Communicator

As U2’s Bono said “Commerce is real… aid is just a stopgap.  Commerce – entrepreneurial capitalism – takes more people out of poverty than aid.”

For the February 2017 issue of MinistryTech, my column took a step back from profiling individual Christian entrepreneurs and their startups and revisited the question of why we should even care about entrepreneurship.

This month, I want to take a pause in our monthly profiles of Christian entrepreneurs to reflect again on why this topic should even matter to Christians.  We spent a few issues at the beginning of the series on what startups and entrepreneurs are and why the church should care about them, but that was two years ago, perhaps before some of you were even reading Ministry Tech (or Christian Computing, as this publication was then called).  So this month, I want to consider how entrepreneurship can contribute to human flourishing.

What is Human Flourishing?

It seems like the concept of Human Flourishing has become trendy again.  The Greek philosophers often debated the concept of eudaimonia, which some have translated as human flourishing.  Plato’s definition of eudaimonia was “the good composed of all goods; an ability which suffices for living well; perfection in respect of virtue; resources sufficient for a living creature.”  Today, we are aware of poverty in the world around us, and we may be tempted to think of flourishing as the absence of poverty, but the concept is much more than that.  

Jesus said, in John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”

Anthony Bradley, professor of religious studies at King’s College says that human flourishing is “characterized by a holistic concern for the spiritual, moral, physical, economic, material, political, psychological, and social context necessary for human beings to live according to their design.”

In their book, Entrepreneurship for Human Flourishing, Chris Horst and Peter Greer of Hope International link the concept to the Hebrew word shalom.  “The ancient Hebrew word shalom goes beyond our modern concept of peace and embodies completeness in relationships with God, others, ourselves, and creation.  Human flourishing happens when people and communities thrive – when they experience wholeness and restoration in their relationships, in their view of themselves, and in their relationship with their Creator.”  

We get a sense for the richness of this concept when Jesus uses the Greek equivalent of shalom in John 14:27 “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.  Not as the world gives do I give to you.  Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”

Who Brings About Human Flourishing?

So human flourishing is a really big concept.  Although the Bible doesn’t use the words, we certainly get a sense that Adam and Eve, in the garden before the fall, had the kind of wholeness and perfect relationships described in all three definitions above.  We also know that all will be redeemed and restored in paradise, and if you go back up and read Plato’s, Bradley’s, or Hope’s definitions, you’ll see that they accurately reflect what we see promised for us in the Bible.  

But that will be accomplished by Christ, and not by man.

That being said, as Christians, we are called to “put on… compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience” (Colossians 3:12), we are commanded to love our neighbor as our self (Matthew 22:39), we have been given “the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:18), and we are told that the “peacemakers” are blessed and “shall be called sons of God” (Matthew 5:9).

Many in Christian ministry have taken these words to heart and are working diligently and effectively to address the issues of the world, the effects of the fall, that keep people from truly flourishing.  Their work is critical, impactful, and God honoring, and although their reward will be in heaven and all praise is due to God, they deserve our admiration and support.

How Can Entrepreneurs Contribute to Human Flourishing?

That being said, business does more to address human flourishing than just provide funds for those in “full-time ministry.”  As U2’s Bono said “Commerce is real… aid is just a stopgap.  Commerce – entrepreneurial capitalism – takes more people out of poverty than aid.”  

The Goldwater Institute found that “Economic freedom and entrepreneurship are keys to escaping poverty for many.  There is a strong connection between a state’s rate of entrepreneurship and declines in poverty.”

The Economist wrote “The world’s achievement in the field of poverty reduction is, by almost any measure, impressive… the aim of halving global poverty between 1990 and 2015 was achieved five years early.  Most of the credit, however, must go to capitalism and free trade, for they enable economies to grow – and it was growth, principally, that has eased destitution.”

But advances in human flourishing are about more than just addressing poverty.  Horst and Greer write in their book “Entrepreneurship is not something we should just tolerate.  We should celebrate it.  Average life expectancy has more than doubled globally over the past 200 years.  During that time, we’ve moved from a nearly illiterate population to one in which 84 percent of adults can now read.  In the past 40 years alone, the percentage of undernourished people in the world has dropped by half.”

They point to innovation and entrepreneurship as foundational to these incredible advances.  But they also point to the more mundane impacts that entrepreneurs have on eudaimonia.  “In general, entrepreneurs are in the business of solving problems, not creating them. Their initiatives and inventions—and the businesses that sustain them—meet human needs. Tables allow families to share meals together. Telephones enable friends to communicate in real time. Airplanes permit people to travel the globe.  Tables, telephones, and airplanes are handicrafts of entrepreneurs. When entrepreneurs fulfill their mandate to serve others and solve problems, humans  flourish. And to solve these problems, entrepreneurs recruit workers, who can also then experience the dignity of work.”

Entrepreneurs are very good at creating jobs.  According to a Baylor University study, between 1980 and 2000, small businesses in the U.S. created more than 34 million new jobs.  And according to a National Bureau of Economic Research study, in one year in the U.S., 2.5 million net new jobs were created in total, while companies less than 1 year old created 3.5 million net new jobs – meaning that all companies more than 1 year old combined, eliminated a million jobs.

And jobs do matter.  Jim Clifton, CEO of Gallup found “if countries fail at creating jobs, their societies will fall apart.  Countries, and more specifically cities, will experience suffering, instability, chaos, and eventually revolution.”

It is my hope that, in this series, I am giving you a glimpse into how Christian entrepreneurs around the world are using their God-given gifts in service to God, whether it be building web sites or solving major world problems or simply providing jobs and dignity to the hopeless.  And, it is my hope that they may inspire some of you to use your God-given gifts to love your neighbor and bring glory to God.

“I realized I knew nothing about making videos, but the Holy Ghost and YouTube taught me enough to get started.”

For the January 2017 issue of MinistryTech magazine, my column introduced Shonda Carter and her video production business/ministry.

Show Stopper! is the new book by Shonda Carter that has grown out of her startup company, Shonda Carter Productions.  It has been a bestseller on Amazon pre-orders and is being released this month.  So, how did a former prison employee become a best selling author, and what does this have to do with ministry technologies?  Read on my friends.

Paid to be Mean

Shonda wasn’t raised in the church.  When she went to college, she wanted to become a judge; she wanted to have power.  She studied Criminal Justice, but unlike high school, she found that it took more than smarts, it took hard work to get good grades.  She wasn’t willing to put in the work to pursue a Law degree, so she graduated with her Criminal Justice degree and started her first career.  

She got a job working for the prison system as a probation officer.  She loved that she got paid to be mean.  And she was good at it!  From there, she moved to a Child Support Enforcement role.  Even though these jobs seem to have nothing to do with her current calling, Shonda points out that God never wastes anything – these jobs taught her how to tell people what to do – which has made her a better video director!

God Saves the Mean Lady

Shonda and her husband began attending church, but she just didn’t “get it.”  She looked around at all the people that were full of joy in the Lord and she prayed “God, don’t you want me?”  One night, Shonda and her husband took their kids to the local drive-in to see a movie.  It was a double feature, and although they didn’t really have any interest in watching the second movie, The Passion of the Christ, they figured they were already there, so they stuck around.  Shonda realized that she was a visual learner, and once she saw what Christ did for her, she could finally understand all that she had heard at church.  God literally opened her eyes to see and understand the gospel.

Not only did God use the film to save Shonda and her husband, He helped her realize that video has power in communicating His deepest truths.  As she began studying the Bible, she realized that Jesus is the master storyteller.  In gratitude to her pastor, instead of simply writing him a thank you note, she wrote a play for him.  A year later he asked her if she would start a drama ministry with live monthly productions.  Shonda loved applying her creativity in service to God’s people, but the live productions were too unpredictable.

Technology to the Rescue

Thinking back to The Passion of the Christ, Shonda realized that video may be the answer.  Her computer had some software called Movie Maker, so what could be so hard about making a movie?  “I realized I knew nothing about making videos, but the Holy Ghost and YouTube taught me enough to get started.”  Eventually she went back to school to learn video production, quit her child support enforcement job and took a minimum wage job as an Associate News Producer for the local television station.  She felt called by God to spend a year there, but she got promoted to News Producer and overstayed the twelve months before God made it clear that she was to move on.

As she continued to make videos for her church, she thought about creating a YouTube channel with spiritual content.  Jesus went to where the people were, and video, if it’s engaging, can help people “get” the message.

To figure out the business side, she plugged into the local startup community.  Video marketing on YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook was becoming increasingly important to entrepreneurs, so Shonda started helping her new friends with their videos.  I asked her what the hardest part of starting her business was and she said it was believing that she was good enough to get paid for video production.  It’s called the imposter syndrome.  Everyone told her she was good and her work was valuable, but she didn’t feel comfortable charging for her service.  She finally bit the bullet and Shonda Carter Productions was born.

Three Video Tips

I asked Shonda if she could share three tips with us for making great videos.  Her best advice boils down to this:

1. Make it short.  The shorter the better.
2. It has to have a story.  People want to feel, not just hear.  Jesus used stories to powerful effect.
3. Music matters.  Special effects don’t impress anyone anymore, but music helps the audience get in the moment faster.

Finally, I asked Shonda how her faith impacts her as an entrepreneur.  She said praying for God’s wisdom in all things is her most powerful business tool.  When opportunities come her way, she turns to the Lord for direction in who to work with and who to decline.  As a startup with limited resources, she also prays constantly for wisdom on spending money, for example, on which conferences to attend.  She is thankful that the Lord has been faithful to her.

“For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.” (1 Corinthians 1:25 NIV)

In this article series, we’ve defined a Christian entrepreneur as: a person, driven to glorify God in all he or she does, and ruled by the Word of God, who starts a new venture and is willing to risk a loss in order to achieve the success of the venture. Each month I’ve been introducing you to specific Christian startups and entrepreneurs, some of which may be helpful to your church, ministry, business, or family, but my main intent is to encourage and inspire you to be entrepreneurial in your ministry and career. Are there Christian startups I should know about? Contact me at russ.mcguire@gmail.com

“For most organizations, tools like WordPress and Weebly provide very high functionality at a very low cost.  You can go a long ways without spending much money at all, but at some point, your needs exceed their capabilities, and to take that next step you go from spending hundreds of dollars to spending tens of thousands of dollars for custom software development.”

In the December 2016 issue of MinistryTech magazine, I introduced Stephen Key and his company, Basedeploy, which is working to bridge the “software chasm.”

Before launching Basedeploy, Stephen Key tried to start an online matching site called Giver.  From his short-term missions work with orphanages in Central America and his work with foster care organizations in the U.S., Stephen knew that these kids have needs for things throughout the year, and not just at Christmas time.  His vision was for an online marketplace where individual needs could be met by individual givers.  But after several months of trying to get Giver off the ground, Stephen realized that, at every turn, God was closing the doors on Giver and opening the doors for a different opportunity.

This reminds me of Paul’s experience on his second missionary journey: “And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. So, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.’ And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.” (Acts 16:6-10 ESV)

It All Started At Church

Stephen didn’t have a master plan for his life.  He just took each step, making the best decision for him and his family at the time.  But God has a plan for Stephen.  He grew up in the church. He went to the high school associated with his church, Victory Christian in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  After graduating he literally moved across the street to Oral Roberts University.  Stephen knew he’d be an entrepreneur.  His dad was an entrepreneur and all four of his older siblings had gone on to start their own businesses.  He knew, from watching his brothers, that he would eventually need to promote whatever business he started, so he majored in Public Relations and Advertising.  One summer Stephen participated in a Computer Science Boot Camp at ORU and loved it.  From that moment, he knew that software would be at the center of his career.

Shortly after graduating from Oral Roberts, Stephen landed an exciting job.  He was hired as web developer for Victory Christian, the large ministry that included his home church, his high school alma mater, and a wide variety of global ministries.  The pay wasn’t as high as he could’ve gotten in secular work, but he loved being part of an organization making an impact for the Gospel, and with so many different ministries, there were always interesting projects to work on.  One of the projects that stuck with him was creating a templating tool to make it easy for small Victory Christian ministries around the world to easily create an internal web page.

The High Tech Startup World Calls

After three years, Stephen had the opportunity to join a New York-based high tech startup.  The company helps match patients to healthcare providers.  It was really hard to leave Victory Christian, but Stephen wanted to learn about building software platforms at a scale much larger than even a global ministry required, and this startup provided that opportunity.  Since they had a Tulsa office, Stephen was able to be part of a fast-moving startup without leaving Tulsa, which was critical since his wife was finishing her education there.

Although, in many ways, working for a startup was dramatically different from working for a Christian ministry, one of Stephen’s first projects was very similar to what he’d done at Victory.  The platform needed to create micro-sites for thousands of physicians.  Stephen automated the process, integrating the data that already existed into an attractive and effective profile for patients to review.  His time at the startup also validated for Stephen that his ideas and his work were valuable, generating significant revenue for the company.

Crossing the Software Chasm

After two years, his wife finished her education and they moved to Oklahoma City to begin her career.    Stephen left the New York startup behind and started taking on work for clients.  At first it was a fun and exciting change, but he started to notice that his clients were asking for many of the same features, but in slightly different combinations.  He realized that these clients had fallen into what he now refers to as the “software chasm.”  

“For most organizations, tools like WordPress and Weebly provide very high functionality at a very low cost.  You can go a long ways without spending much money at all,” he explains, “but at some point, your needs exceed their capabilities, and to take that next step you go from spending hundreds of dollars to spending tens of thousands of dollars for custom software development.”

Some of those needs include user registration, the creation of an API and persistent user data, and integration with multiple other services on the web.  Stephen has created Basedeploy to bridge this chasm.  Starting at $39 a month, users point and click and the code and api are dynamically generated behind the scenes.  Basedeploy provides a growing library of building blocks, and independent developers can also provide building blocks for specific functionality or external integrations.  Stephen says that he felt guilty in his custom web business, like he was taking advantage of clients, charging them lots of money to do relatively simple things that they should be able to do themselves.  With Basedeploy, they can do it themselves, and Stephen can focus on building new capabilities as those needs emerge.

God Opened the Door

Early in 2016 Stephen had started fleshing out the Basedeploy vision.  He had a Minimally Viable Product (MVP) which was a nice front end, but with him doing lots of work connecting the pieces manually behind the scenes.  Then someone posted Basedeploy on Product Hunt, and suddenly the doors were flung open and hundreds of new customers started flowing in.  Stephen had to implement a private invitation-only beta to keep it manageable.  Since then, he’s been able to automate the flow to better handle that initial rush of customers and is considering when to open the floodgates to all comers.

Stephen and his wife still feel a call on their lives to help orphans around the world.  They love working with kids in need, and because of their love for the orphans, their hearts ache over their unmet needs.  But they know they must wait on God’s timing and His plan, and for now, Stephen is excited to see how God will use Basedeploy.

“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” (James 1:27 ESV)

In this article series, we’ve defined a Christian entrepreneur as: a person, driven to glorify God in all he or she does, and ruled by the Word of God, who starts a new venture and is willing to risk a loss in order to achieve the success of the venture. Each month I’ve been introducing you to specific Christian startups and entrepreneurs, some of which may be helpful to your church, ministry, business, or family, but my main intent is to encourage and inspire you to be entrepreneurial in your ministry and career. Are there Christian startups I should know about? Contact me at russ.mcguire@gmail.com

“I know God’s Word is true, and I believe that God’s Spirit is active and true, but that doesn’t mean that the way that you are implementing this technology is effective at helping people follow God’s will.” … Neil felt called to take the successful practices that he’d learned at Google and apply them to sensing how God could use technology specifically in the area of spiritual disciplines.

For the November 2016 issue of MinistryTech, my “Startup” column introduced Carpenters Code and their leader Neil Ahlston – a team taking the lessons they’ve learned at Silicon Valley’s top technology companies and applying those lessons to advancing God’s Kingdom.

“What if Google did Spiritual Formation?”  That’s the title of an article that Neil Ahlsten wrote a couple of years ago for a Christian university.  And it accurately reflects the opportunity that Neil and his team are pursuing in his startup, Carpenters Code.  Neil spent several years at Google and he told me that, at any given time, the company would be running 5,000 live experiments on search.  90% of experiments fail and, until you have real proof, you don’t know if your idea will really work.  Carpenters Code was formed to use that kind of applied research to develop technologies for people to draw closer to God.

Can You Save the World Through Economics?

Neil grew up as a real math geek – he loved to solve equations and he wanted everything to fit neatly together and make logical sense.  He said that he wanted to save the world through economics.  Neil earned an MA in Economics and Public Policy from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton.  While still in school, he felt called to overseas ministry, and after graduating, he spent a season of his life going to war zones around the world, working with limited resources to solve really hard problems.  Neil was raised in the church and God used this time in amazing ways.  Neil came to love pulling together diverse teams, helping people see and use their God-given talents to accomplish amazing things.

In time, Neil found himself about as far from resource-constrained war zones as you can imagine – working in Silicon Valley for Google.  He spent seven years at the company, where he had the chance to work on some of the company’s biggest bets before they launched.  He also was blessed to be able to see how Google’s leadership made decisions about what to nurture and what to kill.  He learned much, in fact Neil described it to me as being “like going to Internet business school.”

God’s Will vs. Man’s Will

Neil saw some of the brightest minds in the world being applied to deliver solutions people would value and to solve Google’s biggest business problems.  He was seeing how technology was impacting people’s lives in very deep ways, and he was seeing how Google was using applied research to get people to do what Google wanted.  

At the same time, as a Christian, Neil was very aware of the faith-based technology industry and how well-intentioned believers were approaching incredibly important areas of our spiritual lives.  Neil described what he was observing this way: “God’s Word says this about how He wants us to live and be in relationship with Him, so Christian developers were saying ‘I’ll apply this technology to accomplish it and He’ll bless it.’  I know God’s Word is true, and I believe that God’s Spirit is active and true, but that doesn’t mean that the way that you are implementing this technology is effective at helping people follow God’s will.”

James 1:17 tells us that “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”  Neil felt called to take the successful practices that he’d learned at Google and apply them to sensing how God could use technology specifically in the area of spiritual disciplines.

Abiding with Christ

Neil has pulled together an incredible team as Carpenters Code, including five full-time experts in software, data analytics, design, user experience, and ministry, as well as a community of contributors still working full time at leading technology companies including Google, Tesla, and NetApp.  

They focused first on helping people with their prayer life. Neil described how they got started as “The Wizard of Oz approach”:  prototype without really building anything, get it in people’s hands, and see what really helps them pray.  Carpenters Code bought targeted audience through SurveyMonkey, took them through a specific 2 minute experience, and then had them rate the effectiveness.  Based on what they learned, they started building a real app, called Abide, which is available in mobile app stores.

The experimentation hasn’t ended with the launch of the app.  Neil said they continue to test out hypotheses as efficiently as possible.  For example, they thought that Facebook Connect might be a way to make prayer more social, so to test it, they spent 10 minutes adding a button.  When people clicked it, it told them “That feature is not available.”  If lots of people clicked it, they knew it was worth building out.  If not, they would just remove the button.  They develop many of their features initially to 80-90% complete.  If the feature proves to be of high value in how people use the app, then they invest for the last 10-20%.  If not, 80-90% is good enough.

Providing for His People

It takes money to support full time workers and all the costs associated with running a startup in Silicon Valley.  The team is making good progress in finding ways to monetize the Abide app without dishonoring God by making people pay for prayer.  They hope to be self-funding in the next 12-18 months.  In the meantime, they’ve had to go through the humbling exercise known as seeking investment.

Silicon Valley doesn’t embrace Christian startups.  It’s not that they are persecuted, or even looked down on, it’s just that the motivations and priorities of a faith-based venture are out of sync with the culture of the technology startup community.  Tech venture capital firms are looking for companies with a multi-billion dollar exit, and Carpenters Code’s financial ambitions are more humble than that.  Neil has been able to raise funding from some California-based believers, but most of it has come from parts of the country with a higher appreciation for prayer.  God has provided an amazing team of investors and strategic advisors who bring academic wisdom and real-world business experiences that are strong complements for Neil and his team.  

As King David said in 1 Chronicles 16 “Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!”

In this article series, we’ve defined a Christian entrepreneur as: a person, driven to glorify God in all he or she does, and ruled by the Word of God, who starts a new venture and is willing to risk a loss in order to achieve the success of the venture. Each month I’ve been introducing you to specific Christian startups and entrepreneurs, some of which may be helpful to your church, ministry, business, or family, but my main intent is to encourage and inspire you to be entrepreneurial in your ministry and career. Are there Christian startups I should know about? Contact me at russ.mcguire@gmail.com

“We are made in the image of God, designed to be creative as He is creative.  But we live in a fallen and broken world.  While Christ has come to redeem His people, He also taught us to pray that God’s will would be done on earth as it is in heaven.  We await His final restoration of all things, which only He can accomplish, and yet He calls us to participate in redemptive and restoring work.”

For the October issue of MinistryTech, my “Startup” column introduced Praxis, a community supporting gospel-centered startups, and their co-founder Dave Blanchard.

This month, I’d like to introduce you to an entrepreneur whose calling is to equip and resource Christian entrepreneurs to better understand and achieve the integration of their faith with their business.  Dave Blanchard is the co-founder and CEO of Praxis, a community and education-oriented venture group.  This month’s column is less about Dave’s story and more about what we can learn from Praxis.

Dave’s Story

That being said, I do think it’s worth quickly recounting how Dave came to co-found Praxis with Josh Kwan in 2010.  Dave was raised in the church – a pastor’s kid.  But his entrepreneurial bent was also clear at an early age.  Dave and his friends collected baseball cards, so in elementary school, Dave launched his first for-profit venture – creating a baseball card trading market by renting out space in his family’s garage to his buddies.  Dave studied entrepreneurship at Babson College where he also started a late-night sandwich shop.  After college he co-founded DiscLive, a company working at the intersection of music and technology.  During this period, Dave’s business skills were sharpened, but his focus was very much on financial success and he wasn’t walking with the Lord.

That started to change when Dave was 26 and he started to pray “Lord, you made me as an entrepreneur.  What does that mean in serving you?”  That seeking of God’s will in prayer, scripture reading, meditation, and seeking Godly counsel set Dave on a new path.  He simultaneously earned an MBA from Kellogg and an MEM in Design from McCormick at Northwestern.  Upon completion, he landed a job at IDEO, a leading innovation and design firm, where he was tasked with helping the firm think about how best to support entrepreneurs.  He spent time with some of the best organizations in the world at enabling entrepreneurs to accomplish big things, including Y-Combinator, TechStars, and venture capital firms.

While helping IDEO discover their role in serving new ventures, Dave started to see a “market opportunity” with even greater impact.  Entrepreneurship is grueling, but it is also formational, and startups are working with a blank canvas.  In that formative stage, infusing the gospel into the venture could have world-changing impacts.  It was at this time that Dave met Josh Kwan and started a discussion about creating a space where faith and venture could intersect and blossom.

What Praxis Is and Does

Praxis operates as a non-profit, but it doesn’t look like most non-profits you know.  More than anything, I think of Praxis as an expanding community of people passionate about growing the gospel impact through entrepreneurship.  That community includes the small Praxis staff, a network of successful entrepreneurs and others in the startup ecosystem, and a multiplying collection of entrepreneurs that have been transformed through their interactions with Praxis.

Each year, Praxis accepts a dozen ventures each into their business accelerator and non-profit accelerator.  These ventures go through a 6-month process that takes a holistic view of their life – the financial and organizational health of their business, the state of their personal relationships, and their spiritual health.  Although Praxis helps most of these ventures accelerate their success, in some cases, the business has to decelerate to achieve health in the other dimensions.  The process involves teaching, coaching, mentoring, strengthening spiritual disciplines, and building lifelong support and accountability relationships with mentors and peers.

The ventures that pass through the Praxis accelerators have already demonstrated some level of success, but often are just on the cusp of scaling to tremendous impact.  While the companies or organizations may not necessarily present themselves as “Christian” (e.g. Webconnex and SOMA Games, who I’ve featured in previous columns, have both been through the Praxis accelerator), the leader of the organization must be a Christian who is sincere in his desire to integrate faith and work and isn’t content with the “compartmentalization” that is more typical among Christians in business.  He also will be very thoughtful about the cultural or social impact of what his organization does.

But Praxis is also very focused on the rising generation of Christian business leaders.  I have just returned from the annual Praxis Academy, a week-long experience for college-aged students that immerses them in rich content, introduces them to incredible role-models and potential mentors, and helps them build a network that will encourage them as they seek to love God and love their neighbors through their businesses and careers.

What Praxis Teaches

Praxis starts with the Biblical worldview encompassing creation, the fall, redemption, and restoration.  We are made in the image of God, designed to be creative as He is creative.  But we live in a fallen and broken world.  While Christ has come to redeem His people, He also taught us to pray that God’s will would be done on earth as it is in heaven.  We await His final restoration of all things, which only He can accomplish, and yet He calls us to participate in redemptive and restoring work.

At the recent Praxis Academy, students heard story after story of Praxis Alumni who have used their businesses to have a tremendous positive impact in the world, bringing beauty with dignity and grace into the world, lifting people out of hopelessness with meaningful employment, providing for basic needs of the poor, saving babies, and being and sharing the gospel with the lost.  But throughout were also warnings for humility.  We can’t increase and God increase at the same time.

The closing speaker, Skye Jethani, said that there’s a temptation in living our life for God.  We may be tempted to self-righteousness and thinking that God needs us.  God doesn’t need you.  He wants you and He loves you.  Before we are ever called to some place or some task, we are called to Someone.  Every mission will eventually end.  What will never end is our communion with God.

Praxis also has a tremendous set of tools and models that can help with building out a venture to the glory of God.  I recommend their book, From Concept to Scale, to you as you consider how God may be calling you to be entrepreneurial for His glory.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:27-28)

In this article series, we’ve defined a Christian entrepreneur as: a person, driven to glorify God in all he or she does, and ruled by the Word of God, who starts a new venture and is willing to risk a loss in order to achieve the success of the venture. Each month I’ve been introducing you to specific Christian startups and entrepreneurs, some of which may be helpful to your church, ministry, business, or family, but my main intent is to encourage and inspire you to be entrepreneurial in your ministry and career. Are there Christian startups I should know about? Contact me at russ.mcguire@gmail.com

“Many entrepreneurs are not Christians, but all are under intense pressure – most startups fail.  On one hand, there’s nothing wrong with being a champion for your business, if you believe that it is doing good and serving others.  On the other hand, your identity is in Christ, and it’s not about making yourself the center of every discussion.  Sometimes, loving your neighbor involves nothing more than just being present for a fellow entrepreneur, maybe when they’re feeling down, or maybe when they are celebrating some great milestone.  Unfortunately, given our human nature, that love and grace is often really hard.”

For the September 2016 issue of MinistryTech, I featured Paul Prins of Fresh Vine.

In this article series, we’ve defined a Christian entrepreneur as: a person, driven to glorify God in all she does, and ruled by the Word of God, who starts a new venture and is willing to risk a loss in order to achieve the success of the venture.  Each month I’ve been introducing you to specific Christian startups and entrepreneurs, some of which may be helpful to your church, ministry, business, or family, but my main intent is to encourage and inspire you to be entrepreneurial in your ministry and career.  

This month’s entrepreneur has moved his family to Paris, France to help plant a new church while continuing to operate and grow Fresh Vine, the software company he started while in seminary.  That’s not the typical startup journey for a high tech entrepreneur, but Paul Prins isn’t your typical software company founder.

Getting an Early Start

Paul formed his first start-up in 1999, while in the 8th grade.  At the core of the business was a website, MidwestSkier.com, but, not having a lot of life obligations at that point, Paul had fun with it and branched into other areas, including organizing competitive events and producing sports action films.  At one point, he even competed as a semi-pro freestyle skier.  MidwestSkier.com was never going to be big enough to support all of his dreams, but it did provide a great education in technology and business.  He sold the website in 2005 while in college, clearing the runway for the next calling on his life.

During those undergraduate years at the University of Wisconsin, Paul had the opportunity to spend a year in France with Campus Crusade.  As college graduation approached, Paul began praying and considering what was next.  He and his wife knew there was a ministerial calling on their lives and specifically they felt called to return to France as church planters.

Anyone who has traveled or lived in Europe knows that France is not an inexpensive place to live.  And those of us in ministry know that church planting typically isn’t the fastest path to earthly riches.  Paul realized that theirs would be a bi-vocational life.  

From Vision to Reality

At this point, Paul and his wife were getting clear glimpses of their future calling – bi-vocational ministry, church planting, in France – but many pieces had to come together for that puzzle picture to be complete.  In April 2008, Paul began working on his MDiv at Bethel Seminary.  Starting in the Spring of 2009, he had the chance to serve as a pastoral intern at Substance church where he helped establish a new church location.  In 2012, on completion of his MDiv, Paul and his wife joined with Communitas International as church planters.  

But, it was actually before any of those critical ministry steps began that life as a bi-vocational entrepreneur became a reality.  In the fall of 2007, as Paul was wrapping up his undergrad degree, he took on a technology project for Substance church.  That was his first encounter with church management software, and it wasn’t pleasant.  At Substance, they say that church really begins after the worship service, and is centered in community and relationships.  But all the church management systems available at the time seemed to be accounting packages with social networking features bolted on.  

The Substance leadership asked Paul if he could write the software they really wanted.  Wisely, he said he’d only do it if there was a market for it beyond one church.  Before long, a handful of churches with similar needs had joined the request, and Paul realized that maybe this was the other half of his bi-vocational calling.

Operating Differently

I asked Paul why he would choose to enter such a crowded, competitive space, filled with well-entrenched competitors.  He said that there were two main factors that convinced him that it was worth taking a shot.  First was the group of churches that were telling him their needs weren’t being met by the existing products.  Second was the reality that the cost of starting a software business is pretty minimal.  Simply signing up the churches encouraging him to build it would immediately provide enough revenue to cover his operational costs.  

Paul and his wife chose to bootstrap Fresh Vine, meaning they wouldn’t need to raise outside funding, but they also wouldn’t be paying themselves until the business was generating enough profits.  I guess you could say that Paul became tri-vocational for the next couple of years as he built the Fresh Vine business (writing software, servicing customers, and selling to new prospects), pursued his seminary degree, and took on outside contract work to pay the bills.

But he survived, and Fresh Vine began to grow.  He got the first Minimally Viable Product (MVP) into customers hands in March of 2008 (the month before starting seminary) and continued to iterate, but it wasn’t until the Spring of 2011 that they felt they had true Product/Market Fit (PMF) and began a much more public push for sales and customers.

Fresh Vine doesn’t see themselves the same as other church management software.  Many of the features that are core to the existing market leaders haven’t been high on Paul’s priority list.  From the beginning, Fresh Vine’s focus has been on fostering engagement and involvement in and through the community.  They see the same needs beyond the church, so Fresh Vine is positioned as a software-based solution for non-profits, including churches.  Paul wants to help organizations create great relationships between the organization and people in their community, and between the people themselves.  Fresh Vine uses three main touchpoints: events, contributions, and e-mail as levers to accomplish this.

But Fresh Vine is also different from most software companies.  Sure, there’s lots of technology pieces, and hundreds of thousands of lines of code, and the collection of relevant data.  But the goal isn’t to drive automation to minimize the necessary human interactions.  If the data indicates that Max hasn’t been to any church events in a few weeks, Fresh Vine won’t generate an automated e-mail to Max.  Instead, Fresh Vine will make it easy for someone to call Max and engage with him.

Jesus taught “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:37b-40 ESV)

I asked Paul about the challenges of being a Christian entrepreneur and, not surprisingly, he pointed to grace in community.  “Minneapolis has a fantastic startup community.  Many entrepreneurs are not Christians, but all are under intense pressure – most startups fail.  On one hand, there’s nothing wrong with being a champion for your business, if you believe that it is doing good and serving others.  On the other hand, your identity is in Christ, and it’s not about making yourself the center of every discussion.  Sometimes, loving your neighbor involves nothing more than just being present for a fellow entrepreneur, maybe when they’re feeling down, or maybe when they are celebrating some great milestone.  Unfortunately, given our human nature, that love and grace is often really hard.”

May the love and grace of Christ encourage all of us as we love God and love our neighbor in whatever way He has called us.

“When our Father implants a dream or vision within the heart of an individual, we need to recognize that it is highly likely this will result in a great deal of discipline, transition, hardship, loss and discouragement. It will likely take a great deal longer to fulfill than initially imagined. I believe God intentionally leads us into these places so as to create a total dependency on Him in each moment. The resultant transformation is intimacy, brokenness, trust and closeness with the Lord.  And it’s not just me.  The whole team has been through this together, giving us a greater depth of serving each other and those the Father places in our path.”

The cover story for the August 2016 issue of MinistryTech was my column introducing Josh Bellieu of PrayOut ministry and the Mobile tAPPestry technology startup.

In this article series, we’ve defined a Christian entrepreneur as: a person, driven to glorify God in all he does, and ruled by the Word of God, who starts a new venture and is willing to risk a loss in order to achieve the success of the venture.  Each month I’ve been introducing you to specific Christian startups and entrepreneurs, some of which may be helpful to your church, ministry, business, or family, but my main intent is to encourage and inspire you to be entrepreneurial in your ministry and career.  

This month I’d like to introduce you to Josh Bellieu, who told me that his normal response to technology is wanting to throw it out the window, and yet God now has him as a co-founder of a technology startup that could revolutionize how mobile apps are developed.  How could this be?

It Starts With Prayer

Josh spent nearly 20 years as a hair stylist and salon owner.  During that time, his prayer life matured and he developed the habit of asking his customers if he could pray for them and began praying publicly for and with them.  So, it wasn’t a big surprise when, nineteen years ago, one of his clients called and left a message with the receptionist asking for prayer.  Josh later called his customer, but just got their voicemail.  Despite Josh’s technology discomfort, he felt led to leave a prayer as a message.  Many years later he heard from his customer that they had planned to take their life, but God powerfully used Josh’s prayer.  Josh started regularly leaving prayers as voicemails and is amazed by the impact they have had.

Much later, in November 2010, Josh was in the midst of a career transition.  He was driving between cities one day, praying to the Lord, asking for direction.  Josh says that he was excited and shocked to get the clear sense that God wanted him to start a website where people could request prayer and could leave audible prayers for others.

When he returned home, Josh started writing out the vision for this new venture.  He then took it to a partner in a recent business venture who is a talented software architect.  Scott Seitz got the vision and together they started putting it together.  Over the next few years, the team filled out with Dennis Clark and Mark Krienke joining the team, bringing their deep business and operational experience to serve God’s kingdom. The PrayOut website was built; people showed up; and prayers were being requested and prayed out loud.

Necessity Drives Innovation

But the team knew they really needed a mobile app with access to the smartphone’s microphone and the ability to create push notifications if they were going to serve people when they most needed prayer.  They looked at outsourcing development of an app, but to be honest, they simply couldn’t afford it.  They tried using existing tools for simplifying app development, with limited success, and kept looking.  That’s when, in answer to prayer, Scott had a breakthrough.  He found a new and better way to leverage the basic tools available to any full-stack web developer to create a fully functional mobile app.  In September 2014, the PrayOut mobile app was finally in the Apple App Store.

Josh shared that he was at the State Fair the night the app was published in the app store.  His adult daughter was also there with her family.  Early in the evening, Josh got a text from Scott with the news about the app and he downloaded it to his phone.  By the end of the evening, he was one of the first to use it, as he requested prayer for his daughter who had been rushed to the hospital after a freak accident.  The small PrayOut community ministered powerfully to Josh and his family, and they were blessed that his daughter was released with no injury.

Web Developers ARE App Developers

After solving their own mobile app challenge, the PrayOut team realized that they could help turn the hundreds of thousands of web developers around the world into mobile app developers.  They have created Mobile tAPPestry, LLC to provide web developers with a tool and mobile apps-as-a-service so that developers can offer mobile apps to their existing web clients.  Because Mobile tAPPestry requires no new coding languages to learn, the web developer now has a rapid and familiar path into the attractive mobile app market.

To see how this could work, they helped Origins Community Church integrate PrayOut into their website and use their patent-pending technology to develop a mobile app, and they helped mainStreetOpen.com develop the MinistryCOM mobile app.  Most recently, they have launched a beta program and open source community around the technology.  Their full apps-as-a-service offer is now available to remove the complexity of building a mobile app and getting it into the app stores.

I asked Josh what his six-year journey has been like from technology skeptic to technology enabler.  He said “When our Father implants a dream or vision within the heart of an individual, we need to recognize that it is highly likely this will result in a great deal of discipline, transition, hardship, loss and discouragement. It will likely take a great deal longer to fulfill than initially imagined. I believe God intentionally leads us into these places so as to create a total dependency on Him in each moment. The resultant transformation is intimacy, brokenness, trust and closeness with the Lord.  And it’s not just me.  The whole team has been through this together, giving us a greater depth of serving each other and those the Father places in our path.”

Over the years, the team has experienced many ups and downs.  They have experienced God providing at just the right time.  They have persevered.  And now they are excited about how God has brought this new opportunity to them.  As I’ve had the chance to interact with them, I do sense the same attitude expressed by David in 1 Chronicles 29 “Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name. But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able thus to offer willingly? For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you.”

May we each have that perspective, appreciating how God has blessed us and using what He has given us to be a blessing to others.

Full Disclosure: I have been interacting with the Mobile tAPPistry team for a few months, and as our relationship has progressed, the team has asked me to serve as a strategic advisor to their business.

“I’m always trying to be intentional about abiding in the Lord.  It’s not that He’s with me in what I’m doing as much as it is that I need to be with Him in what He’s doing.  That’s the only way that I’m going to bear fruit, whether that be in my business or in the kingdom.”

For the July issue of MinistryTech, in my “Startup” column, I featured Brett Golson of Scripture Typer.

In this article series, we’ve defined a Christian entrepreneur as: a person, driven to glorify God in all he does, and ruled by the Word of God, who starts a new venture and is willing to risk a loss in order to achieve the success of the venture.  Each month I’ve been introducing you to specific Christian startups and entrepreneurs, some of which may be helpful to your church, ministry, business, or family, but my main intent is to encourage and inspire you to be entrepreneurial in your ministry and career.  

Recently, I was introduced to a mobile app that has become my new favorite.  The website for the app provided enough of a teaser on his story that I knew Brett Golson would be an entrepreneur that I wanted to introduce to you.  I reached out and Brett was gracious to tell me his startup story.

The Problem with Index Cards

Brett’s company is Millennial Apps, LLC and their main product is Scripture Typer.  You can use Scripture Typer on any device (your memory verses are linked to your account) and you can share verses with others to be encouraging one another in the Word.  If you haven’t guessed it yet, Scripture Typer is a mobile and web app for memorizing scripture.

Throughout his life, there have been times that, like many of us, Brett has been convicted about the need to memorize scripture.  Also like many of us, he turned to the trusty old index card –  write out the verse, and carry it with you wherever you go.  

While this approach generally worked, Brett found two main problems.  The first problem was that, though he may remember (most of) the verse, he often would forget the card and it would make an unsuccessful trip through the laundry.  The second problem was a good one to have. As often happens when the Lord puts a scripture in our mind, Brett would encounter someone who really needed to be blessed by that scripture, and he would give his index card away.  Both of these problems were easy to fix, but Brett thought there had to be a better way.

Brett also noticed that if he typed out the verse he was trying to memorize, he would learn it more quickly.  The combination of the audible (saying the verse out loud), visual (reading the verse), and kinesthetic (typing it out) resulted in much quicker learning.

Step one towards entrepreneurship – seeing a problem and starting to imagine a solution.

What Happens When You Pray

In the mid-2000’s, Brett was happily employed as a software developer.  He felt called to take a sabbatical year to focus on the Lord and prayer.  God blessed him in many ways that year, including meeting McKenzie, the young lady who would become his wife.  While Brett had planned to return to his former job, after getting married, McKenzie’s family started working on the National Prayer Bank, a not-for-profit website where people can share prayer requests and pray for others.  Brett was excited to join in this family venture.  And that led to the for-profit family startup, Millennial Solutions, LLC, a web development firm with a particular focus on helping churches integrate the features of the National Prayer Bank into their websites.

At Christmas that year (2009), Brett took a short break from all the craziness, and as a fun project put together a web-based app to help solve his “index card problem.”  He was pretty happy with the results, so he grabbed the ScriptureTyper.com domain name, published the app, did a little search engine optimazation, promoted it on a few blogs, and the traffic started to grow.  Other bloggers noticed it and the traffic grew even more.

The only challenge was monetization.  Brett tried using Google AdSense to provide advertising revenue, but in the right circumstances, even with the right filtering settings, some ads would get served that really weren’t appropriate for a Bible memorization site.  About that time, Brett started appreciating the value of mobile apps.  He realized that the new business models enabled by the Apple App Store (and later Google Play) could begin generating revenue for Scripture Typer.  As he launched the apps, the existing user base on the ScriptureTyper.com website provided tremendous interest in the new apps, helping lift the rankings in the app stores, and that increased visibility drove more interest and even higher rankings.  Before long, Scripture Typer was the top result people saw when they searched for Bible memorization in the Apple App Store, Google Play Store and Amazon Appstore for Android.

The revenue model for the app is pretty straight forward.  Initially, Brett charged for the app, but with the release of version 2.0, he made the basic app free and introduced a Pro version with a few extra features.  The price is so low and the value of the app is so high for me, that I didn’t hesitate to upgrade.

Writing a mobile app also created a new line of business for Brett.  While continuing with Millennial Solutions, he formed Millennial Apps, LLC as the home of Scripture Typer, but has also been taking on a diverse set of mobile app development projects for new clients, many of whom have found Brett because they are impressed with Scripture Typer.

Bearing Fruit

I asked Brett how his faith impacts his approach to business.  He pointed me to the beginning of John 15.  “I’m always trying to be intentional about abiding in the Lord.  It’s not that He’s with me in what I’m doing as much as it is that I need to be with Him in what He’s doing.  That’s the only way that I’m going to bear fruit, whether that be in my business or in the kingdom.”  That sounds like a great perspective for all of us.

As I introduce you to these entrepreneurs each month, I hope that the focus isn’t on what men and women are doing, but what God is doing through them.  A verse that Scripture Typer has helped me memorize I think appropriately reflects that: “And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.” (Colossians 1:9-10 ESV)

“My grandpa was a preacher and I grew up in the church.  I’ve been blessed to enjoy healthy church communities.  But I also know people who are struggling with how to get connected into the church and just need a little guidance and encouragement.  I’m excited that we can help people rise to new heights in the dimension of their life that should be most important to them.”

For the June 2016 issue of MinistryTech, I returned to the topic of a previous column and introduced the company that had emerged, Altimeter Software, and their co-founder, Austin McRay.

In this article series, we’ve defined a Christian entrepreneur as: a person, driven to glorify God in all he does, and ruled by the Word of God, who starts a new venture and is willing to risk a loss in order to achieve the success of the venture.  Each month I’ve been introducing you to specific Christian startups and entrepreneurs, some of which may be helpful to your church, ministry, business, or family, but my main intent is to encourage and inspire you to be entrepreneurial in your ministry and career.  

Six months ago, I introduced you to Summer Lashley and Oklahoma Christian University’s Ethos spiritual development program as an example of an established Christian organization with entrepreneurial spirit leveraging technology to introduce a new program that is core to the university’s mission.  Today I’m excited to share with you how that initial effort has been spun-out into a new stand-alone startup business to serve other universities, large churches, and high schools.

Introducing Altimeter

Last year, another Christian university approached OC about licensing the Ethos software, so when I arrived on campus in the Fall as the Entrepreneur in Residence, I was asked to look into this new business opportunity.  We formed a team of four students: one computer science major, a double-major in CS and electrical engineering, an accounting major, and a marketing major.  For the next several months, these four examined the product capabilities, the potential market fit, the competitive landscape, and built a relatively sophisticated financial model to test different scenarios.  

In January of this year, the team presented their recommendations to university leadership.  Altimeter Software, LLC was formed later that month and entered into an agreement with OC to license the intellectual property.  The university also agreed to incubate the business on-campus to minimize start-up costs.  Two of those students have continued with the business as it has launched, and Summer Lashley has stepped in as CEO.

What the team realized is that the software is good for more than just spiritual development.  In fact, it can work for any use where you should get credit for being in the right place at the right time.  The product has two components: a mobile app and a management dashboard.  The mobile app allows users to discover events, check into those events (via GPS, beacon, card-swipe, or manual entry), and track their progress towards a goal.  The web-based dashboard enables organizations to set goals, add events, track user progress, and run reports to identify opportunities for improvement.  For example, one report showed that students living in the on-campus apartments were falling behind their goal, so the Ethos team created more events convenient for them.  Another report showed that Engineering students were overly focused on formal worship events, so the Ethos team worked with faculty to create more small group opportunities.  Those capabilities have worked great for OC’s Ethos program, but can have much broader appeal in other types of organizations.

The team identified three reference “meters” that a broad array of potential customers might be able to use.  Obviously, the first is a meter for people to gauge how they’re doing in their spiritual development.  The second meter is for community service, for organizations that encourage or require their members to be active in serving the community.  The third meter measures fan loyalty, setting goals (with rewards) for attending a team’s sporting events.  Based on just these three uses, the target market broadens from Christian universities to churches, Christian high schools, secular colleges and high schools, and even recreational to professional sports teams.  But, in reality, a customer can create a meter to track just about anything.  Altimeter’s first customer, another Christian university, plans to introduce meters in the Fall to track attendance in large classes and for curfew check-in for Freshman dorms.

Introducing Austin

One of the founders of Altimeter is Austin McRay.  Austin graduated from Oklahoma Christian in April with a Marketing degree with an emphasis on Professional Sales.  Instead of getting a sales job with an existing company, Austin has chosen to start his career as the head of business development for this startup.  One area that he’s particularly excited about is helping large churches.

“As I’ve talked to large churches, it’s clear that two areas of challenge for them are accountability and engagement.  They have lots of programs and lots of people, but it’s pretty clear that not all the people are connecting with even some of the programs.  What’s not clear is the who and the what, which makes it impossible to figure out the why.”

Austin points to research by the Leadership Network and Hartford Institute that says that “having a high percentage of robust actively engaged members enhances many congregational dynamics” (including increased giving and healthier small group participation). And that “innovation and willingness to change are strongly correlated to growth and health.”  He hopes that the Altimeter software can provide an innovative solution for large churches to drive accountability and engagement.

“My grandpa was a preacher and I grew up in the church.  I’ve been blessed to enjoy healthy church communities.  But I also know people who are struggling with how to get connected into the church and just need a little guidance and encouragement.  I’m excited that we can help people rise to new heights in the dimension of their life that should be most important to them.”

I’m impressed with Austin’s maturity and his focus on creating value –  in terms of his customer’s objectives, but more importantly in terms of spiritual growth.  Colossians 3:23-24 tells us “And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.”  I look forward to seeing how Austin will be blessed through this entrepreneurial experience.

“‘You really can respect your customers and succeed in business.’  He then, equally passionately shared the joy that comes from providing jobs for employees, putting food on their tables, and showing them that you care.”

The May 2016 issue of MinistryTech featured Kris Austin, co-founder of Draft2Digital.

In this article series, we’ve defined a Christian entrepreneur as: a person, driven to glorify God in all he does, and ruled by the Word of God, who starts a new venture and is willing to risk a loss in order to achieve the success of the venture.  Each month I’ve been introducing you to specific Christian startups and entrepreneurs, some of which may be helpful to your church, ministry, business, or family, but my main intent is to encourage and inspire you to be entrepreneurial in your ministry and career.  

This month I’d like to introduce you to Kris Austin.  Kris is co-founder and CEO of Draft2Digital, an online business that helps authors get their books published.  The company announced their service on the last day of 2012.  Today, less than three and a half years later, they have helped more than 20 thousand authors publish more than 80 thousand books which have sold more than 5 million copies worldwide.  They have grown from Kris as the only employee at the beginning of 2013 to 15 full time employees today.  The business is focused on treating their customers well and has been profitable enough to be entirely self-funded, and has been able to provide support to the owners’ churches and a variety of ministries.  That doesn’t mean that the journey has been lacking in “sanctifying opportunities”.

Four College Buddies

Kris graduated from Oklahoma Christian University in 2004 with a degree in Computer Science.  Over the years, he kept in touch with many of his college friends, including fellow CS grads Toby Nance and Sean Sanders [is this the right Sean?], and English major Aaron Pogue.  

Each enjoyed success in their diverse career paths, but Aaron ran into a roadblock in achieving his dream of publishing his first novel and turned to his computer buddies for help.  The major publishing houses had turned down his book, and when he turned to the opportunity to self-publish through the eBook markets, he found the existing tools hard to use and frustrating to navigate.  

Toby quickly developed a script to quickly and easily take a manuscript, like Aaron’s, and turn it into a distribution-ready eBook file.  As they talked about it with their friends, they started to get a vision for a service to do the same for all the other aspiring, but frustrated, authors out there.  In March 2012, they formed the Draft2Digital business, but it wasn’t until Kris quit his job in August of that year to become employee #1, that they really started making traction on the web-based system that they would launch at the end of that year.  The rest, as they say, is history.  (By the way, Aaron’s fantasy novel became a bestseller and he has followed it up with six other fantasy and sci-fi novels, with several projects currently in the works.)

Four “Knows”

I recently asked Kris to share his experiences launching Draft2Digital with my Christian Entrepreneurs group at Oklahoma Christian.  He started by sharing the four things that he said that every entrepreneur needs to know.

Kris shared that every startup need to know your industry.  Kris and his programming buddies didn’t know the book publishing industry when they started, but they needed to learn quickly.  The traditional industry had worked the same way for over a century, dominated by a small number of publishers (the “Big 5”) who controlled which books reached the shelves in bookstores.  Then, in 2007, Amazon introduced the Kindle and disrupted the industry.  Several other eBook publishing platforms followed Amazon’s lead including Barnes & Noble, Apple, and Google.  These moves opened the publishing world for authors to credibly self-publish, but there are technical issues and distribution issues that make it complex for authors.

Kris said that it’s critical to also know your customer.  For Draft2Digital, the customer they sell their service to is the author.  Authors just want to write.  They don’t want to be in the publishing business.  They don’t want to be layout designers or marketers or distribution negotiators, and yet self-publishing requires all of these activities.  Before Draft2Digital launched, others had already pioneered the author assistance space, which leads into the third “know” – know your competition.  Kris and company recognized that their primary existing competitor had certain admirable traits and strengths, but that it wasn’t fully meeting the needs of authors.  That understanding allowed Draft2Digital to focus on the specific author-centric activities and attributes that would set them apart for their target market.

Finally, Kris emphasized that you need to know your plan.  As a self-funded startup, the company fully leveraged the Lean Startup methodology, launching their MVP (minimal viable product) at the end of 2012 and then iterating rapidly based on real customer engagement.  They knew what set them apart, so they kept their product simple, not confusing customers with too much information and too many options.  They also played to their strengths.  As Kris said, “we’re programmers” – so they used software to automate and simplify whenever possible.

Two Darks and Two Lights

In his talk, Kris also shared what he called “the dark side of publishing,” “the light side of publishing,” “the dark side of business,” and “the light side of business.”  (Kris joked that it is obvious that science fiction is his favorite genre.)  Space is limited in this article, so I can’t recount all of these experiences here, but a couple of “sanctifying experiences” are worth sharing.  

One thing that Kris and team learned with their MVP offer is how quickly sin can creep in.  The day they launched, scammers started automatically generating books violating the copyrights of others and taking advantage of the Draft2Digital platform to get them published.  Kris and team had to find a way to identify these and shut them down.  

The next challenge was with erotica.  Kris quickly learned that more than half of the revenues in the publishing industry come from “romance” novels and other forms of erotica.  The company had to develop a system to automatically detect and categorize different genres of content to be able to appropriate handle each kind.  Software freed them from having to read this and other dangerous content themselves.

On the light side, Kris talked about the impact on others.  He praised God for first helping authors realize their dreams, and then helping them make a living.  Draft2Digital has been able to provide some authors with six-figures in royalty payments.  He particularly emphasized the joy that comes from showing authors the respect that they deserve.  “You really can respect your customers and succeed in business.”  He then, equally passionately shared the joy that comes from providing jobs for employees, putting food on their tables, and showing them that you care.

It sounds like Draft2Digital is living out the Golden Rule.  Jesus said “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 7:12).  I hope that some of the lessons that Kris shared can be a blessing to you as you consider how to act as a Christian entrepreneur wherever God has placed you.