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Equity

TechCrunch

News, Business, Entrepreneurship, Business News, Technology

4.2 • 372 Ratings

🗓️ 7 July 2023

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We're switching things up and bringing you two interviews this week, so let's niche down to a single person, think about their work and unpack the rest. Mary Ann took the lead this time, and she sat down (virtually) with Immad Akhund, the CEO and co-founder of Mercury. For those who are unfamiliar, the fintech made headlines earlier this year for how it stepped in to help fill the business banking void left in the wake of Silicon Valley Bank's collapse. Here's what the pair caught up on: Mercury's impressive growth in the months since SVB crashed Lessons learned from Immad's angel investing experience What Immad calls the "Startup Death Spiral" and how to escape it As always, Equity will be back for you bright an early Monday morning. Talk soon! For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’s Simplecast website. Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a great show on crypto, a show that interviews founders, one that details how our stories come together and more! Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome back to Equity a podcast about the business of startups where we
0:14.4	unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. I'm Marianne Asavado. This is our
0:19.0	interview show where we niche down to a single person, think about their work, and unpack the rest.
0:24.0	Today we're talking to Emma Koon, the CEO and co-founder of Mercury, a startup that provides
0:29.2	banking services for other startups, and made headlines earlier this year for how it stepped in to help fill the business banking void left in the wake of Silicon
0:37.0	Valley Banks collapse.
0:39.0	And Maud, welcome to the show, very happy to have you here.
0:41.4	How are you?
0:42.4	Yeah, I'm good. I'm excited to be here.
0:44.0	Let's jump in.
0:45.0	So you co-founded Mercury in 2017, launched banking services for startups in 2019,
0:51.0	and have raised over $163 dollars from investors such as Andresen Horwoods, CRV and
0:56.7	CO2.
0:57.7	But many might say a turning point in your company took place earlier this year when Silicon
1:01.6	Valley Bank essentially imploded. I know that was a
1:04.5	crazy time for you. A lot was going on. Tell us what it was like that first
1:09.0	week. It must have been chaotic. Yeah, it was a really intense time.
1:13.4	It kind of started on that Wednesday night when there was lots of rumors.
1:17.7	Every day was basically had a different shape to it for us.
1:20.6	Thursday, you know, at that point we kind of felt the S.B would be fine, but it was a good growth
1:26.3	opportunity for us. You know, there was a lot of people moving funds to us, wanting to sign up.
1:31.2	So, you know, we were trying to not make much noise about it like I felt bad for
	...

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