Career Transitions for High Achievers with Steve Schlafman

Walking through Madison Square Park a year ago, @schlaf talked about transitions, something he knew a lot about.

I first met Steve when he was a junior investing partner at RRE, a venture capital firm in New York City. At the time, Schlaf had the NYC startup scene in a chokehold. He had a reputation for hustling hard and winning some of the hottest consumer deals in the city. He was charismatic, he was aggressive, and then, he was gone.

At first, he left RRE to do a firm of his own, then he joined Primary as a Venture Partner, then struck out on his own again to blend a CEO coaching practice he was developing with a new chapter as an angel investor.

In the park that day last year, he talked about a new evolution of his practice. He'd gone deep on the study of transitions. As someone who'd lived through many in his career, he felt a connection to the subject. As conversations and calls for help with career transitions flooded into his coaching practice, he felt a calling.

That calling is still taking shape, but the current iteration of it is Downshift, a cohort-based "decelerator" for high achievers in career transitions. Downshift gives these strivers a place and permission to slow down and take inventory before embarking on the next chapters of their careers.

Some takeaways from this conversation —

Steve left venture burnt out from the nonstop pace and transactional nature of venture. He wanted more authentic relationships not based on dealmaking. Venture can feel like a “legalized casino” focused on status and wealth generation rather than substance. Instead of constantly being in meetings and pitches, he needed to slow down and have space to think and process.

In hindsight, Steve would approach venture differently:
— Scheduling no meetings before noon to allow time for research and deep thinking.
— Partnering only with people who share similar values.
— Balancing effort and recovery to avoid burnout.
— Being more upfront and decisive with entrepreneurs, trusting his intuition.

As a coach, Steve helps clients navigate major life/career transitions and “ego deaths” as their identities and narratives break down. In practice, that looks like holding space with presence and empathy rather than driving them to specific outcomes, helping them see patterns and make decisions from a place of clarity and agency, not fear, and slowing down to allow emotions to be felt and processed. This method helps his clients reach a sustainable and ultimately stronger place.

The prompt to reach out to Steve was seeing his work show up outside of the usual startup circles, notably Bobby Kim, founder of the streetwear brand The Hundreds. Bobby wrote —

"Maybe it’s just me.

But I keep running into the same conversations around career crisis, purpose, and transitions. Several times a week, I’ll meet up for lunch, sink into a DM, or sift through a Telegram chat, and a friend will confide that they’re experiencing a tough time. When I comfort them, they are surprised that they’re not the only ones struggling with finances, that other industries aren’t immune to existential threats. They sigh relief when they realize that most everyone I know is confronted with formidable questions of their lives and futures."

He goes on to cite Steve's work and relate it to a wide range of industries with a similar theme. It felt like a good time to sit down with Schlaf to dive deep on his work and this current moment.

When I approached Schlaf ab