Arc Co-Founder and CEO Mitch Lee

Jan 30, 2026

Mitch Lee, co-founder and CEO of Arc Boats, turned a lifelong love of boating into a mission to electrify marine transport. He recounts shifting from software and fintech to building electric propulsion, the grind of early product development, scaling production from hand-built prototypes to weekly output, and landing commercial port partnerships to decarbonize working waterways.

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ADVICE

Spend To Match Venture Expectations

If you raise venture capital, match your spending and growth strategy to VC expectations rather than being overly thrifty.
Investors expect founders to pursue aggressive, power-law outcomes, not just slow, efficient growth.

ANECDOTE

Long Road To First Delivery

Building the first ARC1 took about 10–12 months, and delivering a customer-ready boat took another 12 months with many dark moments.
The team endured long hours and setbacks in cold testing before finally delivering the first boat.

ADVICE

Don’t Over-Engineer Minor Components

Avoid over-integrating every component just because engineers think they can do it better.
Focus on necessary competencies and avoid creating extra work by vertical integration of minor parts.

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If you spend any time on the water, you’ve probably heard the joke that the two best days of a boat owner’s life are the day they buy the boat… and the day they sell it.

For today’s guest, that line isn’t just a joke. It’s a problem statement.

Mitch Lee grew up around boats. He loved being on the water, but he also experienced firsthand how loud, smelly, maintenance-heavy, and frustrating boat ownership can be. And once electric vehicles started proving what was possible on land, one idea kept coming back to him: if electrification makes sense in cars on the road, it might actually make even more sense in boats on the water.

Mitch is the co-founder and CEO of Arc, an electric boat company building both consumer and commercial vessels. Arc started in the premium wake sports market, selling directly to consumers and using those early boats to develop its electric propulsion technology. That platform is now being deployed in commercial applications, where electrification can improve reliability, lower costs, and support ports that want to electrify.

Founded in 2021, Arc has raised over $110 million through its Series B and has scaled from delivering its first customer boat, which took two years to build, to now producing multiple boats per week, while also landing major commercial partnerships at working ports.

In our conversation, Mitch walks me through his path that led to Arc, from a childhood fascination with stocks and compounding interest, to building and selling his first company in the personal finance space, to betting big on electric boats and what electrification can unlock on the water.

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