Seedling

Theodore Roosevelt said, "Comparison is the thief of joy." This is one of the biggest battles of entrepreneurship: comparing yourself to others. The insecurity of what others think of you is significantly amplified within entrepreneurship. This is partly because it's a space where your hopes and dreams merge with your skills and career. A large part of your identity is up for examination, and if you're not winning, it can feel like your core identity is being challenged. Our social feeds don't make this any easier. Parents, marriages, technology startups... our feeds are bombarded with the highlights of our peers. Feelings of inferiority begins and creeps into the heart. We have a lot to learn from artists and creatives who regularly publish their work. It is not easy to put yourself out there and have the entire world critique what you've done. Here's a tip I have that can help: Have the right group of people to talk to. For me it looks like: * Advisors/mentors/coaches who give practical wisdom and encouragement (Eric Ries, Renji Bijoy, Alan George, Missional Labs, Amy Jo Kim) * Pastors that guide me (Hermann Kim, Gene Quiocho) * Peers you can just talk to (Steven Jian, Steven Zeier) * Co-founders (Salt + Light) who can carry the business burden (Dereck Quock, Amar P., Dustin Kelley) * My wife whose approval and support mean the most to me Begin to assemble your own personal advisory council where you can be radically transparent with them. (For another post!) The battle is internal. If you keep all of what you're feeling inside and don't process it with anyone, it'll eat you up, slowly but surely.

Here's the moment we went from averaging 100 new users per week (for months) then within a 48 hour window jumped to 5k+ new users. How? We partnered with a Gavin Dees and launched Seedling (our prayer app) to his audience. On the backend of an 18 minute YouTube video he made a call to prayer. He shared the link to Seedling (our prayer app) and within 48 hours we had over 3k prayers come in. By the end of the day we had over 1,000 prayers. We had never experienced this type of momentum before. It was exciting. It was also sobering. Using AI, our sentiment analysis determined that 25% of the prayers were "crisis". This included: addiction, divorce, physical danger, suicidal ideation, and homelessness. Yes, many thousands of people have come to use Seedling AND they were here because they had a desperate need. However, people don't usually ask for prayer because life is peachy. They're asking for prayer because life is hard. 1 in 4 of them in crisis -- desperate for a move of God in their life. It's hard living in the tension of venture building and faith. We have to be smart about building a profitable venture that honors our investors all while building a product that truly helps others. Salt + Light

In July Salt + Light had less than $20k in the bank. People left, some stayed. We decided to not pay ourselves and instead use a portion of that to enroll in Amy Jo Kim's Product Breakthrough Bootcamp (link in the comments). I was conflicted. 1. Is this really going to help our business? 2. Do we really need this? 3. What am I going to learn that I don't already know? The loudest voice was my ego: "I'm an expert. I'm a 2nd time founder. I've shipped dozens of successful features. I've gone zero to one plenty." I'm a huge fan of AJK's game thinking and even had the privilege of working on the same team with her at the start of my career. I knew we'd be in for a treat if she could just speak into what and how we were building. Our time with AJK revealed that we did not talk to our customers well.?We did not validate our ideas with storyboards. Quickly. There's biblical parallels here. God's plans are often revealed through relationship and conversation (think of Moses at the burning bush, or Samuel hearing God's voice). Our path becomes clearer when we start talking to God and people. Breakthrough often times presents itself in relationships. ?? What came out of our time together? Seedling. A platform where community owners (content creators, churches) can create a meaningful place to engage their community by praying together. We've got a long road ahead. However, it's well deserved to honor AJK for coaching us, celebrate the team (Amar P., Dereck Quock, Dustin Kelley) for sticking through it, and give thanks to God for the opportunity. Imagine: We went from 150 new users per week to 7,000 new users in a single week (partnership w/ Gavin Dees) and 3,000 prayers in 48 hours. Grateful! ??

I wanted to write about how Salt + Light was doing mid/late 2024 but didn't because I was afraid we weren't going to exist. I was insecure to share publicly the hardships of the journey even though I knew what we were learning was growing our capacity and teaching us an important lesson in perseverance. Becoming an entrepreneur is a lonely road where you wage constant internal battles. It exposes every insecurity and leaves you nowhere to hide. (Reminds me of Hebrews 4:12-13) In my career, entrepreneurship has allowed me to experience my highest highs and my lowest lows. It's why I love the word "journey" when describing entrepreneurship. It accurately depicts the seasons, the ups and downs, and pace (fast & slow). One of my bigger 2024 struggles was comparing our venture to others. Wondering why you're not the startup that was able to secure $10M seed with just a pitch deck. (For another post!) Another struggle is figuring out the rhythm of building an amazing product, serving customers, stewarding investor resources, all while not sacrificing your character, marriage, and kids for the sake of a business. (Also for another post.) In hindsight, I wish I was sharing the story of hardship in 2024. Especially since now we're experiencing momentum both in terms of customers and revenue. Many shout-outs deserved but two big ones: * Co-founders - Amar P.Dereck Quock Dustin Kelley for making it a lot less lonely. * Amy Jo Kim - Coached us through a tough season and was a major tipping point heading in the right direction.

Wanted to say thank you to Giovanna Minardi, Matthew Niermann, Ph.D., James Kelly, and John Knox for their stewardship of the Digital Discovery Center. Also the many other awesome volunteers and leaders that helped make it possible at the Lausanne Movement congress this past week in ???? Lastly, shoutout to Missional Labs for being a part of the Salt + Light story. Darren Allarde and I were blessed to meet many other innovators and learn. More on that soon ?