Catholic Founders #48 Reclaiming Magnificence: Faith, Ambition, and Building in Silicon Valley | Federico (Fed) Chavez-Torres
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It’s time for another episode of Catholic Founders! This time with my good pal Federico - or as we call him, Fed.
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In Today’s Issue: Intro to the Guest and Topic | Core Takeaway | Episode References | Select Quotes | Key Moments
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Today’s Topic & Guest:
If you think the tech world is a spiritual desert, you haven’t been paying attention to what’s happening in San Francisco.
In this episode, I’m joined by Federico “Fed” Chavez-Torres, co-founder of Tex and a leading voice in a growing cohort of venture-scale Catholic founders. Fed is one of those rare people who combines high-level Silicon Valley ambition with a deep, gritty commitment to the Faith. And he’s a good friend, so I was happy to have him on the show.
We’re moving past the “small business” comfort zone and diving into the deep end: The duty of greatness.
Here is what we cover:
* The San Francisco Renaissance: Why the Bay Area is seeing record-breaking conversions and how a “bubble” of serious Catholic founders is actually a secret weapon for innovation.
* Reclaiming Magnificence: A gut-check on why Catholics have abandoned the pursuit of greatness and how we can reclaim “intellectual ownership” of ambition.
* The “Death Athlete” Mindset: A radical framework for living (and building) where we train every single day to leave everything on the court for the glory of God.
* Building the Future: Why the world desperately needs Catholics at the helm of the companies defining AI, biotech, and the re-industrialization of the West.
Fed’s perspective is a direct challenge to the “poverty-first” mentality that Catholics have taken for a long time. I think you’ll like his takes.
Core Lesson:
Don’t confuse humility with smallness.
As Catholics, we rightly emphasize poverty, service, and care for the vulnerable. But somewhere along the way, many of us have become uneasy with greatness — with scale, influence, and ambition — even when God has clearly given us the talent to build something significant.
Fed makes the case that venture-scale companies will shape culture whether Catholics build them or not. The algorithms, platforms, and institutions defining modern life are not neutral. If they are not led by people with a moral spine, they will be led by people who are perfectly comfortable exploiting human weakness for profit.
The alternative is not retreat. It’s responsibility.
For those of us called to build at scale, the task is to pursue excellence with discipline, to aim high without idolizing power, and to order ambition toward Christ. Not for our own glory, but so that the companies shaping the future are led by men and women who actually know what the good is.
This episode is a reminder that Catholics don’t just belong in the room — in many cases, we are morally obligated to be there.
God Bless & Happy Building!
~Silas Mähner
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Key Episode References:
* You Must Change Your Life – Peter Sloterdijk
* Biblical Passages: Psalm 51, John 1:1–18, 2 Timothy 4:7, 1 Corinthians 9:24–27, Luke 22:39–46,
Select Quotes:
* On the Call to Greatness: “We have been in this focus on poverty for 70 years, but we’ve neglected the call to magnificence. We should have complete intellectual ownership over the concept of greatness.”
* On the “Death Athlete” Mindset: “We are training every day towards our death. I want to be a ‘death athlete’—someone who, like Christ on the cross, leaves absolutely everything out on the court for God.”
* On the Mission for San Francisco: “It’s about a new way to cope with the horrors of modern life in a Catholic way—one that isn’t just ‘move to a farm,’ but staying to make the city beautiful again.”
* On Ethical Technology: “If there were more Catholics in these businesses, half of them wouldn’t exist—because we wouldn’t build algorithms designed to hijack the human soul for a click.”
* On the Power of Community: “Founders hunt in packs. Being Catholic in the middle of Silicon Valley makes you differentiated—it centers the hustle around the Cross rather than just the exit.”
Key Moments: (outline)
* 00:00 – Intro: Catholic concept of “becoming like gods.”
* 00:23 – Host Update: Silas on moving to Nashville.
* 03:38 – SF Renaissance: The Catholic revival in the Bay Area.
* 06:52 – Silicon Valley Leverage: Why “bubbles” can be good for innovation.
* 11:50 – Tex: Fed explains his industrial asset startup.
* 14:21 – Catholic VCs: The state of faith-aligned venture capital.
* 19:24 – Ethical Tech: Why Catholics should build AI and social media.
* 25:18 – The Mission: Making San Francisco Catholic again.
* 39:41 – Magnificence: Reclaiming ambition as a Catholic virtue.
* 45:49 – Death Athleticism: Training to leave everything on the court for God.
* 53:41 – Rapid Fire: Psalm 51, St. Charbel, and the Angelus.
* 58:33 – Outro: Final reflections on the duty of greatness.
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