Just after Christmas, Quonda Renee posted on TikTok about her faith-based app, I Need a WORD, which she created during the lockdown. The TikTok received nearly 200,000 views and more than 40,000 likes. It was also the subject of a viral tweet that received over 24,000 likes.
I Need a WORD is a Christian on-demand platform available on iOS and Android. Renee said the app was downloaded nearly 4,000 times on Dec. 28 when her video went viral on TikTok and Twitter.
The I Need a WORD app brings together sermons, podcasts, and other Christian-based motivational content. It officially launched in 2020, but the company began three years earlier during the summer of 2017.
Renee said the company was birthed during a period of personal struggle.
“I was broke, sleeping on my parents’ couch, and I was going on a fast and praying because I am a woman of faith,” she said. “During that fast, I heard ‘start a Facebook page and call it I Need a WORD.’ And at first, I was like it doesn’t make sense—like my bills need to be paid, my car is about to be repossessed, so I kind of wrestled with the idea for a week, and then on August 6, 2017, I started a Facebook page.”
Renee began posting inspirational video clips and within two weeks reached 100,000 followers. Her fast growth attracted pastors interested in cultivating audiences of their own online. Renee began brand consulting and monetized her platform by becoming an Amazon Affiliate.
“For some of the content that would go viral, I would find out if those speakers had books or products on Amazon,” she said. “Then people began reaching out to buy advertising space, e-mail campaigns, and things like that.”
The I Need a WORD app filled a void; Renee saw in the lack of Christian-based tech in the digital world. The YouVersion Bible App is the only Christian app to appear on Apple’s top free apps chart which ranks the 200 most downloaded apps. As of Jan. 6, two Christian apps appear in Google Play’s ranking of the top free apps downloaded in the US.
“With YouVersion you’re going to get the Bible, reading plans, and things like that,” Renee said. “We’re more so video content, so you can get videos from all different types of preachers–from around the world.”
She hopes the I Need a WORD story will inspire other Christians to build companies of their own.
“As Christians, we need to dominate in areas in other areas outside of the church space because you can reach more people outside of the church than you would in the church,” Renee said.
Still the I Need a WORD journey is far from finished. Renee said the company plans to expand the platform to create I Need a WORD Latino and I Need a WORD Africa to include more Christian voices in the next few years. She also plans to secure physical space for pastors to record content in person.
“I am in the works of getting my own operating studio in Atlanta, so eventually I would love for a lot of these pastors to come, buy-in, and do their own shows that we can live stream,” Renee said.
