{"podcast":{"title":"In Depth","slug":"in-depth-1318680","podcast_index_feed_id":1318680,"rss_url":"https://feeds.megaphone.fm/FRCH6787238462","website_url":"https://firstround.com/","image_url":"https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/9426cbf8-25fe-11ec-a0b4-fb6861cc1eaf/image/f27cea2953ad25c68029f33bc99ba58b.png?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&max-w=3000&max-h=3000&fit=crop&auto=format,compress","author":"First Round","episode_count":178,"summary":"Welcome to In Depth, a podcast from The First Round Review that’s dedicated to surfacing the tactical advice founders and startup leaders need to grow their teams, their companies and themselves. Hosted by Brett Berson, a partner at First Round, In Depth will cover a lot of ground and a wide range of topics, from hiring executives and becoming a better manager, to the importance of storytelling inside of your organization. But every interview will hit the level of tactical depth where the very best advice is found. We hope you’ll join us. Subscribe to “In Depth” now and learn more at firstround.com","last_synced_at":null,"page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/in-depth-1318680"},"episode":{"title":"Ignoring Silicon Valley advice to build a $3B fintech unicorn | Immad Akhund (Co-founder and CEO of Mercury)","slug":"ignoring-silicon-valley-advice-to-build-a-3b-fintech-unicorn-immad-akhund-co-founder-and-ceo-of-mercury","published_at":"2025-08-06T13:56:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/in-depth-1318680/ignoring-silicon-valley-advice-to-build-a-3b-fintech-unicorn-immad-akhund-co-founder-and-ceo-of-mercury","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/in-depth-1318680","url":"https://traffic.megaphone.fm/FRCH5277096503.mp3","audio_url":"https://traffic.megaphone.fm/FRCH5277096503.mp3","summary":"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…","meta_description":"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 Mercur…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3712,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/in-depth-1318680/episodes/ignoring-silicon-valley-advice-to-build-a-3b-fintech-unicorn-immad-akhund-co-founder-and-ceo-of-mercury/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/in-depth-1318680/ignoring-silicon-valley-advice-to-build-a-3b-fintech-unicorn-immad-akhund-co-founder-and-ceo-of-mercury.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}