Building Strength in the Storm

Crucible Insights
May 23
3 min read

Updated: May 28

How today’s smartest startups are turning volatility into an unfair advantage!

In an age of relentless disruption, uncertainty is no longer the enemy it’s the environment. From rising interest rates and global supply chain fragmentation to the breakneck pace of AI development, today’s founders are navigating a business climate shaped more by turbulence than stability.

But some aren’t just surviving the storm, they’re growing stronger because of it.

The New Default: Uncertainty as Operating Reality

In the past, uncertainty was something startups planned around. Today, it's what they operate within. The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in 2023 revealed just how quickly foundational systems can falter. Meanwhile, the meteoric rise of generative AI has upended business models, created new verticals overnight, and forced founders to rethink what competitive advantage even means.

In this climate, playing it safe is often riskier than moving fast. The most resilient startups have accepted that the landscape will keep shifting and they’ve learned to move with it. They’re building operations that are lean, adaptable, and data-informed, treating uncertainty not as a threat but as a driver of focus and speed.

Resilience Is a Strategy, Not a Trait

Consider Klarna, the Swedish fintech that recently showcased its embrace of AI by using an AI-generated avatar of CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski to present its Q1 2025 earnings highlights via YouTube. This move aligns with Klarna’s ambition to rebrand as an AI-driven company, following the integration of OpenAI-powered customer service agents claimed to perform the work of 700 employees.

However, despite a 13% year-over-year revenue rise and reaching 100 million active users, Klarna's net losses more than doubled from $47 million in Q1 2024 to $99 million in Q1 2025, attributed to depreciation, share-based payments, and restructuring. Credit losses also rose 17%, driven by growth in Pay Later and Fair Financing offerings.

These developments reflect a key principle: resilience is no longer reactive, it’s proactive. The most successful startups today are ones that assume volatility and hardwire adaptability into their DNA.

The Leadership Shift: Calm in Chaos

Leading a startup through volatility is no longer about creating 5-year plans or projecting stability. It’s about having the courage to act amid ambiguity. The best founders today lead with clarity over certainty, making decisions with imperfect data, while keeping teams focused, aligned, and emotionally resilient.

Transparency has become a competitive advantage. In a world full of noise, internal trust and external credibility matter more than ever.

Thriving, Not Just Surviving

To thrive in uncertainty, startups need to rethink what strength looks like. It’s no longer just about how much capital you raise or how fast you grow, it’s about how well you adapt, how quickly you learn, and how clearly you communicate.

That’s why, at Crucible 2026, we’re exploring the tools, mindsets, and partnerships that help startups build strength in the storm not just after it passes.

A Preview: Levers of Strength

So how do the best founders build strength in the storm? They apply strategic levers like:

Obsess over cash flow, understand your burn, renegotiate contracts, and trim.

Build in optionality, avoid rigid bets. Test new markets or products with small, fast experiments.

Stay in the room and engage with ecosystems, events, and peers. Uncertainty is isolating don’t go it alone.

These aren’t just tactics, they’re deliberate strategies for thriving when the environment won’t sit still.

We’ll explore each of these levers (and more) in our next insight article: “7 Levers for Founders Thriving in Uncertainty.” Stay tuned.

This Is the Moment

Founders who embrace uncertainty as their home field will shape the next generation of breakout companies. They won’t wait for clarity, they’ll lead through ambiguity, turning volatility into vision and instability into momentum.

Because in times like these, strength isn’t found in the calm.

It’s built in the storm.

Which strategic levers are you already applying in your business?