Episode 10 · Nov 11, 2026 · 1 hr 44 min
Pray.com Founder: How It Grew To The #1 Prayer App In The World
with Steve Gatena — Founder & CEO of Pray.com
Show notes
Get a custom 5M–500M views in 1 year guarantee: mediascaling.com/is-10
5 million people reached daily. 200 million+ podcast downloads. Over $20 million in annual revenue.
How do you turn a simple idea into a multimillion-dollar media empire?
In this episode of Insider Sessions™, Logan Forsyth sits down with Steve Gatena, Founder & CEO of Pray.com, to break down how he built a massive media business through email marketing, advertising, strategic partnerships, and multiple revenue streams.
Steve reveals how Pray.com reaches over 5 million people through daily emails, why adding advertisements generated millions in additional annual revenue, and how email became one of the company's most powerful growth channels.
He also shares how he spent years pursuing an iHeartRadio partnership that eventually helped generate hundreds of millions of podcast downloads, why building relationships beats chasing growth hacks, and how to land major brand sponsorships.
On the business side, Steve breaks down how Pray.com scaled from $0 to $20 million in annual revenue, why relying on one product and one acquisition channel nearly broke the business, and how expanding into advertising and enterprise SaaS created a more sustainable business model.
CHAPTERS
0:00 Building a $20M+ Media Business
5:07 Turning Email Into Millions
8:33 Landing Major Brand Sponsors
16:14 The iHeartRadio Partnership
22:21 The Dream 100 Strategy
29:28 How to Monetize a Media Brand
34:10 Steve's Entrepreneurial Journey
46:38 The Tragedy Behind Pray.com
52:27 Scaling From $0 to $20M+
1:13:11 When the Business Model Broke
1:18:04 Acquiring a Multi-Million-Dollar Domain
1:30:45 AI, Leadership, and the Future of Pray.com
WHAT YOU'LL LEARN
- How Pray.com uses email marketing to reach more than 5 million people daily
- How newsletter advertising created millions in annual revenue
- How Steve scaled Pray.com beyond $20 million in annual revenue
- How years of outreach led to a major iHeartRadio partnership
- How Pray.com built a podcast network with hundreds of millions of downloads
- Three ways to secure advertising partnerships and sponsorships
- Why relying on one product and one acquisition channel can become dangerous
- How AI helps Steve handle outreach, productivity, and business decisions
- How Pray.com expanded from subscriptions into high-ticket enterprise SaaS
- Why Steve believes the founder is often the biggest bottleneck to growth
GUEST
Steve Gatena — Founder & CEO of Pray.com
Steve Gatena is an entrepreneur and media executive who founded Pray.com, a digital platform offering faith-based audio, video, prayer, and inspirational content.
Under his leadership, Pray.com has reached millions of users through its mobile app, podcast network, email newsletters, and partnerships.
In this conversation, Steve shares how the company surpassed $20 million in annual revenue and built a diversified business through subscriptions, advertising, and software products.
- instagram.com/pray
- Website: pray.com
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