57: Immad Akhund - The Art of Irrational Effort

Immad Akhund (⁠X⁠, ⁠LinkedIn⁠) is the co-founder and CEO of ⁠Mercury⁠. He is also a prolific angel investor and co-hosts the ⁠Founders in Arms⁠ podcast. Mercury is a fintech banking platform used by one in three startups. It is Immad's fourth company in 20 years of entrepreneurship. Mercury is in the process of becoming an FDIC-insured bank and recently launched ⁠Mercury Books⁠, AI-powered accounting software. Immad grew up in Pakistan, moved to London at nine, and left for San Francisco at 23 to become an entrepreneur "for real." Mercury is built on something rare in finance: a willingness to spend a disproportionate amount of energy on details, the kind of care Immad admits "seems irrational.” We start with a simple question (what is a bank?) and discuss why banking stayed bad for so long, what stays hard as AI makes software easy to build, and why Mercury's motto is "be extremely helpful." Entrepreneurship has shaped Immad's life, and he hopes Mercury can empower a generation of entrepreneurs. I hope you come away a little more annoyed by the mediocre things we've all learned to tolerate and inspired to put an irrational amount of care into making them better. ⁠https://dialectic.fm/immad-akhund⁠ --- Dialectic is presented by ⁠Notion⁠. Notion is an AI-powered connected workspace where teams ⁠think together⁠ and create their best work. It works with all of your agents and keeps context across them and your team. ⁠Check out the new Notion Skills API⁠. You can learn more at ⁠notion.com/dialectic⁠. --- Timestamps: (0:00) Opening Highlights (1:50) Intro: Immad Akhund (4:16) Start: Banks and Why Immad Was Suited to Build One (20:30) What Traditional Banks Do Well & What Mercury Got Right (29:33) Why Mercury Wants a Bank Charter (35:57) What's Scarce When Software Is Easy (49:00) Becoming the Default for New Entrepreneurs (53:34) Product: 100 Little Things Better (1:06:51) The Right to Win (1:09:19) Brand as Care (1:15:19) Culture and Being Extremely Helpful (1:22:51) Command, Agents, and AI (1:34:26) Ambition, Investing, and Leading (1:46:54) Family, Pakistan, and America (1:52:56) Money, Freedom, and Energy (1:59:14) Outro

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62: Quinten Farmer - Technology That Helps Us Be

Quinten Farmer (X, LinkedIn) is a co-founder and the CEO of Tolan, which makes voice-first AI characters designed to be a friend and guide. He previously co-founded Even, a fintech company for workers...

5 Marras 2h 17min

61: Josh Miller - A Good Rectangle

Josh Miller (X, LinkedIn) is co-founder and CEO of The Browser Company, makers of Dia and Arc. The Browser Company was acquired by Atlassian last year. Before The Browser Company, Josh was an investo...

22 Loka 1h 54min

60: Patrick Hsu - Speedrunning the Infinite Game

Patrick Hsu (X, Website, Arc lab) is co-founder and core investigator of Arc Institute, assistant professor of pathology at Stanford, and venture partner at Thrive Capital. Patrick has always been pr...

15 Loka 1h 56min

59: Joe Gebbia - Design We Deserve

Joe Gebbia (Website, X, LinkedIn, Wikipedia) is the first U.S. Chief Design Officer, leading the National Design Studio. He is also the co-founder of Airbnb and Samara. The NDS and this role were cre...

8 Loka 1h 49min

58: Adam Mastroianni - Let Me Be Useful

Adam Mastroianni (Website, X) is an experimental psychologist and the writer of Experimental History. He earned his PhD in psychology at Harvard before leaving academia to pursue research and writing ...

1 Loka 2h 6min

Independent Study: Personal Renewal by John W. Gardner (Speech)

Independent Study is a series of bonus episodes to accompany the interviews on Dialectic. I read essays and other writing that has influenced me. "Personal Renewal" was given as a speech by John W....

16 Syys 29min

56: Miles Grimshaw - Back Down the Mountain

Miles Grimshaw (X, LinkedIn) is an investor at Thrive Capital. He’s spent most of his career there, there, partnering with founders at the early stages of company building, including Cursor, Turbopuff...

1 Syys 1h 53min