Immad Akhund, CEO and co-founder of Mercury, explains why domestic and international wire transfers were core non-negotiable features for Mercury's initial product build in 2017.
Insight
Akhund: Startups competing with incumbents must catch up and be 10x better
“We were very deliberately serving a set of people that had alternatives. So and then the bar is just much higher. You have to catch up with everything that exists, and you have to be 10 X better than that.”
Insight
Akhund: Early-stage startups should hire sales ICs before a head of sales
“I mostly think of these things as like, I think it's a mistake when startups go and hire, like the first hire shouldn't be ahead of sales. Like, I think you should just go hire some salespeople and see if there's a repeatable process that you can come up with …”
Insight
Akhund: Building functions zero-to-one should be founder-led
“Yeah, I don't think like taking a function from zero to one is, is something that like, I think actually kind of. Should be founder-led with, like, some, like, IC or player coaches and then once you've, like, built out some of that function, then you can think…”
Insight
Akhund: Differentiating fintech startups through thin pricing margins is a mistake
“I think it's one of the mistakes that fintechs make is they become, like, differentiated through pricing power. Like, they're like, we're going to give away the most margin possible.”
Disclosure
Akhund: Fintech startups cannot secure bank partnerships without significant upfront funding
“Basically with Mercury, I was like, okay, I can't build this without raising money because you can't get a bank partnership without raising significant money. So you know, it was like straight into, I did build some like screens and things like that, but it wa…”
Insight
Akhund: Fintech products take longer to build due to compliance and back-end needs
“Everything just takes longer in fintech, right, because you've got you need all the back-end fintech connections, and then you need all the compliance and risk side of things”