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!

I’ve been listening to this one for days!