Palmly

Palmly operates a church-matching platform that pairs individuals with local congregations using a matching system the company calls Titan. Users complete a roughly four-minute questionnaire about their beliefs, personality, lifestyle and needs, and receive an emailed match with church details within seven days. The consumer service is free and is described as open to Christians of any denomination as well as people exploring Christianity. The company also offers the optional "Palmly Experience," in which a designated host at the partner church greets the visitor on arrival, provides a welcome bag, escorts them to a seat and points out amenities, with a follow-up afterwards; on the church-facing side this is also referred to as the Shepard program.

The other side of the platform is a product for churches. Church leaders answer a five-to-seven-minute Titan questionnaire describing their ministry's culture, after which Palmly routes matched individuals to them, coordinates in-person or online visits, and supplies visitor feedback and analytics. Multi-location churches must register each site separately so matching reflects each campus's culture. Palmly markets the service on congregation growth and giving, stating that in year one it has helped churches add up to $58,500 in new budgetary possibilities with longer-term value described as exceeding $380,000.

In podcast remarks, co-founder Rita Brooks described Palmly more broadly as a mobile platform for building community and growing in faith, including "growth segments" of curated livestream content from community creators on topics such as parenting, relationships and health and wellness, and "faith spaces" — virtual small-group sessions with curriculum-based learning and interactive discussion.

Founding story

Palmly was co-founded by married couple Rita Brooks and John Brooks. Rita Brooks has said the idea grew out of her own experience after moving to Atlanta, when a chance encounter with a group of people led her into church attendance and community, reviving a lapsed faith practice. Through subsequent ministry work — the couple led small groups and headed a singles ministry — she observed that people who thrived in their faith generally had a supporting community, and the two set out to make community and spiritual growth more accessible at scale using technology. Neither founder was a technologist, though John Brooks had worked in technology sales, so they recruited outside help to build and develop the product.

Business model

Two-sided platform: the consumer church-matching service and the Palmly Experience are free to individuals, while partner churches pay for access to matches under custom pricing quoted after a call or demo request, with flexible plans presented for different church budgets. Multi-location churches sign up each site separately.

Revenue is from partner churches, which receive custom quoted pricing; the individual-facing matching service and Palmly Experience are offered at no cost.

Traction

Palmly cited "500 matches in 3 weeks" in material from its Techstars Atlanta demo day. Church-side claims include up to $58,500 in year-one added budgetary possibilities per church and longer-term value above $380,000, and audience composition figures of 70% of match requests from ages 25-36 and 84% preferring churches under 500 weekly attendees. Pastors Kerrick Butler II of Faith Christian Center and Vince Thomas of The Outlet Community Church have given attributed testimonials.

Latest developments

The most recent dated public company content is an October 2023 blog testimonial post. The site continues to offer matching in Georgia, a waitlist for other states and custom pricing for church partners.