Why Pray.com's Michael Lynn Spent $100K+ on Clinical Trials
Update: 2025-10-01
Description
In this episode of The Future of Consumer Marketing, host Brett Stapper interviews Michael Lynn, Co-founder and CFO of Pray.com. When co-founder Steve Gatena's business partner died in a plane crash on a Tom Cruise film set, he discovered faith content had no modern distribution platform. What started as acquiring a domain for $2M evolved through a failed B2B ministry pivot into a multi-revenue stream consumer business—proving that even traditionally "untouchable" verticals can scale with rigorous growth discipline and counterintuitive channel strategies.
Topics Discussed:
- Pivoting from B2B ministry donations model to consumer subscription after 18 months
- Running TV campaigns as a seed-stage startup during COVID's media arbitrage moment
- Structuring advisory boards with formal commitments and equity compensation
- Investing $100K+ in clinical trials to reposition from "faith app" to mental health solution
- Scaling from single revenue stream to advertising and ministry SaaS
- Converting WhatsApp-level retention metrics into Series A leverage
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