Introducing Catholic Founders ✝️

The #1 Publication For Catholic Founders & Business Owners

Something happened to Catholic Entrepreneurs. In fact, a lot of things changed in the past century. However, one thing in particular makes it harder than ever to be a Faithful Catholic when it comes to building and running a business.

The cultural revolution made it harder to navigate being a Catholic in the world. To combat this, The Church has made a concerted effort to pump out new guidance to individuals—social teaching (reference social teachings list). But what teaching is there for business owners? Surely, there are good and bad ways to run a business. But where are the resources? Where are the thought leaders who are in the heat of this battle? It’s unreasonable to expect priests to give us the play-by-play for running our businesses—they have parishes to run and confessions to hear.

At the core of entrepreneurship is the idea of creating something new. We Catholics, more than anyone else, should understand the importance of embracing this. After all, we are told in Genesis that we are created in the image and likeness of God—THE Creator.

Beyond this, in the 21st century, the value of being self-employed is higher than ever. We cannot expect the family unit to survive through the constant blows delivered by high expectations in the workplace and the influence of the world and school systems on our children. Being closer to our families, sharing meals together, praying together, properly celebrating feast days—these are all things that play a role in keeping the faith and ensuring we teach our children.

After all, following our first calling to Know, Love, and Serve God, is our specific vocation. For the majority of us, that is the Sacrament of Marriage. As we should all know, the first and principle ‘end’ of marriage is for the procreation and rearing of children in The Faith. How can we do this when an employer demands so much of us that we spend so much time in the office we barely know what’s going on in our children’s lives? Is that not a sin against our calling?

Once we have found a way to meet this calling, we must acknowledge the importance of utilizing the gifts God has bestowed on us. Think about the story of the talents. Those who multiplied their talents were given more. Those who squandered them foolishly… well, you know the story.

This is where things get real.

If we take our faith seriously, we need to find ways to implement Catholic teaching into how we build our businesses. But as noted before, there is no one resource we can rely on.

This ends today.

With this project, we aim to build the go-to resource for Catholic Founders and Business Owners for implementing their Catholic Faith into the way they build and run their businesses. Whether it’s a venture-backed startup or a brick-and-mortar, we are going to explore the nuances of doing this in a way that helps us work with God.

On top of this, we are going to build a community of like-minded individuals because going on this journey alone has clearly not worked well over the past decades. We are all part of the One True Church. Why would we want to walk this road alone.

Together, we can sharpen each other, share best practices, and constantly move closer as a group to an understanding of the ideal way to be a Catholic Business owner. No more guessing. No more wondering who you can ask about a tough challenge. We will have our community.

We will go from cowboys to colleagues working in unity with the Holy Spirit to provide for our families and those of our employees and to transform the world.

But here is the kicker.

We can’t do this alone. We need your help. Just like God worked through the prophets in the Old Testament and the Apostles and saints in modern times, none of us can do this alone. It’s a group effort together with God. We all have a part to play so let’s make it happen.

The best way to get this started is to get a lot of eyeballs.

So here are the 3 steps for you to help.

1. Subscribe to this publication (if you can afford it, please support financially) (button below).

2. Share this post with (at least) 3 other Catholic Business Owners / Entrepreneurs you know who want to ‘build’ in union with God’s will.

3. Send us the names of 2-3 people you think we need to interview to get their insights and share them with this community.

If we work together on this, there is no telling how drastically we can transform the hearts of millions to bring them closer to God.

With total faith in Christ the King,
Silas Mähner

PS: While it was down to the wire, we published this on the Feast of St. Joseph the worker in his honor. I just started my own business and also made that public announcement today for this reason. And while I have a lot of things going on, I feel called to continue moving this project forward as well. I hop you will help me by sharing this and helping us grow.

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Notes / Asks / Other

Financial Support:

For this project to succeed in the long-run, we need financial support. Initially, the primary need for cash is to grow the readership.

If you’re interested in sponsoring this project, please reach out (silasmahner@gmail.com). This project will consist of a Podcast, This Publication, Events, a Community, and other Resources.

Really want to help but can’t become an official sponsor? Become a financial supporter of the publication (upgrade to paid by clicking on the top right).

Can’t afford the cost of one sandwich a month to support us? We get it—that Cubano is hard to pass up. Please share this post with 5 other outstanding individuals who are currently Catholic Business Owners/Entrepreneurs or who aspire to be Business Owners one day.

Ideas to Write About:

As we start out, the topics we write about are informed by our own experiences and interactions with others, but we know that all of you have come up against tough situations. Please share some details about these situations and your questions on how to handle them. We will speak with others in the group and crowdsource answers + speak with priests when needed to understand the proper way to handle these things.

Engagement:

Sending blog posts into a black hole is the opposite of iteration. As entrepreneurs, we know the need to adapt and iterate constantly. In the same way, we need your feedback.

Engage in the comments of each post, or if you’re too shy, DM / Email us with your thoughts. And don’t be shy about corrections. Feel we got something wrong—tell us. We know we are not perfect. We know we’ll get things wrong on occasion, but if we never put it out there, no one will be able to correct us.

If you resonate with what we are doing now or at any point down the road, please share this with groups, post on social, and spread the word.

Perhaps you can start a discussion group in your parish with the other business owners to riff on ideas and discuss common challenges.

Resources:

Know of any amazing resources, YouTube videos, podcasts, publications, news sources, encyclicals, etc? Link them in the comments so everyone can find them and so we can use them to continually inform our research and writing.

Prayer:

Join us in praying daily for the transformation of the world through Catholic Entrepreneurship. It can spiritually unite you with the millions of others who are carving their own path.

Contribute:

If you have thoughts on a specific topic, we are more than happy to take outside contributions. Reach out.

If you have a lot of insights you’ve accumulated over the years, you should consider also starting your own Substack / Newsletter project to share your learnings. It takes a bit of bravery, but it’s important to share what you’ve learned so others can learn from you. (PS: you can support us by using the button below to start your own Substack)

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See you all next time!