Leaving a legacy

Alum-led Webacy is helping you protect your digital assets

Photo courtesy of Maika Isogawa

Maika Isogawa recognized a need to protect digital assets and distribute them after death. So, the Microsoft alumna started San Francisco-based Webacy.

By Kennedy Byrne

Taking care of someone’s belongings when they die is a daunting and complicated task.

Microsoft alumna Maika Isogawa experienced this firsthand when she unexpectedly lost her cousin a few years ago.

“I had this first-time look at what happens to all of the things we own when we die,” Maika said. “So, that was just striking to me.”

Many people make arrangements for what will happen to their property, belongings and other fiscal assets when they die. But few give the same consideration to their digital assets.

And disbursing digital currency or dismantling social media accounts of the deceased can be extremely difficult.

In fact, an estimated 30 million Facebook accounts still exist of people who are no longer living.

This is what ultimately inspired Maika to found Webacy, a San Francisco-based startup that helps people protect their digital assets if the unexpected should occur.

The company that Maika started in 2021 allows individuals to make preparations for what will happen to their social accounts when they die.

With Webacy, the transition of digital real estate is made seamless for loved ones and ensures those assets are accessible when the owner dies.

People can choose to memorialize or delete their social media accounts, schedule a post on their behalf and even put certain memories, posts and other digital keepsakes in a virtual “shoebox” of memorabilia.

Webacy users also appoint their “inner circle,” which essentially are their beneficiaries. These appointees can then gain access to their social accounts in the case of a death. And, they are informed of their loved one’s plans and wishes for the digital assets.

For Maika, this topic of death shouldn’t be as daunting as it typically seems.

“The practice of thinking about your own mortality makes your day more meaningful,” Maika said.

Maika was born in Japan where she lived until she was five. She then moved to Minnesota but would spend three months back in Japan every summer with her family.

Growing up surrounded by different cultures, Maika noticed that eastern countries like Japan were more open to talking about mortality, ancestry and death than in the U.S. where it seems like a taboo topic.

“I never really quite understood why we ignore something that happens to all of us,” she said of Western cultures.

This underlying philosophy has always been a foundation for Webacy.

“The openness to talk about things that are a little bit taboo has been a part of why I started the company from a fundamental level,” Maika said.

With the growing popularity of cryptocurrency, Webacy also added a crypto aspect to its product offerings, which safeguard a person’s digital wallet.

Maika said that with 20% of all crypto being lost forever due to loss of access or owner death, its essential for people to take the extra step in protecting this asset type, too.

Webacy will move a person’s digital currency to a backup wallet in the case of lost access, hacks, or security compromises. You can also appoint an “inner circle” for the cryptocurrency in the case of death.

More than 500 users are currently protecting their crypto with Webacy.

“With block chain there’s a great opportunity of green space to build something new for the future,” Maika said. “So that’s what got me really excited about the space.”

With Webacy still in its beta phase, Maika has plenty of ideas on the product roadmap, such as  more asset management tools, crypto prenups and even crypto trust funds.

“If you can dream it, you can make it. It’s hard, but you can,” Maika said. “That’s been really exciting about the tech that we’re building.”

The 2022 Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree caught the startup bug early while attending Stanford University. After graduating in 2020, she joined Microsoft as a customer engineer.

“Understanding how a bigger company runs has been really good… How does a company scale to such a huge size? What are the best practices? What’s going to work?” Maika said. “It gives me some vision for where I want our company to go.”

Maika admits the path to getting there isn’t always easy.

Being a young, female, Japanese-American entrepreneur, Maika has had to learn to defeat the “imposter syndrome” that sometimes creeps up on her.

She encourages other young leaders to keep going for it and to really showcase what they can bring to the table. Negate the self-doubt and build confidence.

“Don’t under value the experiences that you have had,” Maika said. “Being younger it’s assumed that you have less knowledge or thoughts but that’s just not the case. You have different experiences.”

The former Cirque Du Soleil acrobat credits her grit and perseverance to traveling the world and performing at a young age, along with the many strong female influences in her life.

Fellow Microsoft alum Marie Groover mentored Maika when she first joined Microsoft and the two have maintained their mentor-mentee relationship.

“She’s one of the most ambitious people that I know,” Marie said of Maika. “She’s unexpectedly powerful and charged and skillful. Behind that is just so much dedication.”

Maika jokes that she traded her nine to five to work all the time, but she absolutely loves what she does.

“My interests are my work now.” Maika said. “The people in the space that I’m meeting have been really nice. Not just kind but they’re some of the smartest, most invigorating people I’ve met.”

Learn more about Webacy here.