Avi Patel on the startup that copied Kled and why he called out General Catalyst by name | E2291
This Week in Startups
Jason Calacanis
4.2 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 20 May 2026
⏱️ 94 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This Week In Startups is made possible by:
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Why raise $200 million if you are already profitable? That’s the question Jason and Alex put to Mercury’s founder and CEO, Immad Akhund, after the entrepreneur raised another massive round for his upstart, technology-friendly bank. TWiST then welcomed Kled founder Avi Patel to discuss the startup he considers a clear ripoff of his own company. Jason gavels in verdicts on all parties involved, including Y Combinator and venture capital firm General Catalyst. The show closes with a news lightning round, including OpenAI’s decision to offer $2 million in token credits to hundreds of startups.
Guest Links:
Mercury https://mercury.com
Mercury funding announcement https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260520511817/en/Mercury-Raises-$200-Million-Series-D-at-$5.2B-Valuation
Immad Akhund on X https://x.com/immad
Kled https://www.kled.ai/
Avi Patel on X https://x.com/avipat_/
Avi’s complaint https://x.com/avipat_/status/2055384102409253056
General Catalyst https://www.generalcatalyst.com/
Y Combinator https://www.ycombinator.com/
Discussion links:
Anthropic’s attack on secondary trading https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/12/anthropic-warns-investors-against-secondary-platforms-offering-access-to-its-shares/
Vanta https://www.vanta.com/twist
Timestamps:
0:00 Welcome to This Week in Startups!
2:14 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!
3:27 Immad Akhund (Mercury) joins to discuss $200M raise
6:33 Mercury's origin story and path to $650M run rate
9:53 Northwest Registered Agent - Get more when you start your business with Northwest. In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity — Learn more at https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist
14:23 Stablecoins: where they work, why Mercury won't launch its own
20:13 LinkedIn - Thanks to our partners at LinkedIn! Post your job for free at https://linkedIn.com/twist then promote it to get access to LinkedIn Jobs' new AI assistant.
22:38 AI agents, and the future of money movement
27:30 Why Mercury raised less this round
30:11 Grasshopper Bank - Time is money. Don't waste either. Go to https://grasshopper.bank/twist and get an exclusive $500 cash bonus just for opening an account.
42:48 Avi Patel (Kled) joins to discuss copycat startups
57:06 Jason's verdict on YC's hacker culture & "appearance of impropriety"
1:17:39 Sam Altman's $2M-in-tokens-for-equity offer to YC founders
1:24:32 NYC hotel housekeepers cross $100K in time under new union contract
1:30:14 Minimum wage, immigration & the case for raising it slowly
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Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Another company cut and paste everything you're doing steals your idea, allegedly. |
| 0:04.0 | After stealing your idea, you go public with it. |
| 0:07.0 | I woke up to that post and noticed a very, very blaring resemblance to our website. |
| 0:13.0 | Like they photocopied your website. To a level that was absurd. |
| 0:16.0 | I was talking to General Catalysts. They were going to invest that money into us. |
| 0:19.0 | The first five minutes |
| 0:20.8 | of the post, I was messaged by like maybe three of them saying, oh, but you need to take this |
| 0:25.0 | down right now. I call another VC by name. You really stepped on the blanket. This week in startups is |
| 0:30.3 | brought to you by Grasshopper Bank. Time is money. Don't waste either. Go to grasshopper. |
| 0:35.5 | dot bank slash twist and get an exclusive $500 cash bonus just for opening an account. |
| 0:41.4 | LinkedIn jobs. Higher right the first time. Post your first job and get $100 off towards your job post at LinkedIn.com slash twist. |
| 0:50.1 | And Northwest Registered Agent. Get more when you start your business with Northwest. |
| 0:55.3 | In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity. |
| 1:01.0 | Learn more at Northwest Registeredagent.com slash twist. |
| 1:05.2 | All right, everybody, welcome back to Twist for May 20th. |
| 1:09.2 | May 20th, 520. |
| 1:10.8 | It's not 420, it's 520. Summer is upon us. Graduations have occurred, |
| 1:17.1 | and it's going to be a wild summer, the pace at which things have been happening in AI, |
| 1:24.6 | in global politics. It is just fast and furious. |
| 1:29.2 | And we help you process it here three days a week, Monday, Wednesday, Friday on Twist. |
| 1:34.3 | Today, we're very lucky because one of the great startup stories of the past 20 years, |
| 1:40.5 | or maybe it's 15, Mercury Bank is going to be on talking about their latest fundraising and then |
... |
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