>>176721, >>176722
Alex at Hallow @alexathallow - Sorry y’all - have been trying to take a step back to spend some time with family post the craziness of the Ash Wednesday launch.
Apparently over the last few days we’ve been attacked for a series of different things.
So I wanted to take a moment and respond. I’m usually not very good at these kinds of things, but will give it my best.
Before I do though I just wanted to say thank you. I’ve seen so many posts and replies defending Hallow and sharing what the Lord has done in your life. Honestly it’s brought me to tears several times. Thank you all. It means more than you know.
Lord thank You for the opportunity to work on this - to be a witness to your goodness.
Okay so the first and biggest one, interestingly enough, is folks attacking partners, mostly Gwen it seems, for partnering with an ‘anti-abortion’ app.
- Yes, we are pro-life. At least we are trying our best to be. We are catholic. On every political issue we stand with the Pope and the Church.
Then there is the usual group of people mad that we have a subscription option for Hallow.
- There is a free version with thousands of free sessions and we give free subscriptions to anyone who reaches out and can’t afford it. Most people who use the app use it completely for free - forever. We do not sell ads or data. The subscription is how we support the work we do.
We’ve got some folks upset that we are going through Dostoevsky for Lent.
- For those of you concerned, please just give the challenge a try. I think the team did a really great job, working with several great priests, of weaving together Fr. Henri Nouwen, the spiritual message of Brothers K, and Scripture in a really beautiful way that’s all, of course, always in line with Church teaching.
And then the latest seems to be a resurfacing of the fact that Peter Thiel is an investor.
- Thiel is one of several hundred different individual investors in Hallow, each with their own politics and other businesses / investments. We are grateful for anyone who was willing to take a bet on Hallow, especially in the earliest days when essentially everyone said no, but we certainly don’t stand behind or endorse everything every investor does.
We do not and would never share any user data with any investor.
Thiel specifically is one of the most prolific technology investors of all time (Facebook / Instagram, PayPal, Apple, LinkedIn, Yelp, Microsoft, Tesla, Spotify, The Athletic, Stripe, Airbnb, Postmates, SpaceX), but just because he owns a share of a company certainly does not mean he has any control over its actions. Thiel is a relatively minor investor (~3% of Hallow’s overall funding). I’ve seen some people say he invested $40 million - this is off by an order of magnitude. He does not sit on our board, and has no decision making control. The three co-founders of Hallow have governance control of Hallow.
If there is ever anything you disagree with, there is never anyone else to blame but me.