Podcasts about heyzap

Guest @AlexKolicich (8VC, Palantir, Clarium, Google, Waterloo) Hosts @immad (Mercury, YC, Heyzap) @kevingibbon (Shyp, Airhouse, something new) @julien (Breather, Practice) 

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.This week we welcome the three co-founders of Saga Ventures: Ben Braverman, Thomson Nguyen, and Max Altman. Saga Ventures is a seed-stage investment firm that recently closed its first fund of $125M.The conversation dives into their experiences in raising their first fund, building a team, and navigating a competitive seed-stage market. The co-founders bring unique skill sets from their previous roles in operating and investing, and this episode sheds light on how they strategically combine those skills to differentiate themselves from other firms.About Ben BravermanBen Braverman is a Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Saga Ventures, a $125M venture capital fund he co-launched in March 2024 alongside Max Altman and Thomson Nguyen. At Saga, Ben focuses on early-stage investments, working with pre-seed and seed-stage companies across various sectors. His background in scaling companies' go-to-market strategies provides valuable insight into helping startups grow efficiently and sustainably.Before founding Saga Ventures, Ben spent nearly nine years at Flexport, a major player in the logistics space. Starting as Chief Revenue Officer in 2014, he was instrumental in building and scaling Flexport's global sales and go-to-market teams. Later, as Chief Customer Officer, Ben oversaw customer relationships and corporate development, ensuring the company's growth aligned with customer needs. His final role at Flexport saw him leading Flexport Ventures and Corporate Development, where he focused on the company's strategic investments.Earlier in his career, Ben held growth and sales leadership positions at startups like URX, which was acquired by Pinterest, and Heyzap, acquired by RNTS Media. He holds a degree from Vassar College and has spent his career helping innovative companies grow through a hands-on approach to business development and customer engagement.About Thomson NguyenThomson Nguyen is a Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Saga Ventures, where he has been since March 2024. At Saga, he focuses on early-stage investments in technology-driven companies, drawing on his extensive experience in data science, machine learning, and entrepreneurship. Thomson's deep technical expertise helps him identify promising startups, especially those at the intersection of technology and business.Prior to Saga, Thomson founded Nearside, a financial services platform for small businesses, which he led from 2019 until its acquisition by Plastiq in 2022. Before that, he was an Entrepreneur in Residence at Kleiner Perkins and the Head of Capital Data Science at Square, where he managed the data science team responsible for critical business areas like default risk, marketing optimization, and product innovation. His career in fintech is rooted in his work at Framed Data, a startup he founded and later sold to Square.Thomson started his career as a data scientist at tech companies like Lookout and Causes, where he applied his expertise to user segmentation and predictive analytics. He also has a longstanding academic affiliation with New York University's Courant Institute, where he continues to contribute to research in machine learning and cybersecurity. Thomson holds degrees in Applied Mathematics from the University of Cambridge and Mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley.About Max AltmanMax Altman is a Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Saga Ventures, a venture capital fund he helped establish in March 2024. Max focuses on investing in pre-seed and seed-stage companies, working closely with his co-founders to identify and support high-potential startups. His experience as both an investor and operator allows him to bridge the gap between capital and company-building.Before co-founding Saga Ventures, Max was a Partner at Alt Capital from 2021 to 2024, where he invested in early-stage companies. Prior to that, he held a similar role at Apollo Projects, another investment firm focused on startups. His career as an investor began at Hydrazine Capital, where he worked from 2016 to 2019. During his time there, Max honed his skills in evaluating high-growth tech companies and building meaningful relationships with founders.Earlier in his career, Max gained operating experience at Zenefits, where he worked in product management, and at Allston Trading as a trader. He also spent time at Microsoft as a program manager. Max holds a degree in Computer Science from Duke University and has built his career by combining his technical background with a passion for early-stage investments.In this episode, we discuss:* (01:42) The origin story of Saga Ventures, and how the co-founders decided to join forces. Max Altman shares how the idea of starting a fund came about and why he didn't want to follow a solo GP model* (03:31) The unique, complementary skill sets the team brings to the table—Ben's expertise in go-to-market strategy, Thomson's technical knowledge, and Max's investor relationships—and how this combination is designed to support early-stage founders* (04:58) Their hands-on, founder-first approach, focusing on critical areas like product development and initial hires, differentiates Saga from other early-stage firms.* (06:11) The "reality meter" and the importance of being able to take hard hits as an entrepreneur or venture firm, emphasizing how all three co-founders share this mentality* (07:50) The team reflects on the challenges of raising their first fund, including dealing with partnership risk, self-awareness, and the difficulties of convincing LPs early on without firm commitments* (10:02) The careful consideration that went into deciding the fund size of $125M, balancing capital deployment with staying competitive in seed-stage deals.* (12:00) Their fundraising process, the strategic decisions involved, and the importance of securing anchor investors before taking meetings with LPs.* (15:19) What LPs are looking for in early-stage venture firms and the role of partnership risk in their decision-making process* (17:33) Why their shared vision and complementary skill sets have aligned them for long-term success as a team, along with their commitment to focusing on specific sectors like fintech and infrastructure* (19:22) The importance of having a clear value-add for founders beyond capital, and the importance of storytelling and salesmanship in early-stage companies* (23:25) The internal decision-making process at Saga, how the partners determine which deals to pursue, and the dynamics of reaching consensus when choosing investments* (26:45) Patience and long-term thinking are critical when evaluating deals, and how they ensure they don't rush into investments just for fear of missing out* (28:19) The importance of founder resilience and self-awareness, noting that the best founders are those who can attract talent and navigate through difficult times* (30:00) Why salesmanship and charisma are critical qualities in founders, as startup leadership often requires convincing others to join and invest in challenging ventures* (32:00) The team discusses their approach to sourcing and winning deals in a highly competitive market, focusing on the importance of building trust and delivering consistent value to founders.* (34:05) Max talks about the significance of being the first firm to back companies and how they collaborate with other VCs to co-lead investments.* (36:45) Being transparent and responsive to founders creates lasting relationships, even when they pass on deals* (38:04) How they measure success internally at Saga Ventures, focusing on inputs such as responsiveness and the strength of founder relationships, while understanding that long-term results will take years to evaluate* (41:00) Key lessons from the fundraising process, stressing the importance of clarity when positioning their fund to LPs and being patient in closing commitments* (43:25) How the venture landscape has evolved over the past 18 years, highlighting the increasing competition and the need for VCs to be highly self-aware and strategic when entering deals* (45:40) Building a venture firm requires a long-term mindset, much like running a successful companyI'd love to know what you took away from this conversation with Glenn. Follow me @SamirKaji and give me your insights and questions with the hashtag #ventureunlocked. If you'd like to be considered as a guest or have someone you'd like to hear from (GP or LP), drop me a direct message on Twitter.Podcast Production support provided by Agent Bee This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ventureunlocked.substack.com

Immad Akhund is the co-founder and CEO of Mercury, a business banking platform that has raised over $160M in funding and has over 100,000 customers. He has also founded two other companies – Clickpass and Heyzap; the latter of which was acquired in 2016. Immad is a husband and the father of two kids. In today's conversation we discussed: * Starting a family at a very young age (by San Francisco standards)* Navigating founding and running several companies, including Mercury* The difference between finding more time and finding more energy* How to think about skill building with your kids* Dealing with disagreements with your spouse* The parallels between being the co-founder of a company and the co-founder of a familyListen now on Apple, Spotify, Overcast and YouTube.—Where to find Immad Akhund- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/iakhund/- Twitter: https://twitter.com/immad- Curiosity Podcast: https://curiositypodcast.substack.com/Where to find Adam Fishman- FishmanAF Newsletter: www.FishmanAFNewsletter.com- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamjfishman/- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/startupdadpod/—In this episode, we cover[1:31] Welcome[1:46] Childhood[2:44] Where does your extended family live now?[3:19] Why keep doing startups?[6:52] How did you meet your partner?[7:56] Tell me about your kids[8:42] Decision to start a family[9:51] What does your wife do?[10:59] Why did it feel like the right time to start a family?[17:13] Earliest memory of being a dad?[19:29] Advice for his younger self[22:36] What is something you worked on after having kids?[23:56] Skill building and teaching kids finance[27:46] How has his parenting style evolved?[30:29] What is an example of you getting out of balance w/kids[31:29] Has being a dad changed how you run companies?[34:36] Conflict/managing through disagreements[39:10] Kids relationship w/tech[42:07] Restore batteries[44:08] What is a mistake you made as a dad?[46:32] Follow along[47:23] Rapid fire round—Show references:Mercury: https://mercury.com/Model X: https://www.tesla.com/modelxThe Matrix: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133093/Union Square Ventures: https://www.usv.com/Bloomberg: https://www.bloomberg.com/ClickPass: https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/clickpassHayzap: https://www.linkedin.com/company/heyzap-com/Inside Out: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2096673/Frozen: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2294629/Teen Titans: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0343314/Doona: https://www.doona.com/en-usJuni Learning: https://junilearning.com/—For sponsorship inquiries email: podcast@fishmana.com.For Startup Dad Merch: www.startupdadshop.com Production support for Startup Dad is provided by Tommy Harron athttp://www.armaziproductions.com/ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit startupdadpod.substack.com

Immad Akhund is the co-founder and CEO of Mercury, a business banking platform that has raised over $160M in funding and has over 100,000 customers. He has also founded two other companies – Clickpass and Heyzap; the latter of which was acquired in 2016. Immad is a husband and the father of two kids. In today's conversation we discussed:  Starting a family at a very young age (by San Francisco standards) Navigating founding and running several companies, including Mercury The difference between finding more time and finding more energy How to think about skill building with your kids Dealing with disagreements with your spouse The parallels between being the co-founder of a company and the co-founder of a family — Where to find Immad Akhund - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/iakhund/ - Twitter: https://twitter.com/immad - Curiosity Podcast: https://curiositypodcast.substack.com/   Where to find Adam Fishman - FishmanAF Newsletter: https://www.fishmanafnewsletter.com - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamjfishman/ - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/startupdadpod/ — In this episode, we cover [1:31] Welcome [1:46] Childhood [2:44] Where does your extended family live now? [3:19] Why keep doing startups? [6:52] How did you meet your partner? [7:56] Tell me about your kids [8:42] Decision to start a family [9:51] What does your wife do? [10:59] Why did it feel like the right time to start a family? [17:13] Earliest memory of being a dad? [19:29] Advice for his younger self [22:36] What is something you worked on after having kids? [23:56] Skill building and teaching kids finance [27:46] How has his parenting style evolved? [30:29] What is an example of you getting out of balance w/kids [31:29] Has being a dad changed how you run companies? [34:36] Conflict/managing through disagreements [39:10] Kids relationship w/tech [42:07] Restore batteries [44:08] What is a mistake you made as a dad? [46:32] Follow along [47:23] Rapid fire round — Show references: Mercury: https://mercury.com/ Model X: https://www.tesla.com/modelx The Matrix: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133093/ Union Square Ventures: https://www.usv.com/ Bloomberg: https://www.bloomberg.com/ ClickPass: https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/clickpass Hayzap: https://www.linkedin.com/company/heyzap-com/ Inside Out: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2096673/ Frozen: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2294629/ Teen Titans: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0343314/ Doona: https://www.doona.com/en-us Juni Learning: https://junilearning.com/ — For sponsorship inquiries email: podcast@fishmana.com. For Startup Dad Merch: www.startupdadshop.com  Production support for Startup Dad is provided by Tommy Harron at http://www.armaziproductions.com/

Immad Akhund had the idea for Mercury years before they started. In fact, he'd launched 3 other startups and been through YCombinator twice before even starting initial validation on what would become the beloved neobank of startups everywhere. And opinions were mixed. Immad himself recognized the need for a simpler and more efficient banking service while while operating Heyzap his previous company. But when he shared the concept with other startups, not everyone grasped its potential.Today, Mercury dominates in the neobank industry. Immad walks hosts Tyler Hogge and Sterling Snow through the early days of Mercury, shares advice on how to operate and his strategies on investing. Chapters: 00:00:00 Intro 00:01:56 Immad's Entrepreneurial Journey - Previous Companies & Learnings00:08:27 What Does Mercury Do? 00:11:24 How He Launched Mercury 00:14:35 The Neo Bank Industry and Launch Timing 00:21:50 The SVB Fallout & How That Led To Big Growth For Mercury 00:32:50 Operating Advice: The Six-Year Vesting Plan00:43:35 Immad's Hot Takes & Predictions: AI Is a Hype Cycle 00:57:17 Rapid Fire & Wrap-upThings to Check Out: Immad's Memo - How to Not Be A Bottleneck as a CEO Immad's Podcast - Curiosity PodcastImmad's Advice on Operating - @immad on X___________________This episode of the IO Podcast is brought to you by PelionConnect on XFollow on TiktokHear Other Episodes on Our Website

Immad Akhund is the Co-founder and CEO of Mercury, a digitally native bank for startups. Mercury is supported by investors like a16z, Coatue, CRV, Chapter One, Ryan Peterson, Scott Belsky, Serena Williams, Terrence Rohan, Zach Coelius, Todd Goldberg, and more. Before Mercury, Immad was a part-time partner at YC, co-founded Heyzap which sold for $45 million, and co-founded and scaled Clickpass to millions of users. Brought to you by Secureframe, the automated compliance platform built by compliance experts: https://secureframe.com/request-demo-4?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=062023-thesplit Read the transcript: https://www.thespl.it/p/the-future-of-banking-remote-work In this episode, we discuss: - The future of banking - Why Mercury's beautiful onboarding was an accident - Cultural mistakes most startups make - Two lessons from selling his first company for $45 million - How to get free legal advice - Why it's better to build a network of entrepreneurs than investors - How to fundraise - Why its contrarian to start a non-AI company right now - How Mercury is thinking about AI - Why each operational team has its own engineering team - The embarrassing pitch meeting that raised his Series A from a16z - How crypto used up all its goodwill - The hiring advice he gives every founder Where to find Immad: Twitter: https://twitter.com/immad LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/iakhund Podcast: https://curiositypodcast.substack.com/ Where to find Turner: Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak Mentioned in this episode: Mercury https://www.mercury.com The Logan Bartlett Show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcL_cjZDeFU Timestamps: (0:00) Intro (5:58) Mercury's "accidentally great" onboarding experience (8:13) The fundamental banking business model (9:34) The basics of banking regulation (11:07) How Mercury works with banks (13:27) The future of banking (19:34) Immad's previous startups (22:30) What culture actually means (27:06) Importance of ideas vs execution (32:03) Learning banking from scratch (35:54) Why the first banking partnership failed (37:56) Why the second banking partnership worked (39:24) The difference between compliance and risk teams (42:08) Why compliance is so relevant for better banking (50:13) The biggest mistake for doing remote work (51:21) Mercury Raise (53:33) The game theory of fundraising (54:54) Playbook for generating fundraising momentum (60:45) Common fundraising mistakes (63:12) Hilarious fundraising mishap in front of a16z (68:16) Companies that aren't like this shouldn't touch AI (70:57) Who will win big from AI? (72:10) Immad's take on crypto (86:14) Outro Read the transcript: https://www.thespl.it/p/the-future-of-banking-remote-work Production and distribution by: https://www.supermix.io For sponsorship inquiries: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSebvhBlDDfHJyQdQWs8RwpFxWg-UbG0H-VFey05QSHvLxkZPQ/viewform

Discussing weekly tech news w/ experienced venture founders. No investors. Guest - @immad (Mercury, YC Partner, Heyzap, Clickpass) @julien (Breather, Practice) @kevingibbon (Shyp, Airhouse) @berman66 (Nanit, Vowel)

“Whatever point you are at, you kind of have to go back and say ‘what is the thing that you're building?' And ‘do people really want it?'” — Immad Akhund This week Sachit (@sachitgupta) chats with Immad Akhund (@immad), CEO of Mercury — The company trusted by more than 100,000 startups for banking*. Mercury gives founders free checking and savings accounts, debit and credit cards*, domestic and USD international wire transfers, Treasury*, venture debt, and more. He co-founded the company in 2017 after his own frustrations as an entrepreneur with the traditional banking hurdles founders face as they set up and run their businesses. He started Mercury to remove that friction by building an intuitive product experience for necessary financial products in order to help founders manage their business with confidence. Launched in 2019, Mercury has raised $163M from a16z, Coatue, CRV and others. Immad is a serial founder who cuts through a problem and catalyzes change for the industry around it. Born in Pakistan and raised in the U.K., Immad immigrated to the U.S. to join Y Combinator with his previous startup Heyzap (acquired by Fyber). He is a former part-time partner at Y Combinator and is an active angel investor, with more than 250 investments in startups including Airtable, Rappi and Substack. Follow our host, Sachit Gupta on Twitter and sign up for the Creators Collective Newsletter. Do you want to learn how to make a living as a creator? Check out the CreatorsMBA. (02:27) - Dichotomy of being a business person and a creative person (04:42) - The impact and rise of no-code tools to build stuff (07:15) - What trends to look for to determine what to build and whether you should raise funds or not (10:00) - YC for creators (14:36) - The process they followed to build Mercury (17:44) - Product-led growth — What is it? (19:26) - 10x improvements they made during the building phase of mercury (21:46) - How they structured the production function (27:07) - Times when Immad wanted to give up (31:11) - How they were iterating to build, without having feedback from customers  (33:39) - Things they did in the early stages that have been giving them massive results (38:07) - What he looks for in people when building a start-up team (40:24) - The difference between great investors and people with money (43:18) - The transition from the building phase to the growth phase (45:50) - Best practices — Product first growth mindset (49:14) - How he enables the culture in order to make sure people support each other (53:45) - What are the first hires to make (55:09) - Has he ever hired 10x engineers (59:02) - Building a remote company with a strong culture and doing rapid innovation (01:03:28) - Mercury as a bank account and platform (01:06:49) - How has his love for SciFi influenced the product building (01:12:28) - How he propagated his ethics in the team (01:14:58) - Politics — His thoughts on banning people  (01:17:15) - Scifi books that have impacted him (01:18:45) - One piece of wisdom that changed the game for him (01:20:30) - One person he is grateful to (01:21:31) - How he has evolved as an entrepreneur (01:22:54) - What it means to be a conscious creator

Ben Braverman is the Chief Customer Officer at Flexport. Prior to becoming the Chief Customer Officer, Ben was the Chief Revenue Officer at Flexport. He also worked at URX as the Head of Growth and at HeyZap as their Director of Sales.In this episode we cover a wide range of topics including Ben’s decision to drop out of college and pursue Buddhism in India, meeting Flexport CEO Ryan Petersen at the dog park, and the ramping-up process Ben went through to learn the freight forwarding industry. We also discuss how the pandemic has affected business, the Suez Canal blockage, and at the end, Ben gets a chance to ask me his burning questions about manufacturing in space.I hope you enjoy the show.Full transcript available here. Get full access to Operators at delian.substack.com/subscribe

​​Jude Gomila is a serial entrepreneur, angel investor, and the Founder & CEO of Golden. Golden is on a mission to map out human knowledge and is backed by a16z, Founders Fund, Giga Fund, and others. Prior to Golden, Jude co-founded and spent several year working on Heyzap, a mobile advertising platform which was acquired by Fyber in 2016. Since making his first angel investment in 2010, Jude has made over 250 early stage investments including Carta, Gusto, Airtable, Boom, Superhuman, Mercury, Calm, Relativity Space, Ironclad, Astra, Benchling, Ginkgo Bioworks, Linear and many more. 

Jude Gomila is the Founder and CEO of Golden, the world's first self-constructing database, on a mission to map out human knowledge and accelerate discovery and learning, backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund, Giga Fund and others. Prior to this, Jude was the founder of Heyzap, a mobile ad network which helps millions of user discover apps that they love, and was acquired by Fyber in 2016 for $45M. Jude is also an investor in more than 200 startups including Gusto, Airtable, Ironclad, Superhuman and many more. Jude joins us today to speak about the importance of breaking the rules, how Golden are leveraging AI to map out human knowledge, and the mental models of both founders and investors. https://golden.com/ https://angel.co/v/back/jude-gomila

On this episode of Startup Foundations, Jude Gomila, an angel investor, serial entrepreneur, and father, joins us to discuss how he is juggling parenthood and being a CEO, as well as his approach to building products and investing in startups.Jude discusses his startup, Golden, and how their technology works, as well as the company's customer base and product development. We also discuss HeyZap, Jude's previous venture, which was acquired by Fyber in 2016. He talks about moving to Silicon Valley, finding a co-founder, and navigating the company's exit. The conversation wraps up with a quick analysis of the post-pandemic startup landscape and what advice Jude has for people thinking about launching their startups right now. CREDITS:Host: Greg Miaskiewicz, co-founder of Capbasehttps://twitter.com/miaskiewicz Guest: Jude Gomila, Founder/CEO of Golden / Investor 200+ cos: Carta, Gusto, Airtable, Boom, Ginkgo, Benchling, Ironclad, Superhuman, Linear, Relativity.https://twitter.com/judegomilaGolden https://golden.com/

Rossel is now the Co-founder and CEO at video gift startup VidDay, a group gift video solution where they bring in over 1 million video uploads from over 150 countries into their platform.  Rossel formerly helped scale SkipTheDishes, a seamless online food delivery and pickup app, from a small start-up to a team of over 2500 employees.  Russel thrives off of solving complex challenges and finds passion and excitement in the sometimes chaotic environment of building and growing a Start-Up. During this interview we cover: 00:00 A word From The Sponsor 01:02  Intro 04:08 Growth Strategies & Why is it Important to Fail Fast 04:21 What Drove the Success of HeyZap & How Was the Process of Acquisition & Eventual Exit 06:53 Constraints & Strategies When Competing with Giants like UberEats  09:49 Exiting & Joining VidDay in 2019 11:49 What's VidDay  13:03 How Big is The Market Opportunity for VidDay?  15:19  What Were the Initial Costs to Get Vidday Off the Ground to Reach PMF? 18:11 VidDay's Lenght Based Pricing  & Validating Other Models 19:49 Specialized Team Focused on Template & Editing Options 21:06 Product Expanding to in the Market with VidDay's Roadmap 22:21  Advice you Wish you Had Known & would Tell your 25 year old self 23:20  Biggest Challenges Russel's Currently facing in Order to Continue to Grow VidDay 24:13 Top Resources Instrumental for Russel's Success 25:39 What does success mean to Russell Today? 26:38 Future for VidDay, Immad & Where to Get in Touch Mentions: https://aws.amazon.com/activate/ (AWS Activate Program) https://www.vidday.com/ (Vidday.com) People: https://www.linkedin.com/in/denis-devigne-60930874/ (Denis Devigne) https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-laxson/ (Jeff Laxon) Books: http://hardthings.bhorowitz.com/ (The Hard Thing About Hard Things) Get In Touch With Rossel: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rossel-sabourin-34712095/ (Russel's Linkedin) Tag us & follow: https://www.facebook.com/HorizenCapitalOfficial/ (Facebook)  https://www.facebook.com/HorizenCapitalOfficial/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/horizen-capital (LinkedIn)  https://www.linkedin.com/company/horizen-capital https://www.instagram.com/saasdistrict/ (Instagram)  https://www.instagram.com/saasdistrict/ (https://www.instagram.com/saasdistrict/) More about Akeel: Twitter - https://twitter.com/AkeelJabber (https://twitter.com/AkeelJabber) LinkedIn - https://linkedin.com/in/akeel-jabbar (https://linkedin.com/in/akeel-jabbar) More Podcast Sessions - https://horizencapital.com/saas-podcast (https://horizencapital.com/saas-podcast)

Immad Akhund is the co-founder and CEO of Mercury, a bank for startups, engineered in Silicon Valley and aimed for tech companies to help them succeed. Immad & Mercury had raised over $25 million from investors like Andreessen Horowitz and Charles River Ventures.  Prior to launching Mercury, he co-founded HeyZap which was acquired for $45 million by Fyber. During this interview we cover: 00:00 A word From The Sponsor 01:02  Intro 01:58 Immad's Background, Launching & Exiting HeyZap & $45MM Acquisition   04:21 What Drove the Success of HeyZap & How Was the Process of Acquisition & Eventual Exit 06:12 How Exiting his Company Changed Immad's Life & Focusing in a New Market 09:37 Why Did Immad Decided to Focus on a Bank for Startups 12:44 Main Factors or Value Propositions of Mercury that Makes it Suitable, Targeted & Competitive  14:29 How Mercury Deliver Meaningful & Personalized Experiences  16:53  Is Mercury for Everyone, Old and New Entrepreneurs? 18:15  Best Growth & User Acquisition Strategy for Mercury 24:09  Innovations being Leveraged to Optimize the Existing Procedures & Processes for Maximum Efficiency in Mercury 26:26 How Mercury Raise  Get Your Seed Round In Front Of Top Investors 31:31  Advice you Wish you Had Known & would Tell your 25 year old self 35:18 Biggest Challenges Mercury's Currently Facing 37:27 Top Resources Instrumental for Immad's Success 39:57 What does success mean to Immad Today? 41:06 Future for Mercury, Immad & Where to Get in Touch Mentions: https://mercury.com/ (Mercury) https://mercury.com/treasury (Mercury Treasury ) https://mercury.com/raise (Mercury Raise) People: http://www.paulgraham.com/articles.html (Paul Graham) Get In Touch With Immad: https://www.linkedin.com/in/iakhund/ (Immad's Linkedin) @Immad Tag us & follow: https://www.facebook.com/HorizenCapitalOfficial/ (Facebook)  https://www.facebook.com/HorizenCapitalOfficial/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/horizen-capital (LinkedIn)  https://www.linkedin.com/company/horizen-capital https://www.instagram.com/saasdistrict/ (Instagram)  https://www.instagram.com/saasdistrict/ (https://www.instagram.com/saasdistrict/) More about Akeel: Twitter - https://twitter.com/AkeelJabber (https://twitter.com/AkeelJabber) LinkedIn - https://linkedin.com/in/akeel-jabbar (https://linkedin.com/in/akeel-jabbar) More Podcast Sessions - https://horizencapital.com/saas-podcast (https://horizencapital.com/saas-podcast)

Jude is a serial entrepreneur, angel investor, and the Founder & CEO of Golden. Golden is on a mission to map out human knowledge and it is backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund, Giga Fund, and others. Prior to Golden, Jude co-founded and spent several year working on Heyzap, a mobile advertising platform which was acquired by Fyber in 2016. Since making his first angel investment in 2010, Jude has made over 200 early stage investments including Carta, Gusto, Airtable, Boom, Superhuman, Mercury, Calm, Relativity Space, Ironclad, Astra, Benchling, Ginkgo Bioworks, Linear and many more. He recently launched a rolling fund through which he will continue investing in startups. -- Thank you for listening to Pod of Jake! All shares and reviews are appreciated! If you enjoy this podcast, you might like reading blogofjake.com If you prefer listening over reading, you might prefer Blog of Jake's blog on tape, available through any of your favorite podcast providers. Website: podofjake.com Twitter: @blogofjake Email: jake@blogofjake.com Call: superpeer.com/jake Support: patreon.com/blogofjake Bitcoin: 3ESGQxrJZmGqd2SifqCUiHPvah1uWtN1Zd Ethereum: blogofjake.eth 0xF89aCC1f8c4FeEAc372997006BfE7c0fdD99F80c Bitcoin Cash: qznma8vxf8kjn4v9phsfkhzd0559gm7yfsx0gkl4sf

Jude Gomila is the Founder & CEO of Golden ( https://golden.com/ ) a company on a mission to map out human knowledge and accelerate discovery and learning, and an investor in more than 200 companies including Carta, Gusto, Airtable, Boom, Ginkgo, Benchling, Ironclad, Superhuman, Linear, and Relativity. Jude was also previously the Founder of Heyzap, a company which was incubated at Y Combinator, raised $8M, and was acquired in Jan. 2016 by RNTS Media for $45M. About Our Partner, Pivot CMO This episode is brought to you by Pivot CMO ( https://www.pivotcmo.com/ ). Whether you’re a startup and you’ve just launched your product or a larger business, accelerate your growth with performance marketing solutions from our partner, Pivot CMO. Pivot specializes in performance marketing solutions that have helped countless companies double or even triple in the first few months of working with them. They’re boutique, extremely data-driven, and launch and iterate quickly. 84% of their clients double their revenue. Pivot CMO is focused on digital marketing channels like Facebook/Instagram, Google, Pinterest, and TikTok. Their founders are involved with every account so you don’t get a low-level account manager, but instead a highly skilled and experienced, outsourced CMO.  They’ve helped a number of Y Combinator and venture-backed companies along with fortune 500 companies, so no matter the size or stage of your company, use Pivot to help with all of your marketing and growth needs.  To book a free consultation visit pivotcmo.com. Some of the Topics Covered by Jude Gomila in this Episode What the mission is of Golden The initial focus area for Golden when Jude first started it Some of the constraints Jude found when trying to build a system to map human knowledge The use cases for Golden Where Jude's personal interest in the idea of Golden comes from How the fundraising process was for Jude and Golden and how it compared to raising money in 2009 for Heyzap What kept Jude going while trying to fundraise in 2009 even though it was an incredibly difficult time to raise capital Finally getting an investment from Union Square Ventures as well as Naval Ravikant Choosing between dinner and a call with Naval Ravikant and getting him on Jude's board How Jude's investors were most helpful for him as he built Heyzap Incentive structures Why Jude got started with Angel investing and how extreme frugality helped him invest in more companies How Jude manages relationships with so many founders as an Angel investor Making your own luck How Jude gets access to so many deals as an investor How to be useful, become a magnet, and attract great investments Optimizing for serendipity vs. networking How Jude thinks about applying the Pareto Principle (80/20) in his business Resource allocation at a startup The next steps for Golden Happiness, what it means, how to define it, and how to measure it Why you should have some level of discomfort in your life Living at the edge of uncertainty Optimizing for fun Sign up for The Weekly Grind, for actionable insights and stories from successful entrepreneurs delivered to your inbox once per week: https://www.justgogrind.com/newsletter/ Listen to all episodes of the Just Go Grind Podcast: https://www.justgogrind.com/podcast/ Follow Justin Gordon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/justingordon212 Follow Justin Gordon on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justingordon8/

Four years ago today’s guest sold HeyZap for $45M. It was a long journey which we’ll talk about in this interview but I also want to find out about what he’s building now. Immad Akhund is the founder of Mercury, a bank that helps startups scale. I tweeted out before this interview looking for negative stories about the company. I couldn’t find any. I want to find out how he’s grown a bank that’s for tech-savvy entrepreneurs. Immad Akhund is the founder of Mercury, a bank that helps startups scale. Sponsored byLaunchpeer – Do you have a tech idea but you need help to launch your the first version? Use Launchpeer to validate your idea, find a business model and ensure product market fit. Launchpeer is an equity-free, online incubation program for busy non-technical founders. Mixergy listeners can get access to a nine-part course to de-risk their startup by going to Launchpeer.com/mixergy Toptal – Toptal is a global network of top talent in business, design, and technology that enables companies to scale their teams, on demand. Toptal serves thousands of clients, including Fortune 500 companies and innovative startups, delivering expertise and world-class solutions at an unparalleled success rate. With elite freelancers in over 100 countries, Toptal connects the world’s top talent with leading companies in days, not weeks. Plus, every new engagement begins with a no-risk trial period, so clients only pay if satisfied with the work. Get started hiring with Toptal today. More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint

Jude Gomila is a serial entrepreneur and a serial angel investor. He's invested in over 180+ companies including Airtable. In this episode, Philip talks with Jude about early life and "failed" projects to moving to San Francisco and starting Heyzap with his childhood friend which they went on to sell for $45m. We also discuss getting into Y-combinator and the conversation with Paul Graham (PG) on the sidewall.

Immad Akhund is the co-founder and CEO of Mercury which is a bank for startups, engineered in Silicon Valley for tech companies. The company has raised over $25 million from investors like Andreessen Horowitz and Charles River Ventures. Prior to this, he cofounded Heyzap which he sold for $45 million. 

Immad Akhund is the co-founder and CEO of Mercury which is a bank for startups, engineered in Silicon Valley for tech companies. The company has raised over $25 million from investors like Andreessen Horowitz and Charles River Ventures. Prior to this, he cofounded Heyzap which he sold for $45 million. 

Immad Akhund is the Founder & CEO @ Mercury, the startup that makes bank accounts that help tech companies scale. To date, Immad has raised funding from some of the best in the business including a16z and CRV on the fund side and then individuals including Elad Gil, Airtable's Howie Liu, Plaid's Zach Perret, Naval Ravikant, Justin Kan and OpenDoor's Eric Wu. Prior to founding Mercury, Immad held enjoyed numerous different roles including being a part-time partner at Y Combinator and then also founding HeyZap, building developer tools for mobile game developers, ultimately acquired in 2016. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Immad made his way from studying in the UK to being a YC Partner in 2017 and building one of the valley's hottest startups today in the form of Mercury? 2.) What does Immad want to do differently this time around with Mercury vs his time with HeyZap? What 1-2 mistakes that he made the first time round is Immad looking to avoid? How does being a serial founder impact one's ability to acquire the best talent? What does Immad think is harder the second time around? How has becoming a parent changed the way that Immad thinks about founding and building companies? 3.) How does Immad approach the process of picking the idea? What was the specific process with Mercury, step by step? Why does Immad believe it is an advantage to not have a background or prior career in the space you are looking to innovate in? What advice does Immad have for founders looking to move into highly regulated industries? 4.) How does Immad approach and assess the element of competition? What is the right way for founders to present competition when pitching to investors? Why is a 2x2 matrix the wrong approach? What does Immad advise portfolio founders he has invested in with regards to competition and the landscape in front of them? 5.) What have been some of Immad's biggest learnings from making over 120 angel investments? How has angel investing specifically helped certain parts of how he thinks about operating and being a founder today? What advice does Immad give with regards to investor updates? What makes the best ones? What makes the worst? How often should they be? Items Mentioned In Today’s Show: Immad’s Fave Book: The Accidental Superpower: The Next Generation of American Preeminence and the Coming Global Disaster As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Immad on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.

Jude Gomila, who previously sold his mobile advertising company Heyzap to RNTS Media, is taking on a new challenge — building a “knowledge base” that can fill in Wikipedia's blind spots, particularly when it comes to emerging technologies and startups. While Gomila is officially launching Golden today, it's already full of content about things like the latest batch of Y Combinator startups and morphogenetic engineering.

Ben Braverman is the CRO @ Flexport, one of the world’s fastest growing startups combining technology, infrastructure and expertise, to build the operating system for global trade. To date they have $1.35Bn in funding from some of the biggest and best in the business including Softbank’s Vision Fund, Founders Fund, DST, Susa Ventures and Y Combinator, just to name a few. As for Ben, he spearheads global sales and go to market teams. Prior to Flexport, Ben helped drive two high-growth companies to successful acquisitions: URX (acquired by Pinterest) and Heyzap (acquired by Fyber). In Today’s Episode We Discuss: How Ben made his way into the world of startups and came to be CRO of one of the world’s fastest growing startups in the form of Flexport? Why does Ben fundamentally disagree with the specialisation of roles within SaaS companies? What does he believes this does to the customer journey and relationship? How should one thing about role segmentation and allocation of accounts with this in mind? Where does Ben see many people going wrong here? Why does Ben believe it is “total horseshit to say the best sellers don’t make the best managers”? What must founders try and figure out before hiring their sales leader? What are the leading indicators that suggest a sales rep has the ability to be a sales manager? How does Ben determine between a stretch VP and a stretch too far?    What does Ben mean when he says, “there are 3 distinct buckets of sales management”? What are they and what is their relationship between one another? Why does Ben believe one does not need sales management in the early days? What is the best way to train reps and determine payback period fast? Why does Ben believe sales ops is the most underappreciated role in the valley? 60 Second SaaStr: What does Ben know now that he wishes she had known at the beginning? What is the optimal relationship between CRO and CEO? What does Ben believe in SaaS that most around his disbelieve? Read the full transcript on our blog. If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here: Jason Lemkin Harry Stebbings SaaStr Ben Braverman

James Smith. He’s the co-founder and CEO of Bugsnag, the leading crash monitoring platform for web and mobile applications. The company helps companies like Airbnb, Lyft, Cisco, Pandora and Yelp catch and fix errors on their applications. Originally from London, James moved to the Bay area in 2009, leading the product team as the CTO of Heyzap. In his spare time, he likes hacking open source software, eating junk food and practicing his American accent. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Radical Focus What CEO do you follow? – Jeff Bezos Favorite online tool? — eShares How many hours of sleep do you get?— 8 If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “If you don’t ask, you don’t get, apply it to your life” Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:11 – Nathan introduces James to the show 02:00 – If a company has a software, Bugsnag detects when the software is broken 02:22 – Bugsnag charges monthly 02:28 – The price varies depending on the company’s needs 02:36 – Price starts at $29 a month to tens of thousands a month depending on the scale of the business 03:17 – Customer cohorts 03:57 – Team size is 35 and will be 45 at the end of the year 04:30 – James and his co-founder quit their job in 2012 and started Bugsnag in 2013 04:40 – James was the CTO for Heyzap which was a Y combinator company in the gaming space 04:59 – Heyzap wasn’t able to solve the problem James had with Bloomberg 05:59 – James invested in Heyzap and learned a lot from his time with them 06:40 – Heyzap was acquired by the German company Fyber 07:06 – James’ experience entering the startup world 08:30 – With Heyzap, James had to decide whether or not he’d buy his shares before the acquisition 09:43 – James’ price was low because he was an early employee of Heyzap 10:41 – James was 29 when he left Heyzap 10:50 – Bugsnag was initially bootstrapped, then raised in 2013 11:08 – Bugsnag went with Matrix Partners 11:32 – Bugsnag raised a total of $9.5M 11:49 – Customer number is around 4000 companies 12:04 – Bugsnag has a free and premium model 12:14 – There are 60K software engineers who are using Bugsnag 12:21 – One third are organizations and the rest are using it for free 13:00 – First year revenue was $4.5K in ARR 13:27 – Bugsnag has broken $2M ARR already 13:47 – “The expansion revenue is really, really strong” 13:50 – Bugsnag is constantly in a net negative churn 14:06 – Logo churn is around 1% 14:40 – Bugsnag started with low deal sizes and grew them slowly 15:05 – People try Bugsnag for free and see its value 15:45 – Healthy net negative churn in the industry is around mid-single digit to low double digit negative churn 16:41 – The best driver of growth for Bugsnag is word of mouth 17:01 – Bugsnag also does conferences and had 18 conferences last year 17:10 – Sponsorship price per conference can go up to $10K 17:28 – Large companies go to conferences as well 17:35 – Payback period is the 12-month which is the rule of thumb 18:17 – Bugsnag is in a typical SaaS gross margin 20:25 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: If you don’t ask, you won’t receive; therefore, just get out there and ask for what you want. Small deal sizes can grow and expand to large ones once people see your value. Consider owning a part of a company—especially if it’s a company that you truly believe in. Resources Mentioned: The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences GetLatka - Database of all B2B SaaS companies who have been on my show including their revenue, CAC, churn, ARPU and more Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you’re doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Immad Akhund is the Co-founder of HeyZap, an app that changes the way we play games together.  Immad is an engineer and entrepreneur, studied Computer Science at Cambridge University, and has co founded three successful start ups. He was previously Co-founder and the CTO of Clickpass.com.

33voices interviews Jude Gomila, co-founder of social gaming company, Heyzap.

33voices interviews Immad Akhund, co-founder of Heyzap.

Immad Akhund is the Co-founder of HeyZap, an app that changes the way we play games together.  Immad is an engineer and entrepreneur who studied Computer Science at Cambridge University and has co-founded three successful start-ups. He was previously Co-founder and the CTO of Clickpass.com.

In this interview, Jude Gomilla explains why he left London to establish his startup in the Bay area. He also provides instructions for those that want to follow suit.