Today on the Servant Leadership Podcast, we’re joined by Bobby Gruenewald, entrepreneur, innovator, pastor, and the founder of the YouVersion Bible App. Before stepping into ministry at Life Church, Bobby was a serial entrepreneur — launching one of the early web hosting companies and later building a subscription-based entertainment streaming company. At Life Church, Bobby helped pioneer church online long before livestreaming was normal. Out of that same spirit of innovation, he and a small team launched the YouVersion Bible App—what started as a simple idea to help people engage Scripture on their phones has now become one of the most widely used apps in history, recently surpassing 1 billion downloads. Join us as Bobby shares how he’s seen innovation, risk, and pushing the boundaries help make a difference in the lives of millions of people around the world.
Timestamps:
00:00 Bobby Gruenewald Intro
00:56 Welcome, Bobby Gruenewald
01:17 Bobby’s Journey - Humble Beginnings In Website Building
03:25 Mr. Bailey’s Investment In Bobby’s Future
04:15 Starting A Web Hosting Company
06:12 The Professional Wrestling Site - A Strange Learning Experience
08:15 From Entrepreneur To Church Leader
09:59 Getting Plugged In At Life Church
11:49 Turning Down an Offer To Join The Staff At Life Church
13:05 A Quick Trip From Volunteer To 24 Years on Staff
16:37 YouVersion Bible App Beginnings
18:26 A Foray Into Bible Tech - Church Online and Open
19:30 “How Could I Use Technology to Read the Bible More Consistently?”
23:08 Difficulty With Bible Text Acquisition
24:48 YouVersion’s Big Failure - How to Learn From Failure
26:36 The Desktop Issue - Moving From Website To App
28:12 YouVersion Launches With Apple’s App Store
29:35 YouVersion’s Accelerated Growth Even Today
30:25 An Age of False Media And AI Generations
31:54 The Bible - An Answer To The Hunger For Truth
34:46 Servant Leadership - Providing Their Apps For Free
36:21 No Sense Selling What’s Unclear
38:23 YouVersion’s Business Model
40:16 How To Keep The Innovation Alive
40:35 Fear of Failure Prevents Us From Quitting
42:39 Innovation Happens Best Under Constraints
44:35 Cutting Down A Process From Three Weeks To 48 Hours
46:51 “I Loath Best Practices”
48:20 Ten Rapid-Fire Questions
51:41 Importance Of A Servant Leadership Podcast
53:04 Why You Should Read Your Bible Every Day
55:15 Closing
Learn more about Bobby:
https://www.youversion.com/
https://open.life.church/
https://churchonlineplatform.com/
Servant Leadership:
URL: https://servantleadershippodcast.org/
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