diff --git a/internal/build/build.go b/internal/build/build.go
index 8c3e78a7e..267315ad2 100644
--- a/internal/build/build.go
+++ b/internal/build/build.go
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 package build
 
 import (
+	"os"
 	"runtime/debug"
 )
 
@@ -16,4 +17,11 @@ func init() {
 			Version = info.Main.Version
 		}
 	}
+
+	// Signal the tcell library to skip its expensive `init` block. This saves 30-40ms in startup
+	// time for the gh process. The downside is that some Unicode glyphs from user-generated
+	// content might cause mis-alignment in tcell-enabled views.
+	//
+	// https://github.com/gdamore/tcell/commit/2f889d79bd61b1fd2f43372529975a65b792a7ae
+	_ = os.Setenv("TCELL_MINIMIZE", "1")
 }