God Is Up and to the Right
Ep. 128 ChurchSpace: AirBnB for Churches
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The Story of ChurchSpace
The son of a pastor, Emmanuel Brown grew up watching his parents struggle with the financial responsibilities of running a church.
His parents weren’t unique: 1 in 3 church leaders leave the ministry due to the stress of financial responsibilities.
And one of the primary financial stressors? Church real estate.
Most churches sit empty 70% of the week, making them a prime source of untapped commercial real estate.
That’s why Emmanuel and his co-founder Day Edwards built ChurchSpace, a church rental marketplace.
Churches on the platform are making $60K per year on average, and locals can rent space just like they would an Airbnb.
I know what you’re thinking, why would someone want to rent from a church? Besides a wedding or funeral what would they use it for?
Emmanuel’s answer…
Commercial kitchens!
Churches often have huge commercial kitchens and there are food entrepreneurs in every market who are in need of a commercial kitchen.
Think food truck owners.
Food truck businesses are required to have access to a commercial-grade kitchen, and there’s probably one in a church down the street.
Just sitting there.
Unused.
Cool idea! But what did the investors think…
They liked:
Smart, interesting business model
Cyclical element of ChurchSpace: a local church makes extra revenue from ChurchSpace → the congregation is happy and shares the news in their community → interested community members rent the space via ChurchSpace → the local church makes more revenue
ChurchSpace fosters connectivity and the utilization of space in different markets
Emmanuel and his co-founder (both children of pastors) have a great story and a personal connection to ChurchSpace
They didn’t like:
The infrastructure in churches is often outdated, which could be an issue for food entrepreneurs in need of modern kitchen appliances
Religion can be polarizing (ChurchSpace needs a good PR team – thankfully, Emmanuel’s co-founder ran a PR firm!)
A customer destroying or desecrating a sacred space is a bigger deal than the same thing happening in an Airbnb
America's church population is thought to be shrinking. Does this mean that there won’t be a steady flow of church-to-church rentals?
Is this really a billion dollar business?
Quotes of the Episode
“God is up and to the right.” -Beck
“The stress and the burden and the challenging decisions and the sacrifice that our parents had to make because of church real estate being a burden for them…I want to solve that. There's also a large mental health crisis among pastors that is kept behind closed doors in secret. They're supposed to be the beacon of hope that other people lean into in their times of distress, and they don't have anyone a lot of times. And that’s who we want to become.” -Emmanuel
“I think this sounds like a bad idea, which I like.” -Beck
The Essentials
Company: ChurchSpace
Year Founded: 2019
Industry: Rentals
HQ: Houston, TX
Founders: Emmanuel Brown, Day Edwards
Employee Count: 7 people
Currently Raising: $1.2M with 60% already committed
Funding Round Goals: scale to 3 new markets (Dallas, Austin, Atlanta) & hire a team to fuel growth
Valuation: $8M post-money valuation
Business Model: recurring customers pay $2500-3000/month & one-time customers pay $150-200/hour for an average of 3-4 hours
Early Traction: 8,000 customers on platform (including 350 churches with 1200 new churches coming this year)
Sales: $150K in gross revenue in 2023
Burn Rate: $30K/month
Runway: 8 months with $250K in the bank
Comps
Who’s in?
Beck Bamberger with Bad Ideas Group: $25K
The Pitch Fund: $50K
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