In Depth

Ignoring Silicon Valley advice to build a $3B fintech unicorn | Immad Akhund (Co-founder and CEO of Mercury)


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Immad Akhund is the CEO and co-founder of Mercury, a digital banking platform that’s become the go-to financial infrastructure for startups. Before Mercury, Immad spent nearly two decades founding companies, learning the hard way what separates a good idea from a great business.


In this episode, Immad shares the hard-earned lessons from launching Mercury as his third startup. He unpacks how he recognized this was the right idea to pursue, what strong product-market fit feels like, and why trying to "iterate" your way to success often leads founders astray.


In this episode, we discuss:

  • Mercury’s unusual culture playbook – and why it works
  • How to hire with intention
  • The trap of weak product-market fit
  • Shipping under intense pressure during the SVB crisis
  • And much more…

  • References:

    • Airbnb: https://www.airbnb.com/
    • Andreessen Horowitz: https://a16z.com/
    • Apple: https://www.apple.com/
    • Block: https://block.xyz/
    • Brex: https://www.brex.com/
    • Chime: https://www.chime.com/
    • Gusto: https://gusto.com/
    • Mercury: https://mercury.com/
    • Paul Graham: https://x.com/paulg
    • Plaid: https://plaid.com/
    • Stripe: https://stripe.com/
    • SVB (Silicon Valley Bank): https://www.svb.com/
    • True Link Financial: https://www.truelinkfinancial.com/
    • Varo: https://www.varomoney.com/
    • Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/

    • Where to find Immad:

      • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/iakhund/

      • Where to find Brett:

        • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-berson-9986094/
        • Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/brettberson

        • Where to find First Round Capital:

          • Website: https://firstround.com/
          • First Round Review: https://review.firstround.com/
          • Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/firstround
          • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FirstRoundCapital
          • This podcast on all platforms: https://review.firstround.com/podcast

          • Timestamps:

            • (1:07) Hard-won lessons from serial entrepreneurship
            • (2:02) You shouldn’t copy-paste advice
            • (6:57) Why personality trumps culture playbooks
            • (8:48) How do you hire for cultural fit?
            • (12:38) The values that shaped Mercury’s DNA
            • (14:08) The drivers underpinning Mercury’s success
            • (15:50) The significance of product-market fit
            • (20:41) Don’t fall into the weak product-market fit trap
            • (25:49) How to evaluate startup ideas that scale
            • (30:14) Mercury’s unlikely origin story
            • (33:51) Breaking into the fintech space
            • (37:31) Mindset shift: From “This is hard” to long-term gains
            • (39:43) Building Mercury’s MVP
            • (44:25) Overcoming early obstacles to reach launch
            • (47:36) Navigating Mercury’s rapid growth phase
            • (51:18) Competition isn’t the reason you’re failing
            • (55:58) Crisis management during the SVB collapse
            • ...more
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