How Christian app Glorify ($188m) persuaded Hollywood to do God
Ed Beccle (age 22) and Henry Costa (age 34) have created an app that's been valued at $188 million. It has $2.5 million users and celebrity backers include the Kardashians, James Corden, Jason Derulo, and Michael Buble. The app is called Glorify, it's like Headspace but for Christians. Users can listen to bite-sized Bible passages. Or guided meditation sessions inspired by hymns, create digital prayers, and send them to their contacts.
Something that stood out to me, in particular, was how "lucky" the pair have been, in some ways. The app only really took off when celebrities like Michael Buble and Jason Derulo got involved. And the way that came about was arguably pure chance. Here's an abbreviated passage I read in the print article:
One day, Beccle encountered an unnamed tech billionaire and decided to approach him "just to tell him what he was up to." He and the anonymous billionaire fell into conversation about Glorify. And at the end of the chat, the billionaire told him that he wanted to introduce him to a couple of people. The first was Connie Chan, a partner at Andreessen Horowitz (!!!!!!), and the second was a former Hollywood agent turned investor who was "ultra, ultra well connected," he invited Beccles to a dinner party in his Beverly Hills mansion, where "the list of guests included 25 or 30 of the most famous people on the planet," all handpicked by him as being people of faith who may also be interested in investing in the app...
I mean...
Do you believe in luck, or do you think everyone creates their own luck? And can you point to a time in your life when a lucky event or coincidence has propelled your progress forward?
I couldn't find a free version of this article online, but here's the preview for anyone who's interested:
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/how-christian-app-glorify-persuaded-hollywood-to-do-god-2ztnbqprs
I think luck happens to everybody. But not everybody is paying attention enough to do something with it.
It's like poker. Everybody has his portion of luck, but in the end the good players are turning luck into profit.
Valued at $188 doesn't seem that impressive 😜
Haha, my bad! Correction: $188 million.
I think it's a mix. It was super lucky that he happened to spontaneously come across a tech billionaire (how on earth does that even happen?!) but he "created his own luck" by choosing to seize the moment - not everyone would've gone up to speak to him/her.
Good point - you could also argue that the fact he recognized the billionaire in the first place is thanks to the time and effort he put into learning about tech in the first place (unless it was someone widely known, of course).