Inside believr - Building an LGBTQ+ Christian App

We're alive!

Episode Notes

Hello everybody, this is Adam Evers. I am the CEO and founder of believr and this is Inside believr, building an LGBTQ+ Christian dating app. In this episode, we'll be going through a couple of things, uh, like meeting the team. We'll be talking through our core values a little bit and then I have some updates for you as well. Um, so, let's get in.

So, first and foremost, um, it's not just me behind the scenes, uh, with believr. There's a whole group of people, um, five in particular, uh, that I wanna introduce you to. So, first I'll start off with, uh, you can read more and, and see the lovely faces of all these humans if you go to believr.app/about, um, and it's talks about our team. Um, and if you'd like to join the team, uh, we do have spaces in, um, we do have positions available and open. Feel free to email hello, H-E-L-L-O,@believr.app. It's hello@believr.app. Great. So, let's get started.

Uh, so first and foremost, uh, that you have my cellph- I'm Adam Evers. I'm the CEO and founder of the company. Um, and, then you also have Brandon Flanery who is the cofounder and content director. Um, so Brandon, I'll give you a quick little update or no, update but a quick little info session on each of these people and how I know them.

Um, so Brandon Flanery, uh, I've known since high school. He's one of my oldest and longest and dearest friends. Um, we've been to Thailand together and Cambodia and Korea? Yeah. Uh, we've also been to Barcelona. We've traveled a bunch and he's just a really, really good friend of mine. Um, he is the one that smacks me down whenever I have a horrible idea, um, or if my ego gets too big for me. (laughs) um, he's a really good dude, um, and my best friend in the world. So, um, I love and appreciate him and he, uh, uh, uh, is in charge of all the content for, uh, believr. Um, so that means, all of the pretty words and all the great words, um, on in the app as well as just our core values and, uh, the blog, the copy on the website, all of that is really, um, from Brandon's mind and creativity. Um, and just from, uh, a larger strategic perspective, it was really important to me have somebody who is, uh, well versed in just content and being able to write and write well and tell stories and narratives, um, because that's just important part of, um, of crafting a business, um, and it's something that, uh, I unfortunately am not good at. (laughs) and, so, Brandon definitely fills a gap there for me. So, I really appreciate it. Um, great.

Next we have Erika. So, Erika is a design strategist. She, uh, comes actually from a recommendation from another gentleman named Pascal. I want to get to Pascal in a second. So, Erika is in charge of user research and user design. So, she has been working with us, uh, x- for a long time now, uh, basically building out user experience flows, user, uh, testing, user research just to make sure that whatever we build is, um, designed specifically with our user in mind. Um, so, she's already done, um, uh, bunch of user research and we've had a fairly good response from the community which has been awesome. So, thank you for that.

Um, now we're actually just about to enter into the phase, uh, where we do, um, it's called moderated user experience testing so what that means is, uh, she will be on a video call walking people through a clickable prototype, um, and getting feedback from them. Um, so that will happen sometime, uh, at the beginning of July. Um, she's recruiting people actually right now. Um, so if you are interested in that, uh, feel free to shoot us an email. Again, it's just hello@believr.app, um, and we can get you in, uh, a cycle for that.
The next person on the list I have is Pascal. Um, so, Pascal and I have actually worked together for about, uh, I think it's almost two years. Um, i worked with Pascal, um, at a curi- he ... we hired him when I used to work for a company called Tierion as that ... as their head of marketing, um, to rebuild and do some branding for us and, um, I really, really enjoyed working with him and so I, uh, continued working with him on a couple of projects. Um, and then once I left Tierion and kind of had the idea of believr, I pitched it to him and he was like, "Yeah, I'm on board. Let's do it." Um, and that was really, really cool. So, Pascal is the creative lead for believr. Um, he is, uh, absolutely brilliant. So, any of the visual design elements, uh, on the website, um, from the podcast, uh, to the logos to the branding literally every visual aspect of believr has been created, um, by Pascal. Um, and I can't tell you how much I enjoy working with, um, with him, and, uh, Erika and Brandon. Honestly, all of them are just phen- phenomenal.

Um, we also have somebody named Noah. Uh, Noah is a developer. He lives out in Colorado, um, and he, uh, and I have known each other, oh my gosh, for like six years now. Um, so he's, uh, out in Colorado. He's a great developer. Um, he'll be working on the app, um, in the future. Um, and then we also have somebody who's not on our website just yet, um, named Nitesh.

Nitesh is actually based out of India. I've worked with Nitesh on Coindera which is my other company, um, that I've run for about six years. And, I've worked with Nitesh for about three years now. Um, rock solid developer, really, really good guy. Um, have really enjoyed my time, uh, getting to know him and talking to him as well as just working with him in general. So, he'll be the, uh, one of the main developers building out the application. So, yeah, uh, that's just a little bit about the team. Uh, feel free to go ... like I said go to believr.app/about. Um, you can see their lovely faces and also links to some of their profiles, um, Instagram handles and Twitter accounts, all that kind of fun stuff. Great.

Um, so I got in a little bit about this about the app, uh, (laughs) when I talked about the team, but let me give you a little bit more detail, so what's happened between now and the last podcast, um, a couple of things. Uh, the, uh, one of the most important ones was actually developing our core values. Um, I'll be publishing, um, we'll be doing like a social media push, uh, the month of July to discuss more about those core values. We have five of them. Um, and they're just really there because, uh, you know, as a value based app matching company, uh, we should probably have our core values in line if we're gonna be asking other people have them in line, too. Um, and so with that, we spent some time as a team, uh, really de- digging deep into the core values, um, of what we each have and hold and then we kind of spread those out, uh, and discussed and kind of, um, made this magical pairing if you will of these unique core values.
Uh, so, the reason why these are important to me and, uh, and Brandon and the rest of the team is because this is how, um, really like, uh, how we view the company and what we stand for as a company, and how we're going to be embodying like what we truly want ultimately. Um, so, I'll just give you the, the five verbs if you will for now and then we can, uh, you'll have to wait for the full explanation, uh, in ... on our social media post in July.

Uh, so the first one is believe. Next one is connect, celebrate, be true, and the last one is belong. Um, so, yeah. Those ... I'm, I'm really excited, uh, to launch the core values and to have a discussion around them because there ... we spent a lot of blood, sweat and tears, uh, Brandon and I stayed up many a night arguing over what does believe mean and what does beli- believe mean specifically to believr, um, which ... that's a lot of Bs all in one word but that's okay. (laughs) um, so, yeah. Uh, please feel free, uh, to follow us on, uh, the social media channels. We're on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, um, and then I'll also potentially, I don't wanna promise anything yet but I'm gonna see if I can do a podcast, uh, for each, um, uh, for each value as well, um, and kind of talk to you what it means, um, and why we created them. Um, I'm gonna see if I can actually do that with Brandon which would be a ton of fun.

So, yeah. Uh, so that's one of the main things that we've been working on. Uh, we've also been doing a bunch of user research. Um, so part of, um, the app building process is really making sure that you understand your audience. Um, and so we've done a bunch of user research. Um, Erika has been spearheading that. So, we have, uh, through all that re- user research, we've built out kind of feature functions, functionality within the application. Uh, there's user flows which are basically just diagrams of, of actions and key actions that users will take, uh, within the application. And, then, we actually have, um, wire frames that we've built out, uh, that Pascal has built out, um, which are ... I ... it's just absolutely gorgeous and stunning, and I cannot wait to show everybody. Um, I'm not gonna show everybody yet, uh, because I, I don't wanna spoil the surprise but they are absolutely beautiful.

Um, and then over this next month, so this is July. Um, over the next month, um, Erika will be doing click through, um, testing, user testing, um, with everybody like I mentioned previously. And, so, if you're interested in that, again, feel free to reach out. Um, I'm happy to connect you with Erika to make that happen.
And, then, uh, we also have pride month, uh, which is May. And, so, during pride month, we really wanted to focus and kind of celebrate our users. Um, even though there's no application yet, we still have this growing community of people that are excited about the app and so, um, we wanted to do something, uh, to really highlight those people. And, so we did was, um, we did a social media kind of push, um, with the hashtag, hashtag, um, faithful pride. And, so, we had people, um, around the world actually, um, uh, post their kind of stories around what they're proud, um, about and it was just so cool to read the different experiences and, and the hurt and the pain, but also like the celebration and the unity and the love that's come through, um, our community. And, so, um, if you do have a chance, uh, feel free to go to our, um, Instagram page. Um, it's just believr app, um, and then, uh, you can view all of those different post on there. Great.

Um, the next big question that's on everyone's mind, um, I can already hear people emailing me and asking me this is, "When is it gonna be launched? When is it gonna be launched?" Uh, that's a great question. Um, I get it probably every time I meet somebody. Um, uh, believr, the goal right now is some time in the fall. Um, I'm shooting for hopefully September, but I, uh, there's a lot of variables there that can go into it. So, um, I'm, I'm not gonna give a firm date just yet. Um, but, hopefully I can get a, a, a more, um, firmer date if you will in the future, but right now we're shooting for sometime in the fall, with September being ideal.
Um, and what does that launch gonna look like? Uh, that's a great question. Uh, we will be doing a, uh, launch parties. Um, we'll probably have a launch party here in San Francisco. Uh, that's where I'm based, um, and then we'll probably have some other launch parties, um, have kind of a live streamed event, um, to the other launch parties, uh, in other large city. So, um, if you live ina city and know of a good bar, uh, that would host a group of LGBT+ Christians, uh, please let me know, um, or wanna host a party. Uh, feel free to shoot me an email. I'd love to talk about it. Um, it's just adam@believr.app. Cool.

Um, and then I do wanna give a quick update, uh, on the webinar. So, uh, in the ... in the past, uh, we did mention a couple of podcast and webinars that we're planning on building out. Uh, one of them was relationship podcast, um, and the other one was like a s- uh, human sexuality and spirituality podcast. We're still working on those. Um, they were spending a lot of time on them because it's a really important topic. Um, and so, we're just really, um, spending a lot of time making sure that we get the content, the experts, and the content just correct, um, as well as just making sure that's a quality podcast that we're producing. So, um, no big updates on that yet. We're still pumping it out. Um, I'm gonna start creating it, we're just, uh, the timing is just a little bit off 'cause we really wanna get the app out, um, before, um, building this ... the co- that type of content. Um, and that's the same goes for like the financial wellness seminar that we're thinking about putting on.

Um, if you were interested in the financial wellness seminar, I would love to hear from you. Um, so, feel free to shoot me an email hello@believr.app. Um, I'd love to just kind of chat with you real quick. Um, it won't be anything intense. Probably just a 5, 10 minute, um, email interaction between the two of us. Great. Um, so that's it for now. Uh, please feel free, uh, or no, please feel free but please join us on all of our social media channels. Um, I really enjoy interacting with everybody, um, and I know the rest of the team does too. So, um, keep being awesome and I will talk to you soon. Talk to you later.