The Twenty Minute VC20VC Exclusive: Mercury Founder Launches First $26M Fund with Immad Akhund
At a glance
WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT
Mercury’s Immad Akhund Launches $26M Fund, Redefines Founder-Led Investing
- Immad Akhund, founder and CEO of Mercury, has raised a $26M institutional fund with partner Yash Doshi after making 350+ angel investments since 2016.
- He explains how his approach to angel investing evolved, why he strongly prefers repeat founders, and how he thinks about valuation, dilution, and timing exits.
- Akhund details his thesis for non‑lead, small checks into ~60 companies, his skepticism of overheated AI seed valuations, and why he’s increasingly drawn to less crowded areas like space and hard tech.
- He also discusses Mercury’s journey, competition with Brex and Ramp, building culture early, and why he believes Mercury can become a $100B+ financial platform.
IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING
5 ideasFounder‑investors must suppress their ego and back the founder’s vision, not their own.
Akhund learned early that trying to steer founders toward his ideas didn’t work; the best outcomes (like Rappi) came from founders who barely needed him and just executed their own plan.
High valuations can be acceptable if you raise enough and don’t overspend.
He’d repeat Mercury’s 120x revenue Series B because they raised sufficient capital and were disciplined with burn, arguing the real mistake is taking a huge valuation on too little money and then being forced back to market.
Serial founders with a chip on their shoulder are disproportionately powerful bets.
His biggest wins (Truebill, Rippling, etc.) came from repeat founders tackling hard, competitive markets and still out‑executing incumbents; he heavily biases toward experienced founders who still feel they have something to prove.
Youth and naivety are under‑appreciated; don’t over‑penalize inexperience.
He cites passing on Scale AI because the founders seemed too young, now recognizing that underestimating ambitious young teams can be a major blind spot and that youthful ‘unreasonable’ belief can be an asset.
Seed investing only makes sense with a portfolio; do 20–30+ checks or don’t start.
Because returns are driven by a small number of decacorns, he argues angels need enough shots to learn, iterate, and diversify—dabbling in 3–5 deals rarely moves the needle.
WORDS WORTH SAVING
5 quotesYou really have to remove your ego and your ideas and really listen to what they want to do.
— Immad Akhund
The mistake is to not raise enough money at a high valuation. And then number two, don’t spend the money.
— Immad Akhund
Being an entrepreneur is irrational, but being a serial entrepreneur is especially irrational.
— Immad Akhund
We’re in the flashlight and fart apps era of AI.
— Immad Akhund
These two markets—banking and financial software—should be the same market. The only reason they’re separate is because banks don’t know how to build software.
— Immad Akhund
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