Ben

Ben

Making end-of-life planning less awful.

About

Product manager for 15 years. Built teams, shipped products, watched startups succeed and fail from the inside. Never shipped something this personal. Lost my dad. Spent three months helping my family find the pieces of his life. Built DearFile in the time I had left over, with AI doing the engineering. The product is live. I'm just getting started.

Badges

Tastemaker
Tastemaker
Gone streaking
Gone streaking

Maker History

  • DearFile
    DearFile I hope you never need it.
    Jun 2026
  • 🎉
    Joined Product HuntJune 18th, 2026

Forums

Ben

1h ago

Hey Hunters!

I'm Ben. Product manager for 15 years. Worked across startups and grown companies, shipped a lot of products, learned what makes people actually use something versus just sign up.

Then my dad passed. The best kind of person. The one you call when everything falls apart. After he went, my family spent three months piecing his life together from scraps. Bank statements in a shoebox. A password on a post-it. A brother's phone number with no last name.

That experience changed what I wanted to build.

DearFile is the private file your family needs to find when something happens to you. The people, the account details, the wishes, a note from you. Nothing complicated. Simple enough to finish in an afternoon. Private by default. Their access lasts forever, even if DearFile closes.

Ben

4h ago

DearFile: I hope you never need it.

A private file for the things your family needs to find when something happens to you.

People: the contacts who matter. Your lawyer, your doctor, your closest friends. Their roles, their numbers, everything in one place.

Ben

6h ago

DearFile - I hope you never need it.

Most people haven't written anything down. No accounts list. No wishes. No note to the people they love. When something happens, their family spends months searching shoeboxes and old emails. DearFile is the private file your family needs to find. People, account details, wishes, a note. No passwords, no credentials. Just the map: enough to know where to look and who to call. Simple enough to finish in an afternoon. Private by default. I built this after losing my dad. I hope you never need it.
View more