Episode Details

In 2021, YouVersion’s Bible App passed half a billion devices. The team celebrated. Bobby Gruenewald knew growth was barely above flat, and the milestone “felt very hollow.” 

He decided that if he wasn’t going to steward it well, someone else should. He started looking for a CEO who had led at that scale. 

When he asked one of his closest advisors who it should be, the advisor said, “Well, it needs to be you.”

Bobby pushed back: “We need a real CEO.”

But two other people he trusted agreed with the advisor. So in January 2022, Bobby stepped into the CEO role full time, “reluctantly and uncomfortably.” 

Then, in his words, “nothing actually went well that year.” 

The right candidates didn’t come, the numbers stayed flat, the team was in flux, and for the first time the ministry was spending money it didn’t have. By December, the leaders he needed arrived and the numbers began to turn.

This conversation covers why he labeled YouVersion’s first website a failure three months in, why he re-risked the work, and why he believes organizations lose speed and flexibility unless a leader pushes for them.

Bobby Gruenewald is founder and CEO of YouVersion, the ministry behind the free Bible App, which launched with Apple’s App Store in 2008 and is now on more than a billion devices. YouVersion is non-commercial and supported entirely by donors.