20VC Exclusive: Mercury Founder Launches First $26M Fund | Why Founders Should Take the Highest Price | Why Serial Entrepreneurs are Better | Why AI Is So Overhyped | The Future of Venture Capital with Immad Akhund

Immad Akhund is the CEO of Mercury. Launched in 2019, Mercury has raised $500M in funding from Sequoia, Coatue, CRV, Andreessen Horowitz and others. He is a former part-time partner at Y Combinator and is an active angel investor, with more than 350 investments in startups including Rippling, AirTable, Rappi, Applied Intuition, and Substack.

In Today's Episode We Discuss:

04:38 Exclusive News: New Fund Announcement

05:15 Lessons from 350 Angel Investments

12:27 Why Founders Should Always Push for the Highest Price

14:40 Biggest Wins and Misses in Angel Investing

22:56 How Sequoia Came to Lead the Series C for Mercury

31:32 Why Move From Angel to VC

33:41 Is It Wrong For Founders to Also Have Funds with LP Capital?

36:28 AI Investments: Overhyped or Worthwhile?

41:14 Raising a First Time Fund: Challenges & Surprises

49:47 The Future of Venture Capital

54:36 Quickfire Questions and Reflections