diff --git a/phpmon/Domain/Integrations/Valet/Valet.swift b/phpmon/Domain/Integrations/Valet/Valet.swift
index 7de8420..5690c66 100644
--- a/phpmon/Domain/Integrations/Valet/Valet.swift
+++ b/phpmon/Domain/Integrations/Valet/Valet.swift
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ class Valet {
     var version: String
     
     /// The Valet configuration file.
-    var config: Valet.Configuration
+    var config: Valet.Configuration!
     
     /// A cached list of sites that were detected after analyzing the paths set up for Valet.
     var sites: [Site] = []
@@ -25,9 +25,11 @@ class Valet {
     var isBusy: Bool = false
     
     init() {
-        version = VersionExtractor.from(valet("--version"))
-            ?? "UNKNOWN"
-        
+        version = VersionExtractor.from(valet("--version")) ?? "UNKNOWN"
+        self.sites = []
+    }
+    
+    public func loadConfiguration() {
         let file = FileManager.default.homeDirectoryForCurrentUser
             .appendingPathComponent(".config/valet/config.json")
         
@@ -35,8 +37,6 @@ class Valet {
             Valet.Configuration.self,
             from: try! String(contentsOf: file, encoding: .utf8).data(using: .utf8)!
         )
-        
-        self.sites = []
     }
     
     public func startPreloadingSites() {
diff --git a/phpmon/Domain/Menu/MainMenu+Startup.swift b/phpmon/Domain/Menu/MainMenu+Startup.swift
index d418d7e..35434ba 100644
--- a/phpmon/Domain/Menu/MainMenu+Startup.swift
+++ b/phpmon/Domain/Menu/MainMenu+Startup.swift
@@ -71,6 +71,7 @@ extension MainMenu {
         // Attempt to find out more info about Valet
         Log.info("PHP Monitor has extracted the version number of Valet: \(Valet.shared.version)")
         
+        Valet.shared.loadConfiguration()
         Valet.shared.validateVersion()
         Valet.shared.startPreloadingSites()
         
diff --git a/phpmon/Localizable.strings b/phpmon/Localizable.strings
index 6cc17aa..c0b0504 100644
--- a/phpmon/Localizable.strings
+++ b/phpmon/Localizable.strings
@@ -219,10 +219,14 @@ You can do this by running `composer global update` in your terminal. After that
 "startup.errors.php_opt.title" = "PHP is not correctly installed";
 "startup.errors.php_opt.desc" = "PHP alias was not found in `/usr/local/opt` or `/opt/homebrew/opt`. The app will not work correctly until you resolve this issue. If you already have the `php` formula installed, you may need to run `brew install php` in order for PHP Monitor to detect this installation.";
 
-/// 3. Valet not installed
+/// 3a. Valet not installed
 "startup.errors.valet_executable.title" = "Laravel Valet is not correctly installed";
 "startup.errors.valet_executable.desc" = "You must install Valet with composer. Try running `which valet` in Terminal, it should return `/usr/local/bin/valet` or `/opt/homebrew/bin/valet`. The app will not work correctly until you resolve this issue. (PHP Monitor checks for the existence of `valet` in either of these paths.)";
 
+/// 3b. Valet configuration file missing
+"startup.errors.valet_config.title" = "Laravel Valet configuration file missing";
+"startup.errors.valet_config.desc" = "PHP Monitor needs to be able to read the configuration file in `~/.config/valet/config.json`.";
+
 /// 4. Brew & sudoers
 "startup.errors.sudoers_brew.title" = "Brew has not been added to sudoers.d";
 "startup.errors.sudoers_brew.desc" = "You must run `sudo valet trust` to ensure Valet can start and stop services without having to use sudo every time. The app will not work correctly until you resolve this issue.";