Quick Announcements:
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Next Guild topic call: Tuesday, Nov 10, 5-6 PM CT, on how to use holidays to transform culture (Guild members only).
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(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 Exists
People 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 For
Two 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 Grow
The 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: Educate
The 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: Convene
The 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.
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Fun fact: they’re named for St. Bonaventure. As the story goes, when St. Francis prayed over him as a boy, he cried out “O buona ventura!”, “O good fortune!” That’s what they want to help you build.
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The Goal: Transform Culture
Put it together: a business (income, influence, and independence), the knowledge of why you were given that gift, and a tribe to keep you on track.
That’s how we transform the culture. Faith without action is dead (James 2). Every choice comes down to God’s will or mine.
We are merely stewards, not the master.
It’s not our money.
Practical ways to start changing culture
Fund beautiful art: murals to Our Lady, churches, music
Sacred Heart billboards (especially in June)
Fund or organize Eucharistic processions
Ballroom dances, symphonies, and teaching kids music and dance
Weekly potlucks; invite every new family at church
Take feast days and holy days off: Mass together, then a party
Close on Sundays
Pay a family wage, based on need rather than the market
Marriage and child bonuses or raises (check what’s legal where you are)
Show up at City Hall, vote, back pro-family candidates, or run for office
Live near each other and near the parish; rent homes to other Catholics; rosary walks with neighbors
Till the soil: build workplaces of truth, goodness, and beauty so the seed can take root
Live it openly: a crucifix in the office, the Angelus, a meal prayer, generous families
Start with your home and your company. That shapes your neighborhood, parish, city, and eventually the country.
Three or four families banding together can change a neighborhood. And even people who never convert benefit: better products, better buildings, better workplaces for families.
What Catholic Founders Is Not
Not just a networking group, social club, podcast, or newsletter
Not a coaching upsell (and not a lead source for my recruiting company)
Not prosperity gospel: getting rich and painting faith over it
Not only for people who’ve already made it
Not navel-gazing. This is about action.
Not an empire or a monopoly. We want to work with every group doing related work: many organizations, one body in Christ.
If you boil it all down, we’re just asking people to be fully Catholic. There’s no such thing as “too Catholic.” You are either fully Catholic or not.
How to Get Involved
If you resonate with any of this, there are 4 ways to get involved:
Listen, read, and come to events (free). The Podcast, Newsletter, and Our meetups are open to everyone: luma.com/catholicfounders
Join the Guild: $10 a month or $100 a year. WhatsApp community, member directory, online calls, our AI bot trained on our content, and monthly members’ office hours. Join here
Steward tier: $500 a year. Everything in the Guild, plus an optional spot in a curated mastermind with founders at a similar stage (thank you for the extra support financially).
Already doing this kind of work? If you really really resonate with this — if you hear yourself saying, I’m already doing this type of stuff, or I really want to be part of this… there's more. We are not talking about it publicly yet, but reach out to me or Oscar for more details…
Hire Catholic Overseas Talent
In LatAm and the Philippines, there are millions of Catholic remote workers (across all domains) who want to work for ethical bosses.
Often, they’re treated as second-class citizens or work for organizations that ask them to do questionable things. They reach out to us in search of a Catholic boss.
So, we started ParacleteVA (website coming soon).
With ParacleteVA, we’ll find you vetted, Catholic overseas talent who will help you move your business forward.
How it works: Pay a $500 finders fee when the candidate starts and $500 if you’re still happy with them after 30 days.
To get started, reach out to catholicfounders@gmail.com with what you’re looking for, and we’ll get started.
Key References:
Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30) and the related parable in Luke 19:11-27 (”take charge of ten cities”)
Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:1-23)
Jesus works few miracles where faith is lacking (Mark 6:5-6)
“Faith without works is dead” (James 2:14-26)
The Our Father: “on earth as it is in heaven... our daily bread” (Matthew 6:9-13)
Catechism of the Catholic Church 2016: the grace of final perseverance
St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus (of Lisieux): a little life lived greatly
Uniformity with God’s Will, St. Alphonsus Liguori
St. Joseph the Worker (May 1), the day Catholic Founders launched
Our Patrons: Our Lady, Queen of Heaven and Earth, and St. Homobonus, patron of entrepreneurs
Town Hall recap for Guild members catholicfounders.com/p/cfguildrecap-townhall-oct-2026
Get Some Catholic Founders Swag!
If you want some cool Catholic Founders Swag, check out our Merch store (powered by 4 Marks Printing)
