Ben Eluan’s journey with Flux is very compelling. I find the narrative of Flux itself noteworthy, especially the part where Ben describes how four founders, all university students, made the difficult decision to drop out. In an interview, Ben shared that he was already in his final year, at the 400-level, when he made that choice, just one year before graduation.
This decision struck me because it raises the question: what drives someone to abandon a degree at such a crucial point? It’s not ambition; it’s something deeper—more akin to a moment of clarity that arises from navigating a flawed system. In this case, real innovation stems not from dreams, but from hitting a wall.
Flux didn’t start with a big dream. It began with a problem, and one that kept getting in the way. Ben and his team had just wrapped up a freelance job for a U.S. client, but when it came time to get paid, everything stalled. What should have been a simple transfer turned into a drawn-out mess.
The money took days to arrive. And by the time it did, a significant portion of it was lost to platform fees, currency conversion, and transfer charges. The pain didn’t stop there. Their accounts were frozen. Transfers failed. KYC checks dragged on with no updates.
This struggle isn’t unique to Flux’s founders; it’s a pain point experienced by millions of freelancers and small businesses in emerging markets. If you’re trying to get paid from Europe or North America, you’re up against a wall: hidden fees, bad exchange rates, rigid platforms, and outdated financial limitations. If you’re lucky, your money arrives late. If you’re not, it vanishes into the system.
In response, they asked a simple question: “Why is it this hard?”
That was the real beginning, not four students chasing some grand mission to change the world, but four students just trying to get paid. What came next wasn’t some glossy startup story. It was trial and error, over and over again. They had to teach themselves how blockchain worked. Build wallets from scratch. Plug into APIs that constantly broke.
They didn’t set out to change the financial world. They built Flux because of the pain the financial system gave them. This kind of problem-solving isn’t flashy. It’s what systems thinking looks like in real life. It is a willingness to move from frustration to function and from complaints to solutions.
But then came the harder decision. One that’s especially difficult for people raised to follow the rules: dropping out of school. Ben left school when he was close to getting his degree certificate. You can call that bold, risky, even reckless, or maybe he was just being realistic.
Like, what if formal education is no longer your most valuable source of knowledge? What if your time is better spent developing products and solving real-world problems? What if your team is already working like a real company? Then what exactly are you waiting for?
This isn’t to suggest that dropping out is the right choice for everyone; in fact, it rarely is. It can be costly, and you lose the ‘safety net’ a degree provides, risking the security it offers. However, the cost-benefit analysis isn’t a one-size-fits-all matter.
For Ben and his team, things had started to make sense. During the pandemic, they worked 21 out of 24 hours each day. They were no longer dreaming of becoming entrepreneurs; they were already functioning like entrepreneurs. The classroom couldn’t keep pace with their progress. And eventually, others started to notice.
According to Innovation Village, Flux, operating under the company name Blueloop, was accepted into the prestigious 2021 Winter batch of Y Combinator. Before that, the team had joined Pioneer, an accelerator launched by ex-YC partner Daniel Gross, and later secured $77,000 in pre-seed funding from Mozilla, Hustle Fund VC, and several angel investors.
These milestones weren’t the beginning of the journey. They were confirmation that the team’s hard work had solved a real and painful problem. That validation came only after they had made tough calls and committed fully, long before they had access to institutional support.
Another side of this story is that Flux didn’t emerge because someone wanted to be the next big founder. It started because someone was tired of inefficiency. Payments were slow and inefficient. It was clear that the system at that time was designed for a different context, a different continent.
So they built the tool they needed but couldn’t find. That’s how a startup should begin, not from hype or some flashy idea of “inspiration”. It should start with a problem you cannot ignore.
My brother is also a Software Engineer, and like many, he chose a different path. He took a traditional career route, climbing the corporate ladder and working with teams across various countries. That path is valid. Flux demonstrates that the entrepreneurial path is not necessarily better. It’s just different. Yet, both paths share a common thread: utility. One creates systems within established companies, while the other builds systems that form new companies.
In the end, Flux is a story about systems failing and individuals rising to the occasion. This narrative isn’t motivational; it’s practical. It illustrates what happens when innovation is the only way forward. Sometimes, dropping out isn’t about abandoning education; it’s about tuning into a different kind of education—one that teaches you to create what your world truly needs.
