Welcome back to our "Build in Public" series! In previous posts, we've shared our journey from developing our AI CRO prototype to discovering unexpected market opportunities. Today, we're taking a slight detour to share the chaotic, sometimes terrifying, and occasionally comical story of building a startup while Mother Nature seemingly tries to stop us at every turn.

When Building a Startup Isn't Your Only Challenge

The startup journey is notoriously difficult under the best circumstances. Tight deadlines, limited resources, market uncertainties: these are the standard obstacles every founder faces.

But what happens when you add natural disasters to the mix?

Over the past few months, as we've built GYST, we've faced a series of increasingly absurd challenges that had nothing to do with product-market fit or user acquisition. Instead, we found ourselves battling the elements themselves, like protagonists in some bizarre startup survival reality show.

Here's our tale of building through disaster and the unexpected lessons we learned along the way.

The Earth Moves: Developing Strategy During an Earthquake

Our first brush with natural disaster came on February 17th, just as we were entering week six of our eight-week prototype development deadline.

We were deep in a strategy session, discussing how our AI Chief Revenue Officer would analyze cross-platform creator data, when the room began to shake. At first, it was subtle, a slight tremor that might have been a heavy truck passing by. Then came the unmistakable rolling motion of the floor beneath us.

"Earthquake," my co-founder said calmly, as if announcing that it was raining, while our gardener dashed out the main gate.

Portugal isn't known for significant seismic activity, which made the 4.7 Richter scale quake, with its epicenter less than 10 miles from our home, all the more surprising. As the shaking intensified, we found ourselves instinctively rushing to save the most important items in the room: not our laptops or business documents, but the pieces of artwork on our shelves and walls.

There we stood, each holding a framed piece of art, continuing our business discussion as the house swayed around us.

"So, as I was saying..." I continued, trying to maintain normalcy while gripping a Peter Max statue with white knuckles.

The absurdity of the moment wasn't lost on us. While most startups worry about metaphorical shaky ground, we were dealing with the literal version.

When the tremors finally subsided, we carefully rehung our artwork, sat back down, and picked up precisely where we'd left off. The earthquake had become just another bullet point in our daily standup: "✓ Survived seismic event. ✓ Finalized data analytics approach."

Hurricane Season in Portugal: When Trees Attack

Just as we were recovering from the earthquake surprise, Mother Nature decided to throw another challenge our way on March 19th.

Portugal typically enjoys a mild climate. So when hurricane-force winds began howling around our home that night, it felt distinctly like being transported to Florida during storm season, a disorienting experience when you're supposed to be enjoying the first days of spring in southern Europe.

The storm intensified as night fell. My wife and our dog couldn't sleep, both visibly anxious as the wind screamed outside. Then came the unusual sounds: loud, splintering cracks followed by thunderous crashes. Scary!

By morning, we discovered we'd been lucky. Two massive pine trees had been pulled out from the ground in our garden, but they'd fallen harmlessly onto the grass and bushes. Some of our neighbors weren't as fortunate, with trees crushing cars and damaging homes.

As we surveyed the damage, we couldn't help but see a metaphor for the startup journey itself: massive, unexpected obstacles falling all around you, with success sometimes determined by nothing more than which way the wind decides to push them.

The Great Iberian Blackout: When Your Critical Meeting Goes Dark

The most disruptive event came on April 28th, a date now remembered across Portugal and Spain as the day of the Great Iberian Blackout.

The timing couldn't have been worse. We had scheduled a crucial meeting with Evolved Talent, an important potential partner whose interest could significantly accelerate our go-to-market strategy. After weeks of back-and-forth to find a time that worked across time zones, we finally had our slot.

The day began normally enough. We were on a morning call with a mentor who was also considering investing in GYST, discussing our traction metrics and growth strategy. At around 10 AM, mid-sentence, everything went dark. Screens off. Lights out. Call disconnected.

At first, we assumed it was a brief local outage, annoying but manageable. But as minutes stretched to hours with no power return, we began to realize this was something different.

The worst part? Not only was the electricity gone, but cell networks and internet connectivity had also failed across the region. We had no way to contact Evolved Talent to reschedule our evening meeting. No email. No phone. No messaging apps. In the hyper-connected world of tech startups, we had suddenly been thrown back to the 19th century.

"Maybe we could send a carrier pigeon?" I joked, though the anxiety in my voice was palpable.

As darkness fell and power remained out, we confronted the reality that we would miss our meeting with no way to explain why. In the early stages of relationship building, disappearing without explanation is not exactly best practice for instilling confidence in potential partners.

The blackout stretched on for over 13 hours, with power finally returning past 11 PM, long after our scheduled meeting time had come and gone.

The next morning, we discovered a surprising silver lining: the blackout had been so widespread and unusual that it made international news. Evolved Talent had seen coverage of the massive Iberian power outage and correctly guessed that we had been affected. They reached out proactively to reschedule, and when we eventually held the meeting, our shared blackout experience became an unexpected bonding point.

Even better? We absolutely nailed the rescheduled meeting, securing a partnership that might never have felt as collaborative without our shared adventure through the Great Blackout. We've learned that vulnerability and authenticity during difficult situations create stronger business relationships than perfectly polished pitches ever could.

Resilience Is a Competitive Advantage

While our competitors might have more funding or larger teams, few have been battle-tested by earthquakes, storms, and widespread infrastructure failure. We've developed a level of resilience and adaptability that can't be taught in business school.

This resilience extends beyond disaster response to how we handle everyday startup challenges. Market feedback that might devastate other teams feels manageable after going against force majeure events.

Building Through Anything

As we look back on this series of calamities, we can't help but laugh at the absurdity of it all. Most startup founders worry about running out of funding or failing to achieve product-market fit. We had those concerns too, plus earthquakes, falling trees, and nationwide power failures.

Yet through it all, we kept building. Our eight-week prototype deadline? We hit it, despite Mother Nature's best efforts. Our key partnerships? Secured, sometimes even strengthened by our shared disaster experiences.

There's a resilience that comes from building through chaos, a confidence that if we could create GYST under these conditions, we can handle whatever the market throws at us next.

So if you're building your own startup and feeling overwhelmed by the normal challenges of the journey, take heart. If we could keep moving forward while the earth literally shook beneath us, you can overcome your obstacles too.

And maybe invest in a good backup generator, just in case.