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This story is part of Cedarville Magazine’s summer 2026 issue: Why AI? Biblical Wisdom for Bold Change. You can visit the Cedarville Magazine webpage for the full issue. 

AI is making workers more efficient; it may also be making them lonelier, according to multiple studies published by the Journal of Applied Psychology. Despite the research, a growing number of people are turning to AI for emotional connection. In 2025, an found that about a quarter of adults under 30 had used AI for companionship.  

The temptation to turn to AI for companionship may be especially strong for entrepreneurs, who had already been experiencing what successful business owner and speaker Marcus Sheridan called an “epidemic of loneliness.” In a profession that glorifies grit and often sweeps setbacks under the rug, entrepreneurs can struggle to find genuine, Christian community.  

Seven Cedarville students are working together to change the culture of isolation in entrepreneurship through intentional, biblical community and a clear-eyed view of AI’s strengths and weaknesses. Their home base? An off-campus home they’ve affectionately dubbed “The Hustle House.” 

The Origin Story 

The Hustle House was born out of Entrepreneurs for Christ (EFC), an organization created by Cedarville marketing major '27 to equip Christian entrepreneurs with a Kingdom mindset. The Hustle House name stems from his desire to encourage community over seclusion, redefining entrepreneurship’s hustle culture.  

 ’26, an economics major and EFC board member, helped to inspire the vision and rally other students to it. “We wanted to pursue our businesses while still doing the school side of it, but we wanted to have a place to be able to push each other.”  

Part of accomplishing that mission meant building a community of Christ-followers who could encourage each other and exchange wisdom as they built their businesses. ’26 and  ’26, brothers who both attend Cedarville, bought in and had friends willing to do the same. They also recruited a transfer student,  ’28, a cyber operations major who dreamed of starting a business that would protect churches and missions organizations from cyber-attacks.  

A few additions later, The Hustle House dream became a reality. In The Hustle House, EFC found a localized version of what it hopes to cultivate nationwide: business owners committed to their faith and each other.  

That ambition is the key reason Hochstedler jumped on board. “The American ‘do it alone, grind harder,’ that’s not what we see in the Bible. Community is super important, walking in accountability and in partnership with other men.” 

Life in the Hustle House 

True to their goal, the young entrepreneurs support each other's ventures. The house has its own boardroom and collaboration spaces where housemates come together to bounce ideas off each other and work through the complex problems that entrepreneurs face.  

“On most nights, you’ll find several guys working together in the conference room or living room, often with laptops open even during downtime,” Perry said. “Work and friendship naturally blend together.”  

Through business partnership and biblical fellowship, deep friendships have formed. Perry said that the group prioritizes community through “weekly Bible studies, one-on-one lunches, and hosting friends for brunch and dinners at the house.” Through business partnership and biblical fellowship, deep friendships have formed. Perry said that the group prioritizes community through “weekly Bible studies, one-on-one lunches, and hosting friends for brunch and dinners at the house.”  

This community approach has spurred on the entrepreneurs to business success. Since forming The Hustle House, six of the seven housemates have started businesses, with the seventh doing so well as a salesperson that he generated over $250,000 in sales in just a three-month period. Three of these businesses engage thoughtfully and creatively with AI.  

Ruper Labs: Connecting Technology With People  

Toward the end of 2025, Perry and Hochstedler attended Cedarville’s Impact conference, an event meant to encourage professionals to stand firm for Christ in the business world. They interacted with professionals who were desperate to implement AI but did not have the time to understand its potential role in their organizations.  

Recent research shows that what Perry and Hochstedler witnessed was just part of an issue that’s incredibly widespread. The  reported that while 88% of companies use AI, their frustrations with implementing it were palpable. Employees often struggle to understand the technology or identify how it will help them in their specific jobs.  

After hearing the angst from fellow conference goers, Perry and Hochstedler saw a gap in the market that they could fill. “We both have this passion for connecting people and technology, because technology oftentimes is a whole other language,” Hochstedler said. So together, they formed their own business: Ruper Labs.  

At Ruper Labs, Perry and Hochstedler serve commercial and residential construction companies by finding problems that AI might solve. They then help the organization understand how to use an existing AI tool or build a custom solution and offer to maintain it as long as needed. While Perry acknowledges AI is not the answer to all of the problems they find, Ruper Labs’ services help businesses discover the right ways to use AI: to serve people, not replace them.  

Orme Solutions: Automating Business Processes 

Daniel Ormsbee launched a similar business, Orme Solutions, from a different perspective — one focused on systems analysis. He also sees strengths and weaknesses with AI and suggests we view it as a form of automation.  

“AI is just a new tool that’s really good at processing information in the digital realm,” Ormsbee said. “You specify the goal, you specify the rules, and then you specify the steps in the workflow it needs to do, then it is able to execute that.”  

So what does it not do well?  

“It’s not good at planning for a specific goal,” Ormsbee added. “It won’t build what I want unless I give it a very detailed plan of how to do that.”  

AI has not replaced critical thinking. It needs direction. Ruper Labs and Orme Solutions are helping companies understand how to give AI the right direction to meet their needs.  

Fighting for the Imago Dei 

The Hustle House members are not only evaluating AI’s strengths and weaknesses for the workplace; they are also wrestling with how faith should influence our use of AI in general. “We need a biblically grounded philosophy of what makes human interactions valuable and what makes humanity valuable,” Ormsbee said.  

Much of Christendom is wrestling with the same thing. Trevin Wax, visiting professor at Cedarville, summed up that concern in an  last year: “What captures my attention is a deeper anthropological question: not ‘What will AI do?’ but ‘What will AI do to us?’  

Wax’s main concern is that we will exchange relationships with others for the ease and efficiency of AI. The men of The Hustle House share those fears. Hochstedler sees this use as dangerous. “We need to be very clear that it’s not a person, that it shouldn't be treated like a person.”  

Ormsbee emphasized that while we can use AI for a lot of things, it does not mean we should, especially when it comes to human relationships and creativity. “When we look at the Imago Dei, what is beautiful about human civilization? It’s relationships. Anything that AI is doing that goes against that, I think, is unwise and improper.”  

Entrepreneurs for Christ and The Hustle House members are fighting for biblical community. That kind of leadership does not come naturally. It has to be cultivated. “Cedarville provides you with tons of leadership opportunities,” Ormsbee said. “And leadership is made by leading. Being put in that situation and navigating it.”  

Christians need strong leadership on AI, both in the business world and elsewhere. If EFC and The Hustle House are any indication, that leadership will come from Cedarville graduates.