Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Tiatun Tiatun. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Tiatun thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

At Insight Bible, our mission is to revolutionize the way we engage with the Bible, giving insight and guidance to deepen faith and understanding of the Bible.

I often find myself struggling to understand certain verses in the Bible, whether I’m reading them or listening to them. While it’s easy to understand the literal meaning of a verse like Genesis 1:1, others like Matthew 5:14-16 and Proverbs 10:19 can be more difficult to decipher. As a Christian, I know I’m not alone in this struggle. Some people may turn to Google or ask their pastor for help, but these sources can have subjective biases toward certain doctrines. That’s why I’m excited about Insight Bible. Insight Bible provides answers and theories right alongside the text and allows users to cross-reference any scripture and verse. We also, give our users the option to rate and report any answer they find inaccurate. This feedback helps us improve the accuracy of Pastor AI over time. And the best part? There are even more features in the works for the future.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a devoted born-again Christian who has dedicated over 15 years of my life to ministry work. I have established deep connections with expansive church communities both within and beyond the United States, including regions like West Africa and the Caribbean. My driving passion centers on sharing the Word of God and the message of Jesus Christ with people from all walks of life. My journey in ministry started over 15 years ago, during which I served in diverse roles as such youth leader, church administrator, worship coordinator, and IT specialist.

In addition to my Spiritual pursuits, I am a serial entrepreneur and a Go to go-to-market strategist. In 2014 I started my first company (Adza.io). Adza was a digital ad server platform that bridged the gap between advertisers and publishers. I was blessed with the opportunity to sell the company one year after launch. I went to work in corporate America as a digital marketing strategist.

For more than five years, I have had the idea of creating a Bible Application that provides unique user experiences and serves as a digital infrastructure for churches and their congregations. I always assumed that the established Bible Applications available in the market would build or implement it to some extent, especially in the era of AI dominance. It seems like a no-brainer to me. However, we’re already in 2023, and it still doesn’t exist. Now, I feel more inclined to take the initiative and tackle it myself.

In May 2023, I had a breakthrough moment while browsing through a website called Flippa.com. I frequently visited the website to buy and sell online businesses. On this particular day, I came across an app for sale called “Insight Bible”. The app was very basic, but its name caught my attention. I had an Aha moment and realized that I needed to acquire this domain name and build on the premise of the name, which is to provide people with insights into the Bible. The owner of the app and domain was Michael, who lives in Canada. After a few back-and-forth negotiations, we finally settled on a price of $4600 for the app and domain.

After pondering over what to do next with my new idea, I decided to take action. I contacted an AI/ML engineer I met online, and after hiring him, we became great friends. Together, we started designing the backend architecture of the Insight Bible. Our primary goal was to use machine learning to customize the Bible for each user. We recognized that although Catholics and Baptists are both Christians, they have different ways of worshiping and use different translations of the Bible. To address this, we asked individuals to answer a series of questions, which enabled our AI to tailor Bible translations, languages, daily devotionals, and other features to their preferences. With each use, the app refines its suggestions, ensuring accuracy and relevance.

However, this wasn’t enough. If the goal was to give people a deeper insight into the Bible and deepen their understanding, there needs to be more. Something that will be considered taboo to most conservative and religious people, using technology, specifically using artificial intelligence. So, we created our own Language model called Pastor AI. We describe Pastor AI as a personal study assistant! It tackles scripture-related and life questions with biblical significance. For Instance, if you need help with the importance of tithing? Ask Pastor AI for insights! We are training Pastor AI using a large body of biblical text from various sources such as books, bible commentaries, Christian blogs, research papers, scientific and historical journals, news articles, and more. We want to emphasize that we give our users the option to rate and report any answer they find inaccurate. This feedback helps us improve the accuracy of Pastor AI over time.

When we initially launched our first beta version in July 2023, we received an overwhelming response from the early adopters. By October, we had over 2500 organic downloads. Many of our users wrote to us expressing their gratitude for creating such a life-changing tool, while others requested us to add more features. Currently, we are planning to launch a Kickstarter campaign in January 2024, which might be live by the time this article is published. Our goal is to build a community of individuals who want to see Insight Bible thrive and grow, by supporting us through Kickstarter, you are achieving three things. Firstly, you are letting us know that you appreciate this product and you want it to come into existence. Secondly, your contributions enable us to complete the development process more quickly and to release the groundbreaking features within the specified timeframe. Finally, you are ensuring that you will have access to the app when it is launched.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

I started Insight Bible with the initial capital borrowed from my 401k. However, the cost of servers and my AI engineer salary was causing me a lot of stress. Since I didn’t have a rich aunt or uncle to borrow money from, I took a big risk and maxed out all my credit cards. My hope is that we’ll gain enough traction and backers to become sustainable before February 2024, when we launch our Kickstarter campaign. I still have my fingers crossed.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I was born in exile in the Ivory Coast during the peak of the Liberian Civil War. My parents were refugees in a country where they didn’t speak the language. Eventually, my dad, who is a Ph.D. and demographer, started a school for refugee children. After some time, he was appointed superintendent for the entire school district in the Ivory Coast. My parents moved there in 1992. However, when I was born, we stayed for five years, then moved back to Liberia in 2001. Two years later, another brutal civil war broke out, and I was old enough to experience it. I remember having over 50 people who escaped the front line taking shelter in our home. On a good day, we had one meal, maybe rice or cornmeal, and on other days, we would go hungry or scavenge for an awful-tasting, terrible-smelling thing only West Africans would know called Palm Cabbage. It wasn’t delicious, but it wasn’t poisonous, so we ate it. I remember asking my dad why there was no food, but he might have answered me then, and I didn’t recall until later that I found out there was a blockade of food. The rebel forces were trying to starve the population into submission. Long story short, a bit of good fortune came in 2003 – my dad got a job with the United Nations as a statistician and was able to move our family to Georgetown, Guyana, South Africa. I went to elementary and high school in Guyana and moved to the United States in 2014 to go to college.

Contact Info:

• Website: insightbible.ai
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/insight.bible
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/insightbible
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tiatun/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/insightbible
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@insight_bible
• Other: Kickstarter: Insightbible.co