Akhund: Competitors rarely determine whether a startup succeeds or fails
Immad Akhund · 20VC: Mercury Founder Immad Akhund on Why Angel Investing Makes Founders Better Operators, The Right Way For Founders To Discuss and Present Competition To Investors & How To Think About Your Initial Wedge Into The Market and How It Expands Over Time · Sep 20, 2019 · at 22:01
Immad Akhund, founder of Mercury and former founder of Heyzap, reflects on founder mindsets regarding competition based on his previous company.
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“I do think at Hazab, there was always a, our previous company, there was always like a villain where it was like, oh, we have to beat this competitor. Like, what are they doing? Oh no, you know, they're better funded than us, all this kind of stuff. And there was never a point where we died or succeeded because of that. It was always about what did we do in the product? Maybe the whole idea was bad and it didn't matter who was our competitors. So I think most of the time competitors don't matter.”
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