s changing the way we grieve and celebrate our lost loved ones.
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Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
