I'm also at a startup using rust. It's true that the feedback loop can sometimes feel bit slower. One thing that helps here is being test driven so that you're

I'm also at a startup using rust. It's true that the feedback loop can sometimes feel bit slower. One thing that helps here is being test driven so that you're not waiting for compiles just so you can click through to confirm a small change in behavior. But in general I think my velocity is not much slower than it was at a previous company using a node backend. The hardest part of software isn't typing in the code and making sure it runs. It's thinking about what it should do and how it should do it in the first place. And really, Rust's type system is a force multiplier. We can prototype really fast, throw out things and rework them with confidence because with well thought out typing and tests to confirm logical behavior we have strong safety guarantees. It lets you experiment and investigate alternative implementations fearlessly.