Love your hacker and the one leadership habit to avoid mission drift, Heather Wilson (GiveSendGo)

In this conversation, Heather Wilson, co-founder and co-CEO of GiveSendGo, shares how a crowdfunding platform became a practical expression of Christian hope. She and Becca Spradlin discuss the early startup years, building a mission into the product itself, and what it looks like to stay anchored when leadership gets messy. They discuss how GiveSendGo has navigated growth, conflict, innovation, and personal spiritual rhythms while refusing to drift from its core purpose of sharing the hope of Jesus.

• Heather shares how she and her brother, both from a family of 12 siblings, started GiveSendGo after noticing the rise of online crowdfunding and sensing a gap for a faith-based platform.
• We discuss the early years of slow growth, unpaid labor, and the reality that the business did not instantly “take off” the way founders often imagine.
• Heather explains how her upbringing shaped her entrepreneurial instincts, including her dad’s tree service business, her mom’s creativity, and her own history of building things from a young age.
• She describes how GiveSendGo intentionally integrated faith into the platform through Bible verses, a pray button, and a hope team that calls campaign owners to pray with them.
• Heather shares how the company seeks God’s wisdom in real time, treating the business as God’s business rather than something they control on their own.
• We discuss the platform’s response to major external attacks and controversy, including a hacked site and politically charged campaigns, and how the team chose principle over reaction.
• Heather tells the story of extending outrageous generosity to the mother of the hacker who attacked the platform, and how that decision changed their posture from anger to blessing.
• She explains how GiveSendGo keeps its team aligned by repeatedly telling stories of hope, making sure every department understands its role in the mission, not just the front-facing prayer team.
• Heather shares personal rhythms that keep her spiritually grounded, including reading large portions of Scripture, creating Bible-reading challenges, and intentionally spending time with God beyond just checking a box.
• We discuss her view of change, technology, and AI, and how she believes organizations must adapt without losing their bullseye.
• Heather reflects on legacy as holding things loosely, staying obedient to what God places in front of her, and prioritizing her children’s faith and eternal impact over business accolades.
• She closes with advice for younger leaders, especially women, about recognizing lies early, capturing thoughts, and replacing control, scarcity, legitimacy, and likability with truth from God.

00:00 – Introducing Heather Wilson and the mission behind GiveSendGo
01:20 – How the crowdfunding idea started with 12 siblings
03:15 – The slow, unseen grind of building a company from scratch
04:29 – Family entrepreneurship, creativity, and early signs of calling
07:02 – Why Heather and her brother refused to separate business from faith
09:32 – Practical ways to share hope on a crowdfunding platform
10:32 – Adding a pray button and building a hope team
14:15 – Facing controversy, threats, and the decision to stand firm
16:32 – Why GiveSendGo would not censor campaigns based on opinion
17:02 – Being hacked and what that pressure exposed in the team
18:28 – Choosing outrageous generosity toward the hacker’s family
19:56 – Blessing those who curse you and what it changed internally
22:36 – Keeping a leadership team focused on the mission
24:24 – A live example of praying for someone at a chamber breakfast
28:48 – Spiritual rhythms: Scripture, reading deeply, and abiding in Christ
31:34 – Bible-in-a-month challenges and inviting others into the habit
36:34 – Embracing change, technology, and AI without drifting
37:27 – Why drift happens when nobody is watching the bullseye
39:26 – Holding legacy loosely and defining what really matters
42:50 – Advice for younger leaders: capture your thoughts and reject lies

Action items

• Ask God how he wants to use your business instead of assuming the mission is already set.
• Identify one practical way your work can reflect your values, not just your branding.
• Tell your team the mission repeatedly so it does not get lost in day-to-day execution.
• Build rhythms that keep you in Scripture and in personal relationship with God, not just religious habit.
• Choose one area where your organization may be drifting and create a “bullseye” to recenter it.
• Capture recurring thoughts and test them against what God says is true.