Stay Prayed Up with Hallow | Alessandro DiSanto | Episode #155

Alessandro DiSanto never expected that he and his childhood friends would come together early in their careers to launch a prayer app. Fast-forward to the present - - Hallow is the world's most successful Christian prayer app.

Hallow stats (aka vanity stats)

• 20 million downloads

• 600 million prayers, prayed in over 150 countries

• Available in 8 languages

• More than 170 employees

Alessandro grew up in a big Italian family in Chicago, enjoying family dinners with grandparents who never learned English.  As a teenager, Alessandro gravitated towards the intellectual side of the Catholic faith and found his way to Notre Dame for college.

After college, Alessandro started a job in big finance at Goldman Sachs in New York, where he was reprimanded for displaying a picture of Our Lady on the Notre Dame campus.

During a Sunday night dinner with friends in 2018, Hallow co-founder and childhood friend Alex Jones brought a series of questions and reflections to the group that launched an ongoing conversation about building something to reinforce each of their own prayer lives.

Within months, three friends quit their jobs to build Hallow and had the app posted to the app store by the end of the year.

The Hallow team knew they were on to something important early on when they heard countless stories of the app's impacts on people in need, including lifesaving and life-altering moments of prayer.  

Alessandro shares an insider look at Hallow, highlighting the app's most common uses and other lesser-known aspects.

In 2024, Hallow released an ad during the Super Bowl featuring Mark Wahlberg and Jonathan Roumie, encouraging the audience to stay prayed up. The timing was perfect, as Super Bowl Sunday was just days before Ash Wednesday this year.  

The #Hallow app helps users find God’s peace, transform their prayer life, and build daily habits that draw them closer to Him. Learn more about Hallow. https://hallow.com/