The Leap Checklist

Thinking about taking the leap to start a startup but struggling to pull the trigger?

This insight from Don Muir, Co-Founder and CEO of Arc will change this!

Don even walked away from his dream job before his first day to start Arc.

But not before he checked off his “leap” checklist.

Let me explain.

A job at the PE giant Apollo was Don’s north star for years.

Don worked towards getting a job at Apollo for years - working for the PE giant was what his #1 professional goal.

Cornell → BCG → PE job → Stanford MBA → offer in hand… then he ripped it up before day one.

A big leap - which is why he wanted to take his leap checklist first:

1. PMF: Get to his definition of early Product-Market-Fit - which at the time was 10 non-binding LoIs from business customers

2. Technical co-founder: Recruit a world-class technical co-founder. Which took him months to find but he did it.

3. Raise a pre-seed: Which was a few $100K.

In Don’s case, the funding came before the technical co-founder.

Fundraising without a technical co-founder is even harder. But for Don, it was what allowed him to get his now co-founder over the edge.

In Don’s words: "When I unlocked the ~$300K of pre-seed financing, I had what many other Stanford startups competing for this individual did not, which was validation."

With all 3 items completed, Don took a ride in his car and called Apollo to take them he wasn’t coming.

Haven’t had the courage to quit yet?

Create your own checklist.

Having concrete, measurable milestones beats relying on excitement alone.

It's often the difference between taking the leap and spending many more years in the hamster wheel.

Don had his checklist. Yours will likely look different.

Mine, when I quit BCG to start focal was:

1. Find an amazing business partner with shared values and mutual trust (I see you Daniel Darling)

2. Do the work to have a realistic shot at raising at least a $10M first fund before quitting (we ended up raising $35M after months of grinding)

3. Get the green card. I quit within 12h of getting it.

The rest is history ;)

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Enjoyed reading this?

Then check out my conversation on the focal podcast with Don Muir, Co-Founder and CEO of Arc (>$180M raised in debt and equity from YC, Bain, and Left Lane)

Youtube | Apple Podcast | Spotify

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