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Hallow is the world’s number one Catholic prayer and meditation app with over 12 million downloads. And after a surge in downloads following the Super Bowl commercial, it took first place in the Apple App Store among all apps.
The company has raised a total of $105 million to date, thanks, in large part, to the blood, sweat, and tears of co-founder and CEO Alex Jones. In this episode of The CEO Series, we visited Hallow headquarters to talk with Jones about all things business, leadership, and faith. Below are some highlights from that powerful conversation that have been edited for length and clarity.
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Divine inspiration
“Hallow is a prayer and meditation app for anyone who wants to get closer to God. Its origins trace back to my faith journey. I was raised Catholic but drifted away from my faith in high school and college. After graduating from college, I I’m really passionate about meditation. I found these newly launched apps, Headspace and Calm, and started using them every day and loved them. But every time I meditated, my mind felt strangely drawn to something spiritual, like a picture of the cross So I started reaching out to priests and pastors and people I knew from Notre Dame and asked what I thought was a really interesting question: Is there any way that there’s some sort of intersection between this faith thing and this meditation thing? And pretty much everyone laughed at me and said, “Yes, we’ve been doing this for 2,000 years. It’s called prayer!” And this changed my life. I knew I had to do it. I knew how to program a little, so we created the first version and went from there. The app has helped me grow tremendously in my spirituality, which has been phenomenal.”
Something bigger than them
“My cousin died when he was 45. He died randomly in his sleep. He had just gotten married and his wife was pregnant with their first child. His mother, who is my aunt, was obviously heartbroken. We had just launched the app and we sent a message that I’ve kept to this day. It read, “I honestly didn’t think I’d make it through my first Christmas without my son and I just want you to know that these little meditations on the app are the only thing that reminds me of that I can have hope and that I can get out of bed and move forward in this deep time of pain.’ And I loved bursting into tears on the floor in my tiny studio apartment.”
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The challenges of fundraising
“Fundraising is extremely stressful for any CEO because it is incredibly difficult, especially in today’s world. When you do the seed round, you have no real numbers to talk about. It’s just your story. And people do nothing but judge you and you’re wondering. Do they like our concept? Are you sitting straight enough? Are you making eye contact? Do I like this guy? I had about 80 meetings in the first two weeks, constantly presenting. I remember walking back to my studio apartment after hearing no after no: people basically telling me that the core of who I am is stupid and that this idea will never work. It was so heavy. I was so stressed. My heart was pained. My back had all these knots. I started praying and said, ‘God, look, this is too much. I can not do that. I finished. I can’t bear this burden.’ And then I thought, “I’ll make a deal with you.” I promise if this thing works, you will always get the credit. I will never fool myself into thinking I’m the CEO of a successful startup that has all these things figured out. It was all you.” That huge weight immediately lifted and the next day we went to a meeting at a bar with this guy and he gave us a worksheet. And then we have three, four more the next day. It was just God saying, ‘Just wait.’ I just needed to give up.”
Advice to founders
“You have to find something bigger than yourself. You have to do it, there’s no choice.”
Discover more profiles of innovative and impactful leaders by visiting the CEO Series archives.
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