ORIGINS

Immad Akhund is the co-founder and CEO of Mercury, a San Francisco-based digital banking platform for startups.

He was born in Pakistan, with his mother working as a teacher and his father owning a mechanic shop. At the age of nine, he moved with his family to London. He would go on to attend the University of Cambridge and later move to San Francisco to participate in Y Combinator with his company Clickpass. Immad then founded Heyzap, a mobile developer tools company that successfully sold for $45 million in 2016.

In 2017, Immad co-founded Mercury, which has since raised over $450 million from a16z, CRV, and Coatue. He is a former part-time partner at Y Combinator and recently launched IA Fund to formalize his prolific angel investing, which includes backing more than 350 startups including Airtable, Deel, and Substack.

Beyond his illustrious career, Immad is a husband and the father of three children.

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro

02:11 Growing Up in Pakistan And Moving to London

06:37 “Yelp For London” and Early Entrepreneurial Endeavors

10:45 Pivoting From Flash Games to Mobile Ad Networks

12:15 Selling a Company After 8 Years of Pivoting

16:42 Thank You to Macroscope and Timeless Partners

17:56 Meeting His Wife Through Facebook

19:09 Finding Your Life’s Work

22:35 The Origins of Mercury

26:44 The Importance of Design at Mercury

27:37 How Mercury Landed Its Initial Customers

29:12 Raising Mercury’s Seed Round

31:09 The Choice to Not Work Weekends

34:58 Immad’s Best Startup Ideas

36:15 Are There Moats with AI?

38:05 Mercury’s 10-year vision

39:50 From Angel Investing to Formalizing a New Fund

42:13 Paul Graham’s Influence

44:33 Parenting Philosophy

46:27 Sources of Happiness

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Kayvon Beykpour is the co-founder and CEO of Macroscope, an AI code review agent, backed by Lightspeed, Thrive Capital Google Ventures, and others.

Previously, Kayvon was the GM of Twitter’s consumer division until the platform was acquired by Elon Musk. He Joined Twitter after co-founding Periscope, a live video platform where people can create, watch, discover and share live video, Periscope was acquired by Twitter for $120M in 2015. Periscope pioneered technology that inspired Instagram Live, TikTok Live, Facebook Live, and other social networks’ expansion into livestreaming.

Prior to Periscope, he co-founded Terriblyclever Design LLC, a software company that was sold to Blackboard Inc. Following the acquisition, Kayvon led Blackboard’s mobile division for four years where he grew its team from five to more than 100 employees and helped the company become one of the most downloaded apps in the education industry.

Timestamps:

00:00:00 Intro

00:01:54 Fleeing the Iranian Revolution to California

00:04:32 How Gaming Sparked a Career in Tech

00:08:28 Growing Up With 12 Kids

00:12:32 Pissing Off an Apple Exec with a Jailbroken iPhone

00:14:29 From a Cardboard Sign to Winning Emmys

00:19:20 Building Software for Colleges While Skipping Class

00:20:53 Selling $100k Apps to Best Buy & HP

00:22:32 Getting Acquired Over a Spam Call

00:27:03 The Importance of Passion

00:34:21 The Origins of Periscope

00:39:20 Scott Belsky Invented “Teleportation”

00:43:20 Six Months of Failed Designs

00:47:33 Selling to Twitter Before Launching

00:54:07 Trolled by Kobe Bryant

00:57:41 Turning Down Elon Musk

01:01:54 Founding Macroscope

01:10:21 The Two Most Consequential Life Decisions

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A conversation with ⁠Frank Guzzone⁠, Head of Design at Thrive Capital.

He grew up in Virginia, the son of an immigrant father. Frank and I are from the same hometown & college. Frank enrolled at UVA with the plan to become a doctor. He took the MCATs, spent two years as a scribe but a chance opportunity to design the cover of a textbook accompanied a change of course, he decided to pursue a masters degree at the VCU Brandcenter.

He interned at AKQA in San Francisco in the summer between grad school years, worked at Mother New York in advertising, moved to Google’s Creative Lab, and joined Oscar Health - Arriving at the Puck Building in 2015, where he would return years later…

From there: City Block Health and four years of freelancing, meanwhile, posting Cinema 4D animations on an Instagram account now approaching 100k followers.

Frank then arrived at Thrive already having worked with brands like Apple, Google, Adidas, plus touring musicians like John Mayer and Fatboy Slim. He is now Head of Design, helping portfolio founders design and name companies, designing Thrive’s merch and brand, commissioning the flags on the building, and running a design fellowship.

Frank is an amazing designer and an even better person. I hope you enjoy our chat: A glimpse into Frank’s life, past work, and the journey that led him to shaping one of venture’s great brands.

Timestamps:

00:00:00 Intro

00:01:57 Hospitality and Hard Work

00:03:06 Choosing UVA Over Art School

00:07:37 Early Creative Outlets

00:13:49 Oscar Health

00:23:02 Going Viral on Instagram

00:25:06 Freelancing for Apple, Rimowa, and More

00:31:32 Building Thrive’s design function

00:37:52 How to Name a Startup

00:42:12 Design as an expression of Thrive’s Values

00:47:20 Why Good Design is Invisible

00:48:48 Design Fellowship

00:57:08 Work-Life Balance

00:59:43 Adaptation is a Superpower

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit originsmedia.substack.com

James Currier is a Founding Partner at NFX and an angel investor in DoorDash, Lyft, and Patreon.

James grew in New Hampshire to a carpenter father and music teacher mother. He left home at 13 on a full scholarship to Phillips Exeter Academy. Then Princeton, then HBS, all three on scholarship. After college, he sailed to Tahiti, then went to work for Rupert Murdoch building Asian satellite TV at STAR TV in Hong Kong. At 24, a mysterious misdiagnosis forced him back to the US and led him to Boston.

After a stint at various venture firms, James would go on to co-founder Tickle. As CEO, James grew Tickle to the 18th largest website in the world with over 150 million registered users - before being acquired in 2004 by Monster for $110 million.

James then co-founded three other successful companies — Wonderhill an online video game studio which merged with Kabam in 2010 and later sold for $800M, IronPearl a growth analytics SaaS, acquired by PayPal in 2013, and Jiff an enterprise healthcare software which raised $68M from Venrock, GE, J&J, merged with Castlight in 2017.

Timestamps:

0:00 Intro

01:31 Selling Worms to Fishermen at 6 Years Old

03:20 From a Dirt Road to Phillips Exeter Academy

04:49 The Hovercraft Corporation of America

07:48 Sailing Across the North Atlantic

09:18 Misdiagnosed in Communist China

10:41 Joining Battery Ventures in the 90s

12:25 Throwing Parties for Hundreds of Tech Associates

13:25 The Origins of Tickle

16:42 The $100M Healthcare IT Clusterf*ck

18:19 The Next 30-Year Technology Window

23:50 When to Start Your Own Company

26:26 The Importance of Geography: San Francisco vs. New York

29:34 AI, Consciousness, and Talking to God

31:51 Discovering Meditation and the Awakened Mind

34:27 Why You Work Best From 10 PM to 2 AM

36:07 Founder Psychology, Psychedelics and Self-Discovery

39:05 Status & Human Interaction

40:49 The Preferred Attachment Theory

42:40 The Real Value of College

44:01 People vs. Capital

47:56 What True Hustle Actually Looks Like

49:56 “Dad Talks” About Sex and Drugs

53:41 Quitting Alcohol at 21: The Ultimate Life Hack

54:42 F*cking Around at Scale

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit originsmedia.substack.com

A conversation with David Tisch, founder of BoxGroup.We talked about the importance of taste, why you can't replicate career paths, playing in the world series of poker, and a bunch more.I hope you enjoy!Timestamps:00:00 Intro01:33 Focusing on Tomorrow04:22 A Bet Against the Cable Monopoly06:02 A Historical Lens to Understand the Future of Tech09:40 Tech is Filled with Rebels11:55 Jumping Into the Early NYC Tech Scene14:26 Building a Skunkworks Team Inside a "411" Company16:25 Co-Founding Techstars NYC19:56 Baseball Cards and Collectibles23:42 Rejecting Analogies: Extracting Lessons vs. Forcing Comparisons24:56 The Myth of Linear Success Stories27:19 Why You Can't Replicate Career Path30:17 The Emotional Toll of Failure32:21 No One Can Give You Good Advice34:01 Peter Thiel, Facebook, and Uber36:36 ChatGPT Beating Google37:37 Focus on the Founder's Story38:26 The Box Group Competitive Edge40:44 Why Social Media is Inherently Good43:11 Parenting Philosophy45:19 Playing The World Series of Poker While Bored in Law School46:34 The Importance of Taste52:26 The Doorman Becomes a Famous Instructor55:05 Meet Interesting People56:50 Why Cold Emails Fail

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit originsmedia.substack.com

Zach Dell and Justin Lopas are the co-founders of Texas-based Base Power Company.

They recently raised a $1B series C at a $4B valuation, fueling their goals to modernize the electricity grid and provide affordable energy for all.

Zach comes from Blackstone, Thrive Capital, and a lifetime of mentorship from his father, Michael Dell. Justin comes from leading efforts at SpaceX, Anduril, and world-class execution alongside Elon Musk.

For everyone watching, this will give you a tiny glimpse into their exponential growth.

It’s clear Base Power will be a household name, and every engineer would be lucky to join them. Enjoy!!

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro

1:43 The Base Talent Filter

4:00 Lessons from Michael Dell

6:15 Zach’s First Startup

8:45 The Slow Midwest Automotive Industry

15:45 The Base Recruiting Strategy

20:40 Origins of Base: How Zach and Justin Met

23:55 Cut Your Costs, Not Your Power

26:02 The First Battery Install

33:55 Energy Trading and Arbitrage

36:02 The Path to a $100B

40:50 Base Pace

45:15 Don’t Tell Your Grandkids All You Did Was B2B SaaS

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit originsmedia.substack.com

Episode #18 of Yesterday:Aaron Levie is the co-founder and CEO of Box (NYSE: BOX), a cloud storage company used by over 100,000 businesses worldwide, including 67% of the Fortune 500. He co-founded Box in 2005 while a student at USC, initially funding it with online poker winnings before securing an investment from Mark Cuban off a cold email. Under Aaron’s leadership, Box grew from a dorm-room startup to a publicly traded company with more than $1 billion in annual revenue and over 2,000 employees. In this episode, Aaron shares the unfiltered journey behind that growth: The early pivot from a consumer product to an enterprise-first model, to navigating the “innovator’s dilemma” He also discusses how the iPhone and the broader mobile revolution reshaped Box’s product strategy and accelerated enterprise adoption. TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 Intro 01:34 Box Origin Story 04:24 Funding the Company with Online Poker 05:46 The Cold Email That Landed Mark Cuban 07:06 Dropping Out of College for the Dream 09:52 Advice From Mark Cuban 11:12 Enterprise vs. Consumer 12:50 Using the “Innovator’s Dilemma” 15:59 The iPhone Launch 17:46 The ChatGPT Moment 21:02 AI Pivot 26:05 SORA Video Generation 29:45 Why Most Companies Are Failing 33:12 Agents Automating Everything 35:50 Jack Dorsey’s Favorite Entrepreneur 38:13 Advice for Young Founders Presented by Rho: Rho is the all-in-one banking platform for startups, used by Perplexity, Product Hunt, and thousands of other companies. You get everything you need to manage your startup’s cash & a team that’s obsessed with helping founders beat industry giants. Learn more at rho.co/yesterday Sponsored by The Cannon Project (TCP): TCP recruits founding GTM and engineering teams for startups like Ramp, Cursor, and Decagon while investing through their flagship venture fund, TCP 1. Apply for roles and learn more at thecannonproject.com

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit originsmedia.substack.com

Episode #17 of Yesterday:Jonathan Neman is the co-founder and CEO of Sweetgreen, Inc. (NYSE: SG), the mission-driven restaurant brand redefining fast food through fresh, seasonal, and sustainable meals.

Born in Los Angeles and a graduate of Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business (’07), Neman co-founded Sweetgreen with classmates Nicolas Jammet and Nathaniel Ru shortly after graduation, opening the first location in Georgetown, D.C. in 2007. Under his leadership, Sweetgreen has grown from a single salad shop into a nationwide company with hundreds of locations, a leading digital platform, and a public listing on the New York Stock Exchange.

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro

01:41 Parents Fled a Revolution for the American Dream

04:00 The One Rule Dad Had

08:33 Selling Ads in High School

14:49 The 25,000-Person Music Festival

17:03 Escaping the “LA Bubble”

21:41 The Australian Cafe That Inspired Sweetgreen

24:23 The Hated Consulting Job

26:45 The Partner Who Told Me to Quit

29:23 The Complaint That Sparked Sweetgreen

36:24 Raising $300k from $5,000 Checks

37:23 The Co-Founder Who Quit

45:15 The Power of Doing One Thing Perfectly

47:50 The #1 Rule for Running a Business

50:52 From Dishwasher to Head Coach

55:25 Building a Restaurant App

58:32 Revolutionizing Takeout

1:11:18 The Reality of a Founder’s Life

1:13:42 Happiest vs. Unhappiest Moments

Presented by Rho:

Rho is the all-in-one banking platform for startups, used by Perplexity, Product Hunt, and thousands of other companies. You get everything you need to manage your startup’s cash & a team that’s obsessed with helping founders beat industry giants. Learn more at rho.co/yesterday

Sponsored by The Cannon Project (TCP):

TCP recruits founding GTM and engineering teams for startups like Ramp, Cursor, and Decagon while investing through their flagship venture fund, TCP 1. Apply for roles and learn more at thecannonproject.com

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit originsmedia.substack.com

Zach Sims co-founded Codecademy with Ryan Bubinski after dropping out of Columbia. And over a decade later in 2021, they sold to Skillsoft for $525M.

We discuss his family, scrappy upbringing that led to Columbia, and early life stories before Codecademy.

We also discuss YC, growing to hundreds of thousands of users in a few days, the reason they exited, and much more.

Zach’s on the precipice of a new chapter in his life & work, and it was a pleasure to profile his life up until now.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit originsmedia.substack.com

Joe Lonsdale co-founded Palantir (now worth ~$400B) and went on to found venture firm 8VC, the University of Austin, OpenGov, Addepar, and several other companies. In this wide-ranging conversation, Lonsdale traces his life story from deep family roots and early childhood to the present day. He shares the formative experiences that shaped his thinking, his years at Stanford, and the lessons learned from macro investing with Peter Thiel, especially digging into U.S. and Japanese bond markets. We explore chess, philosophy, and warfare; the courage to invent and build talent clusters; the founding stories behind Palantir and Formation 8 (now 8VC); and the vision behind the University of Austin. A rare look at one of Silicon Valley’s most prolific founders & investors, and one of my favorite conversations we’ve recorded so far. Enjoy!

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit originsmedia.substack.com