Trevor McKendrick, a Salt Lake City businessman and self-proclaimed atheist is making a whopping $100,000 a year--by selling a Spanish Bible app used by millions of people all over the world.
"We don't believe in Christianity. We don't believe in the Bible," he told StartUp podcast host Alex Blumberg, "I would describe myself as an atheist."
According to the McKendrick's blog, he was inspired to create the Bible app two years ago after learning that a relative was earning $8,000 to $10,000 a month making apps in Apple's app store.
After doing some research, McKendrick, who was raised a Mormon, discovered that most of the Spanish Bible apps on the market were poorly designed. Recognizing that his competition was low, he set out to make a better app.
One month after developing an app, McKendrick had made about $1,400. Once he expanded the app with an audio version, he was making up to $6,000 a month. By the second year, the app brought in over $100,000 in net revenue.
Sometimes, Mckendrick says, he feels guilty about making money off a book he believes is fiction.
"What if you sold 'Harry Potter' books or 'Lord of the Rings' books, but you told people it was real? And you told people if they would just learn how to write spells themselves, they could heal their children? And if you sold that as a real thing? I would feel terrible about that," he told Blumberg.
"But that's really the situation I am in selling the Bible. I am selling this thing I truly believe is fiction, but other people are trying to use [it] and mold their lives to fix large and small problems."
More disturbingly, McKenrick said that users sometimes email him with prayer requests. Some have even asked him to interpret the Bible for them.
"They think I'm a preacher," he explained. "If you're emailing the maker of an app to get help for your son, you're probably not a in a great spot. Trading that for profit weighs on me a little bit."
However, the guilt McKendrick feels is not enough to prevent him from discontinuing his app production.
"The money has changed our lives because I don't have to worry about our income," he told the Business Insider.
"No I can't (stop)," he added. "Yes I have a problem with it. But I can't."
