a16z Live

My First 16: Competing in a Crowd of Incumbents with Mercury's Immad Akhund

Episode Summary

In a new episode of My First 16, a16z partner Seema Amble talks with co-founder and CEO of Mercury Immad Akhund about the idea of a “minimum delightful product” in fintech, doing the spreadsheet math on unit economics early on, and how to compete in a category already filled with incumbents. My First 16, a new video podcast from a16z, features interviews with founders and CEOs of fintech companies about how they acquired their initial customers and the hard lessons they learned along the way.

Episode Notes

In a new episode of My First 16, a16z partner Seema Amble talks with co-founder and CEO of Mercury Immad Akhund about the idea of a “minimum delightful product” in fintech, doing the spreadsheet math on unit economics early on, and how to compete in a category already filled with incumbents.

 

0:00 - 1:28 Introduction

1:28 - 9:14 History of Mercury

9:14 - 19:07 Mercury's first customers

19:07 - 22:15 Scaling up

22:15 - 25:48 Pricing journey

25:48 - 31:37 Lessons and advice