Everyone Is a Builder: How a Four-Time Tech Founder is Working to Support Overworked Pastors

In 2026, everyone is a builder.

This series is proof. First up was Troy Evans, a pastor who'd never written a line of code. These people showed us that you don’t need to be the most technical person in the room; you just need a problem worth solving and the passion to solve it. We call them Heroes of the Ecosystem, not because they took home the top prize, but because they’re on the frontlines every day, building for their communities, causes, and missions.

Meet TJ, he’s the co-founder of Atrium AI, a faith tech company that started right after the first Gloo AI Hackathon. Before Atrium, he spent about twenty years building tech companies. After his last exit, he took time off. Instead of asking what software company to build next, he started asking how technology and AI could help churches flourish and reach more people.

What Got Built There Didn't Stay There

TJ's team came to the Hackathon two years ago with a proof of concept: an automated attendance counting platform, built on cameras, to help churches understand their numbers. The Hackathon is where that idea became real, moving from a dream to a slide deck, to an actual working prototype.

His experience and product also became a starting point, not a finish line. Churches didn't just need a better way to count people. They needed to understand what those numbers meant for their mission, so instead of stopping there, TJ and his team kept building.

Healthy People Build Healthy Churches

Alongside that work, TJ took time to serve at his own church with his business partner, Ryan. That's where the bigger problem came into focus.

Pastors, they found, spend an enormous amount of their time on administration: QuickBooks,  social media, and all the tasks that keep the lights on. They get handled first, before the ministry does. "Those administration tasks are usually the things they have to address first, because they're paying rent, they're paying a light bill," TJ says.

TJ and Ryan grew that early proof of concept into Atrium, and its newest product, Atrium Verge, built to change that math. Atrium Verge gives churches AI agents (not a chatbot, not another app) connected directly to a church's existing systems, built to take over administrative work. TJ believes it's one of the first products in the field built specifically for churches. The goal is simple: a pastor goes to lunch with someone instead of staying buried in spreadsheets that day.

Everyone's a Builder. You Don't Have to Be a Rock Star Coder.

TJ came to the Gloo AI Hackathon expecting competition, and found the opposite.

"We showed up a little bit defensive, thinking we were competing against other companies," he says. "It almost felt like a family, like a brotherhood." At the event, nobody was fighting over the prize money. Everyone was trying to help everyone else build something that mattered.

That's where TJ lands on the same claim we're making this year. "We live in a world where anyone and everyone is a builder," he says. "You may not be a rock star coder. There are so many tools now that you can build something. Everyone has a unique gift and viewpoints that other people probably don't have."

He goes further. "It would be a shame for someone not to bring something because they thought it wasn't good enough," he says. "If you're inclined and you have an idea, build it. Bring it. See how it can help the Kingdom."

TJ didn't need four tech company exits to earn a seat in that room. He needed a problem worth solving, and the willingness to start small and keep building past the first version.

What problem are you called to solve?

If everyone is a builder, the claim is simple: You have a part to play.

TJ's part was giving pastors their time back. What's yours? What community, cause, or mission could you be the hero of this year?