20VC Exclusive: Mercury Founder Launches First $26M Fund with Immad Akhund
Immad Akhund (guest), Harry Stebbings (host)
In this episode of The Twenty Minute VC, featuring Immad Akhund and Harry Stebbings, 20VC Exclusive: Mercury Founder Launches First $26M Fund with Immad Akhund explores 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.
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.
Key Takeaways
Founder‑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.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
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.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Serial founders with a chip on their shoulder are disproportionately powerful bets.
His biggest wins (Truebill, Rippling, etc. ...
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
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.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
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.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Avoid chasing the noisiest hype: be selective in AI and look to overlooked sectors.
He sees AI seed deals as often overpriced, repetitive, and crowded; instead he favors either traction‑proven AI plays or domain‑expert founders, and finds better risk–reward in less fashionable areas like fintech, space tech, and hard tech.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Build culture and values at founding, and hire relentlessly against them.
Mercury defined cultural attributes (like humility) when the team was 3–4 people and embedded them into interviewing and promotion, which he credits for maintaining a cohesive culture near 1,000 employees.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Notable Quotes
“You 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
Questions Answered in This Episode
How should a first‑time founder balance taking the best valuation available with the risk of future down rounds or over‑dilution?
Immad Akhund, founder and CEO of Mercury, has raised a $26M institutional fund with partner Yash Doshi after making 350+ angel investments since 2016.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
If serial founders are such strong bets, how can investors systematically avoid missing the next Scale AI‑style success led by very young first‑time founders?
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.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
In a world of increasingly crowded AI startups, what concrete signals would convince you an AI company truly has defensibility and not just temporary revenue?
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.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
How far can a non‑lead, small‑check fund like Immad’s scale before it needs to change its strategy (e.g., leading rounds, larger checks, or incubation)?
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.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
What structural changes to public markets would be necessary for high‑growth tech companies to feel comfortable going public earlier instead of relying on late‑stage private capital and secondary sales?
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
Transcript Preview
(music plays) Sequoia does not take their position lightly. Like, they did the most work. I think it is very hard as an entrepreneur not to chase the highest valuation. You know, we did our series B at 120X, (laughs) which was not rational; this was 2021. But, uh, we did it, and I would do it again. I mean, I just prefer serial founders. Like, I have such a bias towards them. A serial founder with a chip on their shoulder. Oh yeah, 100%.
Ready to go? (music plays) Imad, dude, I was probably very young when you were last on the show. Uh, definitely five or six years ago. I've missed you. But thank you for joining me again today.
Yeah, excited to be here. Um, I'm always listening to the show, so it's fun to be on the other side every now and then.
Oh, dude, that is very, very kind. Um, listen, I wanna start with some news that you have. Uh, I'm thrilled that you said you'd share it with us. So, what is the news that you have for us today?
Yeah, I finally closed on my first institutional, uh, fund. Uh, we raised $26 million. Uh, I'm partnering with, uh, kind of a- a friend of mine. Uh, actually, he invested in Mercury, uh, seven years ago. His name's Yash Doshi. Um, he was at EQ2 Ventures- EQT Ventures. Uh, and then in the last year, uh, we, uh, I've been doing angel investing actually since 2016, uh, so I've done about 350 investments. Uh, and I've been working with him for the last year and I was like, "Hey, I just need to bring him on full-time and kinda do this a little more properly." Uh, I've so far been investing mostly on AngelList, uh, so I had a AngelList rolling fund. Uh, so yeah, just- actually just closed it, I think, last week or the week before, um, and already have invested in five or six companies.
Dude, I wanna kind of take this chronologically before we dive into the fund. You mentioned the 350 angel investments you've made.
Yeah.
Unbelievable angel portfolio. What are the biggest lessons that you have from 350 angel investments?
Yeah, number one, I think this is kinda something that, uh, entrepreneurs that have been- uh, that are- especially if you're an active entrepreneur, but once you become an investor, you think you- you- you know, you're used to running a company, you're used to having your ideas. And what you do at the start is you're like, "Okay, you know, yes, you're talking about something really interesting, but here's another idea that I think is way better." And then y- and then, uh, the other entrepreneurs, especially if they're young, they're like, "Yeah, I love this. Yeah. You know, Imad, like, please invest. Uh, you know, we love what- your ideas." And then you invest and obviously, like, that's not their idea. And, you know, it's not even fair to push an idea on a- (laughs) on other people. But you really have to actually remove your ego and your ideas and really listen to what they want to do. And, you know, you're much more- you're much more along for their journey rather than, like, a- a major part. And the- actually, when I first started investing, so I sold my company in 2016 and I was like, "Hey, maybe I wanna be a VC," right? Uh, and I started investing, and that's kinda what was my approach. I was like, "Oh, I'll be really hands-on. I'll be really helpful." Uh, and then I realized, actually- Rappy was one of my first investments. Uh, Rappy is like a DoorDash for LATAM. Yeah, I literally invested and they did not talk to me again. (laughs) Like, they were just so busy and they grew that thing like crazy, and it was a unicorn within a year and a half. I invested at, like, a 20 million cap. I was like, "Okay, you know, what is the point of being an investor (laughs) if, like, my best investments don't even talk to me?" And- and, you know, that's what I want, right? As a, like a- in terms of, like, a capital returner. Like I- w- you know, if someone, like I invested, they just do their thing and, uh, they retu- you know, I have a big return, that's great. Uh, so- so that was, like, one of my really early takeaways, is-
Install uListen to search the full transcript and get AI-powered insights
Get Full TranscriptGet more from every podcast
AI summaries, searchable transcripts, and fact-checking. Free forever.
Add to Chrome