How Emerge Haus Helped Pulpit AI Scale in Under a Year

AI

  • OpenAI 4o-mini
  • Anthropic / Claude
  • WhisperX V3

Web app

  • NextJS
  • NodeJS
  • Python
  • TailwindCSS
  • Radix UI

Infrastructure

  • AWS
  • Vercel
  • Render
  • Supabase
Industry
  • Religion / Church
Key Outcomes
  • 3x Valuation Multiple Increase
  • 10 Month Build
  • 40x User Base

Problem

Scaling Crisis Meets Opportunity

Pulpit AI's innovative platform uses generative AI to transform sermons into comprehensive content packages, from devotionals and discussion guides to social media content and sermon clip reels.

“A pastor uploads the audio, video, or written manuscript of their sermon,” Founder Michael Whittle explains. “Then we automatically take that and use it as a basis for content to create outside of the sermon.

Pulpit AI’s initial success quickly became a challenge when their previous solution couldn't keep up with demand. Pulpit AI’s rapid growth revealed the need for a more robust, scalable platform. Without a technical background, Michael needed a development partner and a strategic technical advisor.

Pulpit AI's innovative platform uses generative AI to transform sermons into comprehensive content packages, from devotionals and discussion guides to social media content and sermon clip reels. 
"One day, we were in a desperate crisis. When we announced the company and launched in beta with another provider, it grew very quickly. We soon realized we needed to get off of that service and find someone to build our own solution so that we could scale."

Solution

Pulpit AI found the perfect Gen AI partner

"Once we lost confidence in the provider that we were previously using, we needed to move quickly to get our own solution built,” Michael said. “The Emerge Haus team gathered proof of concepts over the weekend."

The transformation happened at startup speed with a complete rebuild in three months:

  • The first version was deployed to beta users in only 2 months.
  • Emerge Haus completed the full feature buildout in another month.
  • They tested with 200 users in 1 month.
  • Within 5 months of the first conversation, Emerge Haus completed the full market launch.
And while the speed of development was crucial, what truly set this partnership apart was Emerge Haus's role as a strategic advisor and partner.

A Strategic Technical Partner

The partnership quickly evolved into a comprehensive technical leadership role. As a non-technical founder, Michael leveraged Emerge Haus’s strategic guidance alongside their development expertise. "What I really like about the Emerge Huas team is they knew that I was not a technologist," Michael explains.

The Emerge Haus team turned business and technical objectives into a cohesive plan that made the details easy for Pulpit AI to understand and approve. According to Michael, the Emerge Haus team essentially said, “Let us QB (Quarterback) this for you. Let us put the pieces together, and let us help you get it to where it needs to be.”

This collaborative approach yielded extraordinary results that solved the immediate crisis and set Pulpit AI up for future success.

3x

Valuation Multiple Increase

10 month

Complete Build

40x

User Base Increase
Michael explains why Emerge Haus is so valuable:
"The gen AI space is the Wild West, and everyone is claiming to be able to do this or do that. But if you are building something of value, you need a partner that knows what they're doing and is not just going to build a demo. They need to build it the right way from the ground up."

Results

Emerge Haus Helped Pulpit AI 10X Their Way from Crisis to Exit

The partnership with Emerge Haus drove extraordinary growth across all metrics:
The numbers tell one story, but it was during a personal crisis that the true value of this partnership became clear.
  • User base grew by more than 4x
  • Monthly recurring revenue grew by 9-10x
  • Platform usage exceeded 6,000 people
  • Successful acquisition by a major software platform in the church space
  • Planned expansion to 20,000+ churches

A Partnership Beyond Business

The relationship between Pulpit AI and Emerge Haus proved crucial during the acquisition process.
"In the final weeks of the acquisition process, my child ended up in the hospital for almost two weeks with emergency surgery when we were right in the middle of tech diligence, and I was able to focus on my family and trust that the Emerge Haus team was taking care of everything."
In addition to their fantastic work, the Emerge Haus team’s support truly made the difference. According to Michael, Pulpit AI would never have been acquired without them and the Emerge Haus team essentially acted as co-founders for him. They were right there, wholeheartedly supporting him every step of the way.

Don’t Go the Gen AI Frontier Alone

Post-acquisition, Emerge Haus continues to lead Pulpit AI's technical development, focusing on platform integration, product innovation, and expanding the AI capabilities across the platform stack.

Under Emerge Haus's guidance, Pulpit AI's transformation was remarkable. Their user base grew from 150-200 to nearly 900, while monthly recurring revenue jumped from $5-6K to almost $50K. With platform usage exceeding 6,000 people and a successful acquisition by Subsplash — a company known for its high standards — they're now poised for expansion to 20,000+ churches.
Michael’s advice for serious business leaders?
"If you are a serious business person trying to build a serious business, you want pros doing the work. You want people who know what they're doing, and you want people who are a phone call away because it is such a black box."
Michael Whittle’s Top Tips for Businesses Considering Gen AI

If you're dabbling in the generative AI world, make sure that you use people who know what they're doing, explain things, and take you on that journey along the way so you're not left in the dark. Use Emerge House because they're amazing.

Emerge Haus rebuilt our app from the ground up with AI features that blew our user’s socks off. Highly recommend working with him and his team.

Michael Whittle
Founder & CEO of Pulpit AI