Letter From Our Founder

The world is a complicated place—what else do we expect when seven billion intelligent apes are running around, each fighting for their needs and desires?

A mentor of mine once told me that trying to understand history is like trying to understand all current events—it’s nearly impossible. Yet, for reasons that feel innate to our existence, we still try. We craft stories about the past to make sense of our purpose, often reducing the complexity of history to a kindergarten-level equation. It’s not malicious; it’s deeply human.

But here’s the thing: history is rarely objective. We don’t write or tell history purely based on facts; we frame it through the lens of our beliefs. I’m guilty of this, and even the best historians fall into the same trap.

For me, grappling with history serves two purposes.

First, it connects us. Understanding that people before us struggled, failed, succeeded, and loved in the same ways we do is profoundly grounding. It offers clarity, humility, and a sense of appreciation for the shared human experience. And while time travel remains a sci-fi dream (imagine booking a $10,000 day at the Colosseum in 165 AD with Marcus Aurelius or strolling Paris in the early 1900s for $1,000), we can relive those moments through the stories of the past.

Second, and more importantly for Franny Amare, history teaches us the importance of values.

When you study empires, civilizations, or organizations, one lesson rings clear: the best endure because they are guided by the right values. Strategies may win battles in the short term—like Caesar conquering Gaul or the U.S. purchasing the Louisiana Territory—but values determine survival over the long haul.

Even brilliant strategies can fail. The U.S. spent over a decade in Vietnam, with devastating consequences and no tangible success. Teddy Roosevelt's Bull Moose Party strategy aimed high but crashed spectacularly. Woodrow Wilson’s League of Nations was meant to end all wars, yet twenty years later, the world plunged into its darkest conflict.

These examples show that strategies are fleeting. They can fail or backfire despite the best intentions. Values, however, are different. They shape the trajectory of a people, a nation, or a company for centuries. Wilson’s League of Nations may have failed, but the values of democracy and freedom endured, enabling the United States and its allies to persevere. On the other hand, the Confederacy’s strategy was effective in the short term, but its values—rooted in injustice—were doomed to collapse under their own weight.

At Franny Amare, you’ll find that our strategy is straightforward. We seek to own great businesses and hold onto them for the long term. This approach has served us well, and I anticipate it will continue to evolve over time.

But no strategy—no matter how well-crafted—can replace the importance of values. The single most critical thing I can do as a founder is to ensure we get our values right. Franny Amare can weather the storms of a strategy gone wrong. But values gone wrong? That’s the kind of failure no organization can survive.

Thank you for being part of our journey.

Eric Hagstrom
Founder & CEO, Franny Amare