BenAImin Mincu | 🇺🇸/acc 🔥🛠️ (@beniaminmincu): A few warm thoughts from the trenches of startup life

A few warm thoughts from the trenches of startup life 🖼️ https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GnOYWwoWUAAwjFZ.jpg It's 10am, I am in NYC, in the trenches, reflecting on a few of the things happening. Macro, crypto markets, startups in general, and what it actually feels like to build right now. So, here are a few warm thoughts for builders everywhere: 1. Macro is temporary max pain –  Every market is tanking due to macro chaos, uncertainty, and tariff wars. People have seen perhaps the biggest crashes in history during the last few days and weeks. And I'm not talking just about crypto, but about the biggest tech companies in the world. It sucks, it's painful. All this is part of the cycle. This too will pass soon. 2. Startup life is very tough – I have said it before, and I mean it. Some days it's gut wrenching, and lonely. Most of the time there is no one to talk to and discuss challenges. People only see the updates —they cheer or hate. Almost no one sees the weight. The pain the builders, the team, the community carry, to reach the real and meaningful point they desire. Often it feels like no one gets it. Like everything’s misunderstood. And just to be very clear, 9 out of 10 startups die -- that is the painful and natural process. It is difficult. It is hardcore. 3. Everyone’s feeling it – I am on the ground, in the US, talking to many builders and startups from completely different ecosystems. You'd be surprised, but the stories echo each other. The feeling is grim, the situation is tough. Startups are downsizing, pivoting, shutting down. But even in the chaos, there’s something good: hard lessons. Clarity. The kind you don’t get during the good times. 4. From the chaos, a new insight emerges – The next step usually reveals itself only after the storm has passed through you. Startups are wild: euphoric highs, crushing lows. They’ll either break you—or forge something unshakable inside you. What matters is that you keep going. 5. You’re being tested. Refined. Hardened – One step, one build, one conversation at a time. To make something users love. To move the world forward, even a little bit. And that — that’s worth it. So, make sure you survive. Protect your focus like it’s your soul. Because if you do, the world has a way of rewarding you. Far beyond what you imagined. 6. This is the base state – All this, the thing you've read up until this point, it is the default feeling, the “normal” startup life. It is not special. It is difficult. It is hardcore. And it is sort of meant to be this way. That’s why you hear the evergreen stories about the successful founders: living on $5/day, selling weird cereal boxes, renting out air mattresses – all to make a few bucks. They weren’t lucky. They just survived long enough to figure it out. So will you. Once you understand this simple point, it will flip a switch in your mind. 7. So, how do you survive? – A few principles that work in any cycle, any storm: a. Be ruthlessly frugal. Speed and agility come from lightness. b. Get to profitability, or at least real revenue. It’s your superpower. c. Obsess over speed. Shrink feedback loops. Ship fast, learn faster. d. Adapt constantly. Feedback is a gift—use it wisely. e. Build things users love. Listen, tweak, repeat. Do it 1,000 times. f. And above all: don’t die. Outlast the chaos. Because if you do—if you keep building, through fire and frost—the world will take notice. Keep going. We are here, and doing the same. The world needs more builders. And one way or another, it will pay off. Ps. would love to hear the survival manual from a few stubborn and hardcore builders in the ecosystem, i.e. how they push forward and stay alive.