7. The Greatest Startup in the World

Venture capitalists say they look for a couple things as a measure of future success: 1) market size and 2) how big the founder’s dreams are. Being a founder for the past 3-4 years driven by a mission, I too, have felt the limitations of the current immediate market I chose to be in and have felt the helplessness that comes with the realization that no matter what mission I am going after, I can’t directly solve the worst problems of humanity.

For example, the worst, and the vast majority of the problems of humanity are not digitizing all the real estate transactions in the world. While it’s fine to pursue such missions from a business perspective, let’s make sure we are on the same page about the fact that such are not an existential problem that shakes the core of humanity. Things like diseases, death, generational poverty and war, COMBINED, have wider and deeper influence and boasts a number of participants that is far greater than any other mission.

When confronted with the magnitude of the market size these cover, I’d be like a fly under the light that lives for a short night and dies the next day. Just a poetic existence at best, you know? This is the same helplessness that consumed me when I was 10 years old, when I would just keep telling my sister who was in kindergarten at the time, that I just could not go on living because misery was part of the operating system, and human nature didn’t really change either, so that didn’t really provide any hope. 

All this to say that solving DEATH, a word that I am using to conveniently describe all of the largest markets – healthcare markets (If you were sick, eventually you would die), financial markets (if you were poor, you would be malnourished, have nothing to wear in the cold, and eventually would die), real estate markets (If you didn’t have a place to stay, you would get eaten up by wild animals and die), etc - actually would pose the biggest market opportunity and the biggest vision for all humanity. 

Which startup and which star CEO solves the problem of death, and everything implied in that word, in one globally scalable solution? Certainly not me. Probably not you. The Jesus Project, is God’s greatest startup, and He successfully and beautifully executed it and exited that startup. What is His track record?

•   Jesus, who was the founder and CEO of that project, now sits on the board of the startup as Chairman beside God’s right hand.

•   The early members of the startup, the disciples, were promised a handsome return, and they are pretty cushy up there now because they held onto their equity till the end, at least the loyal ones.

•   It boasts the #1 market cap in the world, since it has the most believers.

•   What was His go-to-market strategy? Word of mouth. God invented and effectively used wom marketing, to an unmatchable level in history. He got some of the biggest influencers at the time, the Roman emperors, to come onboard, for free (!), to endorse his brand as well.

•   Metrics? People have converted. Like crazy. With repeat purchases. Overflowing testimonials. Generation-to-generation fans. Household name. Global conglomerates. B2B. B2C. In 157+ countries and counting.

•   Guidance from the CEO is that the future is going to be turbulent but hopeful nonetheless.

Of course, we as human beings have made and will continue to make many mistakes in this believer journey and fall VERY short of expectations. But that is besides the point of this post, because I am not talking about us. I already said above that human nature, myself included in that word “human”, was hopeless.

It is about His track record. No one has been able to achieve anything close to it. If I were a VC, I’d lead the next round of His startup. If I were choosing to be an early employee, I’d negotiate a bigger equity stake than anyone else and hold on to my stock till the end. If I were to invest, I’d put my Buy rating and pound the table on the JESUS ticker, which is on the greatest exchange of all time. If I were to be a customer, I’d at least try it whether as an early adopter or as a laggard, since He offers free trials anywhere in the world. Who knows? It just really might change my life. If it doesn’t solve the issue of death for me after trying it out, I can always cancel the trial.  

Look around, look within, and look up. You can look away, but don’t say it’s not there. The way Google was in front of our eyes 20 years ago, the way OpenAI is part of our reality now, the World’s Greatest Startup has been in front of your eyes all this time. If we were living in BCE1500, I’d understand if you were using the sundial to figure out what time it is. But hello? We live in 2024 and do you still walk to the sundial in the middle of your town to see when you should start leaving for your dinner? 

God has already pursued the Greatest Mission for mankind and solved it. He offers the Jesus solution in ways that are certainly more flexible than your gym membership. Even if you think you haven’t chosen anything, when you look back at your life when you are 80 years old, you will have chosen your stance. Just like how you decided to jump into, or NOT jump into, bitcoin in 201X. There are just some things in life that you wish you considered earlier. Choose your 2025 consciously! Think about solving death for yourself in 2025; then at least give a thought about the solution that’s presented here, because solving death is the only way to truly start living life.