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Leaving a Job to Start Up

A planned exit from salaried work: your personal runway number, contract and IP checks, vesting and benefits timing, a clean resignation and handover, and a steady plan for the first year as a full-time founder.

Free · Mac (Apple silicon) and Windows · v1.0.0 · Other platforms

Then open the Marketplace in the app, search for Leaving a Job to Start Up, and click Install. It goes into your own files, and works offline from then on.

What it installs.

1

Pillar

1

Area

50

Projects

198

Starter tasks

🚀 Founding & Startups

Leaving a Job to Start Up

Planning the move from employment to founding, with savings, timing, employer obligations and a plan for the first months.

  1. Personal cost of living baseline
  2. Leap savings number and personal runway target
  3. Employment contract review for founder clauses
  4. Clean separation of startup work from employer property
  5. Vesting, bonus and clawback timeline
  6. Inventory of employer benefits you will lose
  7. Emergency fund held apart from leap savings
  8. Written leap criteria and resignation window
  9. Household agreement on money and time for the leap
  10. Borrowing and credit check before the payslips stop
  11. Monthly leap savings tally
  12. Protected weekly build hours while employed
  13. Monthly personal runway review after the leap
  14. Bridge income pipeline of consulting and contract work
  15. Tax set-aside routine for self-employed income
  16. Professional network kept warm after leaving
  17. Weekly founder log for the first year
  18. Yearly check of personal cover and insurance
  19. Career re-entry insurance
  20. Restrictive covenants basics before seeing a lawyer
  21. Self-employment tax and registration basics
  22. Budgeting on irregular founder income
  23. Understanding your stock options before you leave
  24. Resigning well, the conversation and the letter
  25. Structuring a workday without a manager
  26. Negotiating your exit terms
  27. Quit now or wait for the next vesting date
  28. Full leap, part-time, sabbatical or unpaid leave compared
  29. Cutting fixed costs before the resignation
  30. Clearing high-interest debt before the salary stops
  31. Health cover after employer coverage ends
  32. Whether and when to tell your manager about the startup
  33. Exercising or forgoing vested options
  34. Pension contributions after the payroll stops
  35. Resignation day plan
  36. Notice period handover plan
  37. Final paperwork and equipment return checklist
  38. Departure announcement to your professional network
  39. First week as a full-time founder
  40. Ninety-day post-leap checkpoint
  41. Twelve-month leap review to continue, adjust or return
  42. Leaving a senior, well-paid role mid-career
  43. Leaving with a mortgage and dependants
  44. Leaving a job that sponsors your work visa
  45. Using redundancy or severance as runway
  46. Leaving a regulated profession or public sector role
  47. Coordinated exits when two co-founders leave jobs
  48. Former employer as first customer or partner
  49. Recruiting former colleagues within non-solicit limits
  50. Garden leave plan

Where it starts.

Each project arrives with its purpose, milestones and first tasks written out. Here is how the first three read.

Personal cost of living baseline

Every number in a leap plan rests on what your life actually costs each month, and most people underestimate it by a third once annual bills and irregular spending are counted. Three months of bank and card statements, sorted into fixed, flexible and annual costs, gives you a figure you can defend to yourself and your household.

First tasks

  • Export the last three months of personal bank and card statements
  • Sort every transaction into fixed, flexible or annual costs
  • List the costs your employer covers today that you will inherit
  • Write the monthly cost of living total and today's date at the top

Leap savings number and personal runway target

Founders who leave with less than a year of personal costs saved often end up fundraising or job hunting from a position of fear. Setting a clear savings number, made of months of living costs plus a cushion for tax, cover and surprises, turns a vague wish into a target with a date attached.

First tasks

  • Decide how many months of personal runway you want before resigning
  • Multiply the monthly cost baseline by that number of months
  • Add a cushion for tax, health cover and one-off costs
  • Work out the date you reach the number at your current saving rate

Employment contract review for founder clauses

The clauses that matter most to a departing founder are usually buried in a contract signed years ago: invention assignment, moonlighting, confidentiality, notice period, non-compete and non-solicitation. Reading them now, and paying an employment lawyer for an hour if anything is unclear, stops a former employer from having a claim on your company later.

First tasks

  • Find your signed contract, handbook and any later amendments
  • Copy every IP, outside work and restriction clause into one page
  • List the questions you need an employment lawyer to answer
  • Book a one-hour consultation with an employment lawyer

Make it yours.

Install Leaving a Job to Start Up, then tell Aurum the date you're aiming for. It checks whether the plan fits the weeks you actually have.

Free · Mac (Apple silicon) and Windows · v1.0.0 · Other platforms

Blueprints are general information to help you organise your own work. They are not medical, financial, legal or other professional advice. See the Terms.