Rust takes forever to start or doesn't start at all

[RageKwit]

So a buddy of mine is having this issue. 7/10 of the times he launches Rust, it simply won't start. He can wait 10 mins +, but no dice. The Rust.exe process will be running, but the launcher never opens. Ending the process and relaunching doesn't help either. 3/10 startup attempts will see Rust start correctly, but it will take a ridiculously long period of time, somewhere around the 8-10 minute mark. I wondered if anyone else experiences this issue or has any insights into why it might be happening.

Thanks