My conversation with
@immad, CEO and co-founder of
@mercury.
Immad's story is so unique yet largely underdiscussed. His father owned a mechanic shop and his mom was a teacher. After immigrating to the US, he spent nearly a decade pivoting before finally selling his first company for 45M. We dug into the sheer pain tolerance required to pivot constantly and still find sources of motivation, something many early-stage founders don't hear about enough.
From there, Mercury got off the ground — but with a unique twist. Immad generally doesn't work weekends and has still built one of the most successful fintechs. This goes entirely against Twitter hype that promotes working every waking hour, and Immad's clarity on this topic was refreshing. He feels like he's "playing the bonus levels" and is still just getting started.
Mercury is now worth multiple billions of dollars with 500M in recurring revenue, 10 consecutive quarters of profitability, and still growing 40% YoY. I hope you enjoy this conversation, Immad's clarity on company building, and learning about his life.
PS. As quite the ending, Immad & I tried Habanero hot sauce off his conference room table!
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
2:11 Growing Up in Pakistan And Moving to London
6:37 "Yelp For London" and Early Entrepreneurial Endeavors
10:45 Pivoting From Flash Games to Mobile Ad Networks
12:15 Selling a Company After 8 Years of Pivoting
16:42 Thank You to Macroscope and Timeless Partners
17:56 Meeting His Wife Through Facebook
19:09 Finding Your Life’s Work
22:35 The Origins of Mercury
26:44 The Importance of Design at Mercury
27:37 How Mercury Landed Its Initial Customers
29:12 Raising Mercury's Seed Round
31:09 The Choice to Not Work Weekends
34:58 Immad's Best Startup Ideas
36:15 Are There Moats with AI?
38:05 Mercury’s 10-year vision
39:50 From Angel Investing to Formalizing a New Fund
42:13 Paul Graham's Influence
44:33 Parenting Philosophy
46:01 Sources of Happiness
46:52 Immad & I Taste Hot Sauce Off a Conference Table!