Why I built HolyJot — and why I think church tech has been solving the wrong problem

Hey Product Hunt

I'm Matt, co-founder of HolyJot. We're launching tomorrow and I wanted to share the story behind why we built this.

I've spent 15 years building SaaS. My last company was VerticalRent — property management software I grew to 100,000+ landlords before a successful exit. I know what it looks like when an industry gets priced out of good tools.

That's exactly what's happening in church technology.

Planning Center, Pushpay, Breeze — these are good products. But they were built to manage church administration. None of them were built to actually help churches disciple their people. And none of them have touched AI.

The result: pastors have beautiful databases of members they're slowly losing to quiet drift. The gap between Sunday morning and the following Sunday is where discipleship either happens or doesn't — and right now, nothing is happening in that gap for most churches.

HolyJot is our answer to that problem.

We combined two things that have never lived in one platform: personal AI-powered Bible journaling for individual believers, and full church management for small to mid-size congregations. When members are in the Word on a Tuesday morning — journaling, reading, praying — and that activity is connected back to the church's platform, everything changes.

Free tier, no credit card required.

I'd love to hear from anyone in ministry, faith tech, or who just has thoughts on AI + spirituality. What would make this more useful for your church or personal practice?