• The PRAY.COM app offers daily prayers, bedtime Bible stories, and sleep meditation to help users strengthen their faith and improve mental health
• Download the PRAY.COM app for free at pray.com/matt with no credit card required for instant access to premium content
• The prayer app features content from famous pastors like Jack Graham, Tony Evans, and Dr. Ed Young
• PRAY.COM includes special features for sleep aid through biblically-inspired audio content with professional orchestra and voice actors
• The faith app helps combat anxiety, depression, and stress through guided Christian meditation and prayer
• Scientific research with Harvard shows prayer increases gray matter density in the brain and improves mental health
• PRAY.COM offers a kids Bible app section with engaging content to help children learn scripture in an entertaining way
• The PRAY.COM mobile app has reached over 15 million downloads and 1 billion minutes of listening

This transcript has been optimized and edited for clarity and readability.

Introduction

Host Mike: Welcome to the podcast. I'm really excited to have Matt Potter with us, who is a cofounder of PRAY.COM, the world's number 1 app for daily prayer and faith-based content. Matt, thanks so much for joining us today.

Matt Potter: Mike, thanks so much for having me on. I really appreciate it. Honored and blessed to be here.

Matt's Remarkable Adoption Story

Matt Potter: I'll take you all the way back to 1986. A 15-year-old girl walked into a local community church that she'd never been to before to talk to the pastor about the biggest decision she was going to make in her life up to that point. She was 15 and pregnant, and she didn't know what to do.

The pastor, being new and just out of seminary, didn't necessarily have the words to tell this girl. So he did what everybody does – he phoned a friend, calling his buddy who had planted a 20-person church in a high school gym in Los Angeles, California.

His friend in Los Angeles said, "Providentially, I just met with this incredible Christian couple. They've been trying to have children for 10 years without success. Why don't you ask the girl if she'd be willing to give her baby up for adoption?"

I was the baby that the 15-year-old girl was carrying. My adopted dad became the head elder of this 20-person church and told the pastor, "You got me my son, I'm going to help you grow this church." They grew the church to a 15,000-person megachurch here in Los Angeles, one of the most diverse churches in America.

Two years after my parents adopted me, they had my brother, even though they were told they couldn't have children. We get along great and are best friends. I grew up in church with my pastor being like a second dad to me and his daughter being my best friend.

Host Mike: You've got me captivated because you started with something that is near and dear to my heart, Matt, and that is adoption. My wife and I went through 15 years of infertility. We decided to go the international adoption route because our domestic adoption fell through. Just before we left to go to China, we found out we were pregnant. I now have a college-age daughter and a college-age son.

The Journey to Entrepreneurship

Matt Potter: I ended up going to Boise State University and got to watch my brother play football there. By my senior year, I was trying to figure out what to do with my life. I prayed about it and decided I wanted to start my own company.

I knew a lot about real estate because my dad owned a real estate company. When Steve Jobs announced the App Store, I saw an opening – real estate companies would want their own applications. So I taught myself how to code and started working with apps.

My senior year, the company started taking off. I dropped out of college two credit hours short and built that company over 11 years. We built over 7,000 apps in the app store for major real estate companies like Coldwell Banker, Century 21, Keller Williams, and Sotheby's.

After 11 years, I reached a point where I didn't need to work anymore if I didn't want to. I was coming to work every day feeling like I had lost my purpose – feeling like I was just optimizing for revenue and was somewhat burnt out.

The Turning Point: Steve's Story and the Birth of PRAY.COM

Matt Potter: I felt that tug on my heart from God and decided to call my pastor's daughter, my best friend, and asked, "What does the church need? How can I help? How can I give back?"

While praying about how I might help, I was at a coffee shop when my friend Steve walked through the door looking terrible. When I asked how he was doing, instead of his usual "living the dream," he said "not good." Steve told me a story that made me step down as CEO of my company the next day and join him to build PRAY.COM.

Steve grew up with a single Jewish mom on welfare. He didn't grow up going to church except when his grandma would drag him to Catholic church on Easter and Christmas. He played football and went to the Air Force Academy, but was severely injured in a training accident and received an honorable discharge.

After healing, Steve walked on to USC's football team, earned a position, and won a Rose Bowl under coach Pete Carroll. When football ended due to shoulder reconstructions, Steve got his MBA at USC.

For his final MBA project, he built all the professional online YouTube channels for fortune 500 companies, including Red Bull, Marriott Hotels, and the LA Dodgers. After selling that company, Steve became the 29-year-old CEO of a $150 million aerial production and surveillance company with about 30 aircraft equipped with sophisticated camera systems.

They filmed movies like Transformers, worked for the CIA and FBI on missions, and transported organs and people between hospitals. Steve was living the dream – making movies, catching bad guys, and saving lives.

Tragedy Leads to Transformation

Matt Potter: Then tragedy struck. While filming "American Made" with Tom Cruise in Colombia, Steve's business partner – a legendary helicopter pilot – died in a plane crash in the jungle. Steve, as the 29-year-old CEO, had to handle this crisis while continuing the company's 24-hour operations that saved lives.

The next few months were incredibly difficult. A former Navy SEAL who worked at the company pulled Steve aside and said, "I've dealt with leadership under duress when people have lost their lives. What are you doing to help yourself right now?"

The Navy SEAL recommended Steve listen to an audio sermon from his pastor. That sermon transformed Steve's life, and he became a Christian.

Steve realized there was no worldwide digital destination for Christians and their content – no "ESPN for faith." That's what Steve told me at the coffee shop: "My business partner died, I want to help people, there's no digital destination for Christians online. Matt, will you help me?"

I immediately recognized this as providence and agreed to help. We met with our other two co-founders – Mike Lynn, who was managing nearly $750 million at Merrill Lynch, and Ryan Beck, a former gang member and crystal meth dealer who had transformed his life through faith and learned coding.

We went to Silicon Valley and raised over $35 million to start PRAY.COM because investors believed there was no world-class technology built for the 2.5 billion Christians on Earth. Today, we've had over 15 million downloads, a billion listening minutes, and over 109 million shares of content on other platforms.

Host Mike: Sounds like God had a plan there for each of you. I love how He works, bringing the right people at the precise right time. I want to encourage those listeners looking for their calling to be obedient, open, and willing to sacrifice everything for God's call in their life.

Matt Potter: When God gives you the opportunity to merge your passion with your skill, you just have to jump in with both feet. When we started PRAY.COM, I thought we would help people reconnect with their faith, strengthen their personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and learn the Bible in a fun way. I never thought an app would save people's lives.

We recently received an email from an Ohio State Police officer who had planned to take his own life. He went home and put his gun in his mouth, but at that moment, a friend shared content from our app with him. He emailed us saying, "Thank you for saving my life."

Host Mike: I love how PRAY.COM isn't just another app for making money – you were giving up a ton of money to do something centered on what truly matters in this life and eternity.

Host Mike: You're addressing significant post-pandemic challenges – rising anger, stress, teen suicide, and community violence. How specifically is PRAY.COM approaching these mental health issues?

Matt Potter: What my co-founder Mike identified as "the hidden pandemic" refers to America's escalating mental health crisis. The data is concerning – suicide rates have increased exponentially since approximately 2005, and this trend crosses all demographic boundaries. It affects people regardless of socioeconomic status, health condition, education level, or geographical location.

Our approach at PRAY.COM combines faith with evidence-based research. We've developed specialized content addressing specific mental health challenges:

1. Anxiety reduction programs that combine scriptural wisdom with proven calming techniques
2. Depression-focused content that helps users reframe negative thought patterns
3. Loneliness interventions that create a sense of spiritual connection
4. Hope-building resources for those experiencing existential crises

What makes our approach unique is our commitment to scientific validation. We've established research partnerships with Harvard University, Biola University, and UC Berkeley specifically studying prayer's neurological effects. The findings are remarkable – regular prayer practice physically increases gray matter density in key brain regions associated with emotional regulation.

The mechanism appears to be that prayer offers a psychological pathway to externalize problems rather than ruminating on them internally. When users contextualize their challenges within a framework where "God is bigger than any problem," we see measurable changes in both brain structure and reported well-being metrics.

Host Mike: The pandemic created a forced introspection for many people – a collective moment of asking fundamental questions about purpose and meaning. Similar to Solomon's realization in Ecclesiastes, many discovered that without spiritual grounding, pursuits can feel ultimately empty. Your technology seems to be meeting that precise existential need.

Matt Potter: For anybody listening to this podcast, we want to give you the entire PRAY.COM app for free. Just go to pray.com/matt, enter your email, and you'll get the entire app at no cost – no credit card required. Download the app today on iOS or Android.

We've produced incredible content with a 61-piece orchestra and former Disney voice actors. Our popular sleep meditation features include a cinematic audio Bible experience that helps you fall asleep at night, bringing your favorite Bible stories to life with immersive sound effects. The Pray app also includes daily devotionals to start your morning with God's word.

For parents, our kids prayer app section helps children learn the Bible in an entertaining way with age-appropriate content. The PRAY.COM mobile app features amazing pastors like Jack Graham, Tony Evans, Dr. Ed Young, and Andrew Farley, who provide sermons and spiritual guidance that is helping people manage anxiety, find peace, and grow in their faith journey worldwide.