Akhund: Mercury rejects goal-driven candidates who show ego or unhelpfulness
Imad Akhund · Ignoring Silicon Valley advice to build a $3B fintech unicorn (Mercury) · Aug 6, 2025 · at 7:30
Imad Akhund is the co-founder and CEO of fintech startup Mercury. He explains how Mercury selects for cultural values aligned with its founders' personalities.
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“So, you know, for example, for Mercury, we look for humble people that are helpful, that are curious, that are customer centric and product minded. I think all of those traits actually work pretty well together, but it's almost completely in contrast to some other companies that look for, like, competitive people that are, like, very, like, goal-driven and, you know, it's not that we don't want goal-driven and somewhat competitive people, but, you know, we won't take that instead of, yeah, if there's ego associated with that and a lack of helpfulness, et cetera, we will, like, do that trade-off.”
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