T here’s a certain well-worn route in the Web hosting business that goes: started early; made it big; sold for a tremendous
profit; moved on to other things. It’s a path that has been traveled by some of the most well-known people in hosting. And while the script differs here and there – the business they sell to, the industry they move on to – these stories always adhere to one common bottom line. That is, the bottom line.

Business, as they say, is business. And the entrepreneurial spirit, for all its noble characteristics is a spirit most often invoked in the service of money.

Alvaro Albarracin, once the CEO of dedicated hosting provider Dialtone Internet, may be Web hosting’s most unique export in that his success in the business, and his successes since, have invoked that entrepreneurial spirit in the service of a higher power.
That higher power, in Albarracin’s case, is the Creciendo en Gracia church (the name means “growing in grace”) and, in particular, its spiritual leader José Luis De Jesus Miranda. The organization, headquartered in Miami, Florida, is a controversial group that is itself more than a little bit entrepreneurial, often preaching the virtue of very large and frequent cash donations from its faithful.

With more than 100,000 members and hundreds of congregations worldwide, the church’s message comes from De Jesus, who claims to be the second coming of Jesus Christ. And many people, including Albarracin, agree.

“I truly believe he’s my God, my creator,” Albarracin has said about De Jesus. An expression of heartfelt faith in the man for whom he works now as entrepreneur of entrepreneurs, a kind of organizer of businesses among the faithful, all of which reportedly contribute between 20 and 80 percent of their profits to De Jesus, and some of which make him CEO.
Albarracin is no exception. In fact, he may be the prime example. He had already been active in the Creciendo en Gracia for several years before founding Dialtone in 1996. By 2001, Dialtone was one of the fastest growing companies
in South Florida, reportedly taking in $7.9 million. That year, Web Hosting Magazine named Albarracin “entrepreneur of the year.”

Though the extent of Albarracin’s commitment to the church wasn’t widely known at the time, Dialtone’s success was a way for
Albarracin to help fill its coffers. He has said he attributes the prosperity of the company – even as the dot-com crash claimed many of its competitors – to his faith in De Jesus and a monthly contribution of $12,000 to the ministry.
In 2002, he sold the still-growing Dialtone to Interland for $16.5 million. For a short time, Albarracin held a post at Interland, but
in 2003 he quit the hosting giant to work fulltime with De Jesus. He helps parishioners set up businesses, which then contribute money to the ministry. He has had a hand in the launch of hundreds of startups, in a wide variety of industries.

During that time, he has also started up several other businesses of his own – often great departures from the straight-ahead
business of Web hosting. In 2003 he launched film and music publishing company MiamiLA Entertainment.

In 2004 the company produced the movie Amor en Alquiler or Love for Rent, which was a hit in the Latin film festival circuit, though not generously treated by critics. Albarracin has since brought the movie to a small theatrical release and sold broadcasting rights to HBO, where the film appears from time to time.
His long-term goal for the picture was to bring in $14 million worldwide, the profits from which would go to the church.
He spent $300,000 in 2003 to acquire a 50 percent share of a Columbian soccer team, Expreso Rojo. He sold the share in 2006 for $1.5 million, which also went to De Jesus.

Creciendo en Gracia has critics. Other religious groups resent the congregation’s aggressive tactics in denouncing and sometimes outright protesting their services. Some say the group is dangerously close to becoming a cult, pointing to the determined focus on a single charismatic leader.

Albarracin has certainly made sacrifices to focus on his faith. He lost contact with his parents after they left the church. He was divorced from his wife, Madelyn, in 2003, and she successfully barred him from bringing their two children to De Jesus’s church. In 2004, he remarried to Marita Roca, an actor who appeared in Amor en Alquiler.
Though Albarracin exhibits many of the characteristics common to some of the high profile individuals in hosting, he is unique
among them for his special purpose – the considerable success he saw in the business was largely a tribute to the man he considers God.