The Founder's Invitation

Template for the personal letter sent to each of the founding twelve. Written by hand or in a personal email, never sent as a bulk mailing list. Each candidate receives a version addressed to him by name.

Dear ___________,

I'm writing to ask you to be one of the founding twelve men of something I've been building for a long time without yet naming.

It's called Lion.College — a guild, in the old sense of the word. A craft society for sovereign men. Companion order to LionMind. Three ranks: Apprentice, Journeyman, Master. Real obligations. Real capital flow between brothers. Real mentorship — not the LinkedIn kind.

I'm starting it because the things that used to form men — the parish, the regiment, the trade — don't form most of us anymore. And the things that have replaced them mostly don't work. I've spent a long time reading LionMind, building Riverun, trying to figure out what would actually move the needle. The answer keeps coming back to a small number of men, in person, over a long time, committed to each other.

Twelve.

I'm asking you to be one of them.

The founding year is free. I'm not running a course. I'm running a year of formation — Pillar I of an eight-pillar curriculum — with a paired mentor, a pod of three other founders, weekly disciplines, monthly cohort calls, and a capstone in the twelfth month. After the year, you'd be eligible for Journeyman, with all that entails (mentoring, dues, voice in the syndicate). Or you'd leave with everything you'd learned and no debt to me.

I'm not asking everyone. I'm asking you because:

[two to three sentences specific to this man — what about his work, his character, his current moment makes him a fit for the founding twelve]

If this is interesting to you, I'd like thirty minutes in person — coffee in Melbourne if you're here, a long phone call if you're not. I'd want to ask you some questions and answer all of yours. After that you can say no without any cost to our friendship. If you say yes, the year starts soon and the work is real.

This is the first ask I'm making. There won't be ten more. If you'd rather not, please tell me directly. I'd rather know now than be wondering later.

Either way, thank you for the man you are.

— Liam

Notes for the Founder when writing each letter

  1. Send to twelve specific men. Not eleven, not thirteen. The constraint matters.
  2. Send by individual email or printed mail — never bulk.
  3. Replace the bracketed paragraph with two to three sentences specific to this man. It is the soul of the letter. Without it, the letter is a marketing pitch.
  4. Sign personally. If posting, sign in ink. If emailing, no auto-signature; type your name fresh.
  5. Schedule each thirty-minute conversation as soon as the man accepts the meeting. Don't let momentum cool.
  6. Allow at least one week between sending and following up. If no response after two weeks, send one short follow-up, then accept silence as a "no" with dignity.
  7. Track responses privately, not publicly. No member is told who else was invited until all twelve are confirmed.
  8. If three or more men decline, reconsider the list before extending. Don't reach for second-tier candidates to fill a number.
  9. The twelfth man matters as much as the first. Don't compromise to reach twelve.
  10. If you can only get nine, run with nine. The number is twelve as an aspiration, not a quota.

Founder's invitation letter · template version 1.0 · drafted in Melbourne