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