Inside believr - Building an LGBTQ+ Christian App

In the Beginning

Episode Notes

Hello everybody. My name is Adam Evers, I am the CEO and founder of believr and this is inside believr, building an LGBTQ plus Christian dating app. Um, so before we get started, uh, yes, this is the first episode. Hello, welcome, welcome, welcome. I'm super excited that you're listening to this and you're here. Um, but I wanted to go through quickly what you should expect from this podcast. Um, so what this podcast is designed for is really for me, uh, and the rest of the team to update the broader community, um, cause there's, we have a lot of questions about what are you guys doing, when is it coming out? Which are all really, really good questions and I want to answer them. Um, so we decided to build out a podcast.

Uh, we're also going to be talking about really the nitty gritty and answering a lot of the, why questions, you know, why did you build this feature this way? Or why did you not include this? Or why did you, why did you include this? And, um, that will get more detailed later on, uh, within the season and within the later episodes. But, uh, for now, I'll leave it there. So, yeah. Um, I hope you guys will, will join and subscribe. And if you do have any questions about anything, you can always reach out to me directly. My email is adam@believr.app. Again, it's adam@believr.app. So feel free to shoot me an email, I would love to hear from you if you have any questions or ideas or suggestions. Um, I love talking to users about the product and so yeah, feel free to do that.

Okay, so now let's get into some fun stuff. Um, so first and foremost, um, we do have a team that's working on things. Um, and actually this next week, we here, we're going to be, going to be reviewing uh, what we're going to be building within the first version of the product. Um, so the first version uh, what we're calling it is it's called an MVP, that stands for minimum viable product. Um, think of it as like a beta product, if you will. Um, so it's really like what is the, the core, the base that's going to be different between us and other dating apps, that's what we're going to be building out. Um, so there's two specific features that we think are, um, that are key differentiators between us and other people that were going to be building out. Um, so the first one is a public chat room.

Um, so one of the things that I really liked when I was growing up is, uh, I used AOL instant messenger aim all the time. I would come home from school and jump on and like chat with people and that type of thing. Um, and I personally, uh, still enjoy doing that to some extent and, uh, we've kind of done some testing and talk to some users and we said, "Hey, we'd like, would a chat room be interesting and would that be helpful?" Um, and we've gotten some feedback and it's like, "Yeah, I think that would be interesting." So what we're going to do is build out a public chat room, uh, within the app. So anybody can go in there at any point in time, uh, you need to download the app and register of course, and create an account. Um, but once you do that, there'll be a public chat room that you'll be able to chat with people and connect with people and just talk about things.

Um, and I can see that, you know, happening, uh, in a bunch of different ways, uh, which I'm really excited about. I'm hoping that, that will create a more authentic place to connect with people. Um, in future versions of the apps, you'll, or in the app, excuse me, you'll see that we will do, um, kind of theme or topic based chat rooms to um, if you know the public chat is successful, so that's one of the first features that were building out. Uh, the second one is values based matching. Um, so this is a big one that people were really excited about. Um, it's actually the one that I'm probably the most excited about. Um, so what does that mean and what does that look like? So value based matching is the ability to match with another human that shares similar values to you.

So when you log into the app and register and you go in to do the matching, you'll be asked to do a short, very, very short values quiz, which helps determine what your values are. Um, so it's, it was actually a quiz developed by some Stanford researchers and we've adopted it, um, to kind of work within the application. So it's going to ask you not necessarily questions, but it's going to ask you to kind of sort through priorities and through your particular values and then stack rank them. Um, so you'll have to stack rank your top five, [inaudible 00:04:04] your top 10, top five, and then your number one value. And then once you have those, we'll then match you with other users, um, that share similar values to you. Um, and then you can connect with them and talk with them. Um, there's a bunch of research that shows that values based connections and values based matching is far more successful in the long run than any other type of matching.

So I'm really passionate about that, because I don't want people just to connect with other people, um, and having a really bad experience is one of the things that I'm personally, uh, really want out of a dating app as well as just this app is that, other apps I, I have a tendency or I know that people have a tendency to go on them and they have like a really just crappy experience and they closed the app and like don't feel good about themselves after that experience. And that's something that I don't want anybody to experience. I don't want somebody to open up the believr app and then hate the experience that they had and then close it and never want to open it again. That's just sounds miserable to me. Um, I don't want there to, I don't want that. And so we're purposely thinking through how do we make that experience of, of connecting with another person and interacting with the other person, like an enjoyable one, one that you enjoy.

So yeah, those are the two big features that we're building out in our MVP like I said, um, so this next week we'll be chatting with the team, we have a meeting. Um, and so the meetings with our developer, our UI and UX person, and then as well as our branding team. Um, so it'll be fun. I'm really excited, it's actually our first like big meeting where we're all going to go through the MVP. Everyone can ask questions and um, we can have all the answers for everybody. So yeah, so that is what we're working on right now. Um, so what's next? That's a great question. So, um, I don't want to share too much of this, but I would kind of give you a sneak peek. So one of the things that I'm passionate about is empowering the LGBTQ plus community. And so part of that comes from just content, um, and, and not just any type of content but specific content for the community that addresses specific needs.

Um, so one of the things that I've kind of seen happen is, uh, there's this idea around financial literacy, um, that has just come up a couple of times in conversations as well as just in general. Like there are some studies that show that, um, LGBTQ most people in general, um, have a lower sense of financial stability and also just struggle financially, um, mainly because we tie a lot of emotions to finances and that just could be because we have, um, we're, we don't have stable, we tend to not have stable families. Uh, and there's a bunch of reasons behind all this, but basically what I'm trying to say is that we're going to start a podcast series, which basically helps people, um, better understand their finances and what to do with banking, investing and saving and what does that all that mean and how do we do that, um, specifically as a career person, or a person, or LGBTQ person? Like how do we do that?

Um, and so we've been working, um, closely with some people and I'm really excited, uh, to be able to launch that hopefully sometime soon. No timeline as of yet, we're still kind of building out the content and figuring out how we're going to do this and what makes sense. But, um, more on that soon. So if you're not subscribed to the newsletter, please do subscribe. Uh, yeah, so that's about it for this week. Thanks so much for joining me, I really appreciate it. Um, these will be pretty quick, pretty short, um, but we'll also keep talking. Uh, feel free to email me if you'd like, or having questions, or want to chat about something. My email is adam@believr.app. Again, it's adam@believr.app and I will talk to you next time. All right, see you later. Bye, bye.

Episode Transcription

Hello everybody. My name is Adam Evers, I am the CEO and founder of believr and this is inside believr, building an LGBTQ plus Christian dating app. Um, so before we get started, uh, yes, this is the first episode. Hello, welcome, welcome, welcome. I'm super excited that you're listening to this and you're here. Um, but I wanted to go through quickly what you should expect from this podcast. Um, so what this podcast is designed for is really for me, uh, and the rest of the team to update the broader community, um, cause there's, we have a lot of questions about what are you guys doing, when is it coming out? Which are all really, really good questions and I want to answer them. Um, so we decided to build out a podcast.

Uh, we're also going to be talking about really the nitty gritty and answering a lot of the, why questions, you know, why did you build this feature this way? Or why did you not include this? Or why did you, why did you include this? And, um, that will get more detailed later on, uh, within the season and within the later episodes. But, uh, for now, I'll leave it there. So, yeah. Um, I hope you guys will, will join and subscribe. And if you do have any questions about anything, you can always reach out to me directly. My email is adam@believr.app. Again, it's adam@believr.app. So feel free to shoot me an email, I would love to hear from you if you have any questions or ideas or suggestions. Um, I love talking to users about the product and so yeah, feel free to do that.

Okay, so now let's get into some fun stuff. Um, so first and foremost, um, we do have a team that's working on things. Um, and actually this next week, we here, we're going to be, going to be reviewing uh, what we're going to be building within the first version of the product. Um, so the first version uh, what we're calling it is it's called an MVP, that stands for minimum viable product. Um, think of it as like a beta product, if you will. Um, so it's really like what is the, the core, the base that's going to be different between us and other dating apps, that's what we're going to be building out. Um, so there's two specific features that we think are, um, that are key differentiators between us and other people that were going to be building out. Um, so the first one is a public chat room.

Um, so one of the things that I really liked when I was growing up is, uh, I used AOL instant messenger aim all the time. I would come home from school and jump on and like chat with people and that type of thing. Um, and I personally, uh, still enjoy doing that to some extent and, uh, we've kind of done some testing and talk to some users and we said, "Hey, we'd like, would a chat room be interesting and would that be helpful?" Um, and we've gotten some feedback and it's like, "Yeah, I think that would be interesting." So what we're going to do is build out a public chat room, uh, within the app. So anybody can go in there at any point in time, uh, you need to download the app and register of course, and create an account. Um, but once you do that, there'll be a public chat room that you'll be able to chat with people and connect with people and just talk about things.

Um, and I can see that, you know, happening, uh, in a bunch of different ways, uh, which I'm really excited about. I'm hoping that, that will create a more authentic place to connect with people. Um, in future versions of the apps, you'll, or in the app, excuse me, you'll see that we will do, um, kind of theme or topic based chat rooms to um, if you know the public chat is successful, so that's one of the first features that were building out. Uh, the second one is values based matching. Um, so this is a big one that people were really excited about. Um, it's actually the one that I'm probably the most excited about. Um, so what does that mean and what does that look like? So value based matching is the ability to match with another human that shares similar values to you.

So when you log into the app and register and you go in to do the matching, you'll be asked to do a short, very, very short values quiz, which helps determine what your values are. Um, so it's, it was actually a quiz developed by some Stanford researchers and we've adopted it, um, to kind of work within the application. So it's going to ask you not necessarily questions, but it's going to ask you to kind of sort through priorities and through your particular values and then stack rank them. Um, so you'll have to stack rank your top five, [inaudible 00:04:04] your top 10, top five, and then your number one value. And then once you have those, we'll then match you with other users, um, that share similar values to you. Um, and then you can connect with them and talk with them. Um, there's a bunch of research that shows that values based connections and values based matching is far more successful in the long run than any other type of matching.

So I'm really passionate about that, because I don't want people just to connect with other people, um, and having a really bad experience is one of the things that I'm personally, uh, really want out of a dating app as well as just this app is that, other apps I, I have a tendency or I know that people have a tendency to go on them and they have like a really just crappy experience and they closed the app and like don't feel good about themselves after that experience. And that's something that I don't want anybody to experience. I don't want somebody to open up the believr app and then hate the experience that they had and then close it and never want to open it again. That's just sounds miserable to me. Um, I don't want there to, I don't want that. And so we're purposely thinking through how do we make that experience of, of connecting with another person and interacting with the other person, like an enjoyable one, one that you enjoy.

So yeah, those are the two big features that we're building out in our MVP like I said, um, so this next week we'll be chatting with the team, we have a meeting. Um, and so the meetings with our developer, our UI and UX person, and then as well as our branding team. Um, so it'll be fun. I'm really excited, it's actually our first like big meeting where we're all going to go through the MVP. Everyone can ask questions and um, we can have all the answers for everybody. So yeah, so that is what we're working on right now. Um, so what's next? That's a great question. So, um, I don't want to share too much of this, but I would kind of give you a sneak peek. So one of the things that I'm passionate about is empowering the LGBTQ plus community. And so part of that comes from just content, um, and, and not just any type of content but specific content for the community that addresses specific needs.

Um, so one of the things that I've kind of seen happen is, uh, there's this idea around financial literacy, um, that has just come up a couple of times in conversations as well as just in general. Like there are some studies that show that, um, LGBTQ most people in general, um, have a lower sense of financial stability and also just struggle financially, um, mainly because we tie a lot of emotions to finances and that just could be because we have, um, we're, we don't have stable, we tend to not have stable families. Uh, and there's a bunch of reasons behind all this, but basically what I'm trying to say is that we're going to start a podcast series, which basically helps people, um, better understand their finances and what to do with banking, investing and saving and what does that all that mean and how do we do that, um, specifically as a career person, or a person, or LGBTQ person? Like how do we do that?

Um, and so we've been working, um, closely with some people and I'm really excited, uh, to be able to launch that hopefully sometime soon. No timeline as of yet, we're still kind of building out the content and figuring out how we're going to do this and what makes sense. But, um, more on that soon. So if you're not subscribed to the newsletter, please do subscribe. Uh, yeah, so that's about it for this week. Thanks so much for joining me, I really appreciate it. Um, these will be pretty quick, pretty short, um, but we'll also keep talking. Uh, feel free to email me if you'd like, or having questions, or want to chat about something. My email is adam@believr.app. Again, it's adam@believr.app and I will talk to you next time. All right, see you later. Bye, bye.