#97 Why Catholic Founders Exist and Our Vision for the Future
Quick Announcements: * Pray with us: the Novena to St. Homobonus. We go live on Substack around 6:30-7 AM CT.* Next Guild topic call: Tuesday, Nov 10, 5-6 PM CT, on how to use holidays to transform culture (Guild members only).* All in-person meetups, open to all Catholic business owners: luma.com/catholicfounders* Partner Event: Catholic Founders is proud to co-host Faith & Founders. Join us tonight at the Catholic Information Center following 5:15 PM Mass to connect, collaborate, and build together!Join the Catholic Founders Guild Today(1) Launch/grow your biz, (2) Learn the Theology of Entrepreneurship, (3) Discover Community, and (4) Transform Culture by making it Catholic. 200+ members and counting.Join today for $100 a year or $10 a month.Curious? --> “What is the Catholic Founders Guild?”In This Post:* Catholic Founders in one minute and Who it’s for* The three pillars: * Start & Grow, * Educate, * Convene* The goal: Transform Culture (with practical ideas)* What Catholic Founders is not* How to get involved* References First time here? Learn more about our mission. And don’t forget to subscribe. Why Catholic Founders ExistsPeople ask me all the time, “What exactly is Catholic Founders?” Despite us starting out as simple curiosity around the question ‘what would Jesus do if He were the CEO of a company?” — it has grown into much more than that. We now have over 280 paid members, several cities host semi-regular meetups — a true community is forming. After a lot of prayer and thought, and a huge assist from the Holy Spirit, I feel we have a really strong understanding of who we are and why we are doing this. So, we’ve taken the time to boil this down. We can condense it (we do often) but this is an opportunity to hear the in-depth understanding of what we are. In the same way a religious order would be reluctant to tell you their spirituality in an elevator pitch, we prefer to give you a holistic understanding of what we are up to and WHY we are doing this. It is long, but watch or listen to it when you have time. Save it for later in case you have a friend who is wondering what Catholic Founders is all about in the future (or send it to the ones you think should be part of this movement). Catholic Founders in One Minute: S-E-C-T* S: Start and grow. We help Catholics start and grow their businesses.* E: Educate. We learn the “theology of entrepreneurship” together: how the Church’s teaching gets applied in real businesses.* C: Convene. We bring people together long and often enough to build real unity: a tribe.* T: Transform culture. Through those three pillars, we transform the culture, in our case America, and make it Catholic.Who It’s ForTwo words: faithful and ambitious. People who know they’re called to heaven, and who have a switch they can’t turn off: big ideas and a drive to build things in the world.* Founders, owners, and people buying or running a family business* Beginners with only an idea, all the way up to people who’ve built multi-million dollar companies and want to mentor* Mom-and-pop shops, consultancies, agencies, tech companies, and some nonprofits* Not for the hustle culture bro who is chasing fame or money as the end goal. Our goal is Heaven.Pillar 1: Start and GrowThe idea: God chose when you were born, to whom, and where. That “package” set the river you’re on. If it has led you to feel called to build, that desire is a good thing. Entrepreneurs are co-creators with God, made in His image (the image and likeness of THE CREATOR).Why we are open to beginners:* Permission to be ambitious. Ambition isn’t a dirty word. Be magnanimous, not pusillanimous (small-souled). St. Thérèse lived a “little life” greatly, and it changed the world.* The first leap is the hardest. Seeing others take it, and having brothers in arms, makes it possible.* No one is serving them. Because beginners may not be serious, and likely don’t have a lot of excess capital, no one else is really serving them. We know they need help so we’re here for them. * A strong foundation. It’s easier to build in a Catholic way from day one rather than having to unlearn the bad habits. How we grow together:* A preferred economy, not a parallel one. Buy from Catholics when you can, ideally local ones. Keep the money in the community. * Two or three key relationships: It only takes a few key relationships to accelerate an early business. We help make those intros. * Invest in each other. Back people you know and have watched grow up. Build a ladder from beginners to those who’ve made it.* Non-predatory capital. Raise and invest money with your brother in mind.* Be aware of the environment. Many want Catholic ideas gone. Choose to actively support each other.How we do it today: the Guild’s online network and directory, the group chat (our hive mind), the podcast, and curated masterminds of 5-8 founders at a similar stage. In the future: a curriculum for beginners.Pillar 2: EducateThe idea: You can’t love God until you know Him. In the same way, you can’t run a rightly ordered business until you know what that looks like. Most of us know some Catholic social teaching. What we rarely hear is how owners actually apply it: hiring, pay, benefits, layoffs, hard times, and staying out of legal trouble. * Learned from people who live it. Guests’ stories become frameworks, published mostly in the Saintly CEO newsletter on Tuesday mornings.* A group effort. We educate each other. Nobody, including me, has all the answers. This is a group effort of discovering these answers. * It takes time. Some ideas only click after you’ve lived them, so we repeat things and cover them from different angles. We are humans on a journey, and we are here to be on that journey forever. This is the work of a lifetime. * Not an official teaching. This is a grassroots effort. We consult priests and hope to bring on an official chaplain soon but, we do not carry some ecclesiastical seal of approval. * Prerequisites. The sacraments, sound doctrine, and a real spiritual life are necessary if you want to succeed in this pursuit. That is not as much our focus to teach those things, although it does get brought up. Without these, you will not bear fruit.How we do it today: the podcast, the Saintly CEO newsletter, local meetups, online Guild calls with experts, and retreats (coming soon).Pillar 3: ConveneThe idea: We were made for unity with God, and we practice it on earth through the Eucharist. One with God through the Eucharist and one with each other. If you’re called to build, you’re like a steward in the parable of the talents. Stewards need other stewards. Without them, you either bury your talent (because of the pressure from those who do not understand) or spend your time with secular builders whose scoreboard is money.* A tribe takes time and openness. Five minutes after Mass won’t do it. Instead, we convene people as often as we can. Weekly MASSterminds, monthly intellectual discussions, impromptu hangouts, dinners, 1:1 coffee, get our families to meet, and practice openness/vulnerability.* Protection against the downside. Friends who ask why you need a third Porsche. Someone to call when the business is struggling, or when you need help with the mortgage. Isolation is how fear and greed creep in. The devil controls us in fear and isolation. When we have unity, it’s easier to be courageous. * Multiplying the upside. Together we can do the non-consensus Catholic thing: family wages, marriage and baby bonuses (check with your lawyer), and fight or change bad laws as a group.* Safety nets for big swings. “We’ll invest in you, and if it doesn’t work out, we’ll employ you.” Imagine how many young Catholics would take the leap.This episode is also brought to you by Bonaventure Bookkeeping.Most of us didn’t start a business to reconcile bank statements at midnight. But if your books are a mess, you’re flying blind. You don’t know if you can afford that first hire, where the money’s leaking, or how much to set aside for taxes.Bonaventure takes the books off your plate. They tra… This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.catholicfounders.com/subscribe
