Catholic Founders #58 Third Gen Succession Planning Advice | Francisco Lara
Listen on: Fio (Catholic Spotify) | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube
News / Updates:
* Wausau, WI Monthly Meetup: Sign up here (Last Saturday of each month)
* (March 24th) We invite you to the in-person Nashville Meetup (next week)
* (March 26th) Tim Busch, major Church donor, wine and hospitality mogul, is speaking at a Fides event in NYC that we are helping sponsor. Register here (only a few spots left)
* (April 12th) Catholic Founders Guild Dinner in Dallas, TX. Register here.
* Sponsor Catholic Founders to get in front of Hundreds of Catholic Business owners each week. admin@catholicfounders.com
Get the full Ultimate Catholic Founders Resource Guide here (including more events).
Join the Catholic Founders Guild Today Get access to all CF Guild online events, the recordings, paywalled content, the CF Guild community/group chat, and CF Guild member directory. Many members have reported doing business with other CF Guild members within months of joining. With an annual membership fee of $100, it’s a total no-brainer to join. Consider this an association of Catholic business owners, not a high-commitment community that will sap your time. Join today for $100 a year or $10 a month.
In Today’s Issue:
* Intro to the Guest and Topic
* Core Takeaway
* Episode References
* Select Quotes
* Key Moments
First time here? Learn more about our mission. And don’t forget to subscribe.
Today’s Topic & Guest:
Francisco J. Lara | Catholic University of America
There are a LOT of businesses that need buyers — a lot of wealth being transferred (or not) to the next generation in the coming years. If you’re looking to buy a business, the time is now.
That’s what we are discussing today.
How one should do succession planning. How you’d buy a business in a way that respects human dignity. How to work well with your family as it’s passed from generation to generation. And perhaps most importantly, how to maintain the family business even if none of your generation want to run it, in its current form.
Core Lesson:
Succession requires a moral discernment that prioritizes the common good over lineage.
We often feel this massive weight to pass our businesses down to our children, assuming that lineage is the only path to protecting the legacy we’ve spent decades building. However, true stewardship requires us to recognize that our businesses are essentially communities of persons rather than simple family assets. If the next generation lacks the specific skills or the genuine desire to lead, forcing them into that role can actually jeopardize the very community we are trying to preserve. We have to approach succession as a rigorous moral discernment where the long-term health of the company and the well-being of the employees take priority over keeping a specific last name on the ownership docs.
This is where Entrepreneurship through Acquisition (ETA) becomes such a vital tool for the Catholic founder. By opening the door to a searcher, someone with the hunger and talent to lead but perhaps lacking the capital to start from scratch, you are essentially identifying a spiritual heir for your life’s work. It aligns perfectly with the principles of business stewardship we frequently discuss on the Substack and in our previous sessions. Much like our conversation with Andreas Widmer in Episode 15, we have to remember that leading a business is a vocation. Finding the right person to carry that vocation forward ensures the business continues to serve the common good and provides a stable foundation for the families who depend on it.
God Bless & Happy Building!
~Silas Mähner
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 Episode References:
Bible Passages
* The Promise of the Hundredfold
Saints & Devotions
Books & Documents
* The Pope and the CEO by Andreas Widmer
* The Art of Principled Entrepreneurship by Andreas Widmer
* Stanford 2024 Search Fund Study
* Stanford/IESE 2022 International Search Fund Study
Organizations & Academic Institutions
* Catholic University of America (CUA)
* Polytechnic University of Valencia
* Catholic University of Valencia
* Stanford Graduate Business School
* Castfeed
Episode Connections
Select Quotes:
* “So then you need to make a discernment. And that’s the important moral responsibility of the family businesses, not to impose that succession into the family members if they don’t want to, and they are not able to, skilled enough to do that in the right way.” — Francisco J. Lara (00:36)
* “Search funds can be the solution for a family business to move from traditional family business into a family office.” — Francisco J. Lara (18:40)
* “He has to combine two difficult virtues that are humility with magnanimity.” — Francisco J. Lara (19:00)
* “Catholic social doctrine do not mandate dynastic control.” — Francisco J. Lara (24:19)
* “The firm is a community of persons, It’s not a nexus, it’s not a combination of social contracts, and it’s not an end.” — Francisco J. Lara (25:40)
* “The normative criterion should not be lineage, but stewardship effectiveness.” — Francisco J. Lara (29:45)
* “So the entrepreneur is not simply allocating capital, but choosing a community of work to steer.” — Francisco J. Lara (23:14)
Key Moments: (outline)
* 00:00] - Succession Discernment: Francisco discusses the art and moral responsibility of family business succession and the danger of imposing legacy.
* [01:02] - Intro: Silas introduces Francisco Lara and his role as an “evangelist” for Entrepreneurship through Acquisition.
* [02:30] - From La Mancha to CUA: Francisco shares his background as a Spaniard, his law degree from Navarra, and his family’s third-generation farming roots.
* [04:22] - Theory Meets Practice: The founding of Lagar Brothers and Francisco’s realization that the person behind the business matters most.
* [11:02] - The ETA Framework: A deep dive into the four stages of a traditional search fund: search, acquisition, operation, and exit.
* [14:15] - Identifying Talent: Why finding the right “searcher” who acts as the child the family business owner never had is the hardest part of the model.
* [22:09] - Moral Reasoning in ETA: Applying Catholic Social Teaching virtues like justice and prudence to each stage of the acquisition process.
* [24:19] - Stewardship vs. Dynasty: Breaking down why Catholic doctrine prioritizes the common good over “dynastic capitalism”.
* [31:00] - Outro: Final thoughts on professionalizing small businesses and a recommendation to listen to the episode with Andreas Widmer.
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.
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