Great Founders

Welcome to the home page for the Fall 2025 Great Founders series. Below you will find details on the location, schedule and syllabus, as well as links to the reading material, as they become available.

An extended course description is available on our announcement post:

Announcing: Great Founders

Parnassus House is excited to announce our upcoming fall series, Great Founders: Regimes, Cities, States, and Firms. We invite you to learn more about the series, and register today.

Parnassus HouseNiko Kovacevic

Reach out to us at founders@parnassus.house if you have any questions.

Location

Highland City Club
885 Arapahoe Ave.
Boulder, CO 80305

Parking is available on-site, in the lot off of 9th St. between Arapahoe and Canyon, but it is sometimes limited. We suggest trying to arrive a few minutes early to secure a spot.

Schedule and Syllabus

1. What is a Great Founder?
   Tuesday, October 21, 12:00pm-1:45pm
2. Plutarch on the Spartan Regime
   Tuesday, October 28, 12:00pm-1:45pm
3. Livy on the Dual Founding of Rome
   Tuesday, November 4, 12:00pm-1:45pm 
4. America’s Great Constitutional Founders
   Thursday, November 13, 12:00pm-1:45pm 
   * meeting on Thursday due to Veterans Day closure on Tuesday
5. Lincoln’s Refounding of America
   Tuesday, November 18, 12:00pm-1:45pm
6. Great Founders of Industry and Finance (Henry Ford, Ray Dalio)
   Tuesday, December 2, 12:00pm-1:45pm
7. Great Founders of Futurism and Technology (Walt Disney, Steve Jobs)
   Tuesday, December 9, 12:00pm-1:45pm
8. Contemporary Founders and Leaders (Lee Kuan Yew, Peter Thiel, Elon Musk)
   Tuesday, December 16, 12:00pm-1:45pm

Readings

Reading material for each seminar will be posted here as soon as it is available. We will also send out emails a week prior to each seminar, detailing the specific reading we plan to discuss in the subsequent seminar.

Week 1 - October 21st

Week 2 - October 28th

Week 3 - November 4th

Week 4 - November 13th

Week 5 - November 18th

Week 6 - December 2nd

Week 7 - December 9th

Week 8 - December 16th

Extended Bibliography

Below are resources we're drawing upon for course material. These are NOT required reading, but you might find them useful as references.

What is a founder?

• Samo Burja, Great Founder Theory
• Machiavelli, The Prince (trans. Mansfield)

Sparta and Rome

• Plutarch, Lives
• Livy, The Early History of Rome

American Founding

• The Declaration of Independence
• The Constitution of the United States of America
• The Federalist Papers
• David Epstein, The Political Theory of the Federalist

Abraham Lincoln

• Lyceum Address
• Gettysburg Address
• Leon Kass, "Abraham Lincoln's Re-founding of America"
• Diana Schaub, "Lincoln At Gettysburg"
• Harry Jaffa, Crisis of the House Divided

Henry Ford

• Henry Ford, My Philosophy of Industry

Ray Dalio

• Dalio, Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order
• Dalio, "How and Why Capitalism Needs to Be Reformed"
• Conversations with Tyler, "Ray Dalio on Investing, Management, and the Changing World Order (Ep. 138)"

Walt Disney

• Neal Gabler, Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination
• Ted Gioia, "Could Walt Disney Fix His Company's Problems Today?"

Steve Jobs

• Steve Jobs, "2005 Stanford Commencement Address"
• Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs

Lee Kuan Yew

• Haonan Li and Victor Yaw, "The True Story of Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore"
• Lee Kuan Yew, From Third World to First

Peter Thiel, Elon Musk

• Peter Thiel, Zero to One
• Walter Isaacson, Elon Musk

Misc.

• Frederic Taylor, Principles of Scientific Management
• Six Sigma Leadership / Management