Nakul Mandan

Founder: @AudaciousHQ. Host: @KnuckleUpHQ.

Helping outlier founders achieve improbable outcomes.

[Nakul Mandan @nakul]

Building a company is a confrontational act.

Introducing Knuckle Up: conversations with people who’ve operated at the highest level.

Recruiting. Culture. Intensity. The inner game of being a CEO.

First episode with Frank Slootman drops today.

Trailer ↓

[Nakul Mandan @nakul]

Why did @immad institute a "Curiosity presentation" as a key part of the recruiting process at @Mercury?

[Samantha Price @hellosprice]

Still buzzing from Women in Tech x @AudaciousHQ wine night! We're cooking up something extra special for the next one. If you're a female builder in SF and want to be part of the next one, DM or comment below!

[Samantha Price @hellosprice]

We're hiring 3 founding engineers!

@ghostai is building ai clones.
- Founding Engineers
- SF based (will relo!)
- $10M seed from Audacious, a16z, Abstract, SV Angel, Parable, & founders of Instacart, Tinder.

@OasisHQ is bringing agents and humans together to supercharge your life and work.
- AI & Fullstack Engineers
- NYC based (will relo!)

🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀

[e chi @echinaceous]

@quadrillion_ai is hosting a social at #icml2026, tuesday 7/7 at 7pm! https://t.co/8PnE5CHYig

we've booked out a wonderful bar minutes away from COEX. come hang out with us and chat about everything autoresearch and recursive self-improvement. we'll have drinks, wonderful food, and great people!

[Nakul Mandan @nakul]

Why @immad thinks that ultimately culture = founder's personality externalized?:

"The easiest way to define culture is: What are the personalities of the people you hire? What are the personalities that you encourage? What are the traits you encourage?"

[Nakul Mandan @nakul]

"I've tried to make it so that the pressure goes down as success goes up. If you're more successful, why are you more stressed about it?" - @immad.

Immad Akhund. Founder and CEO of Mercury.

$650M annualized revenue. $5.2B valuation. 300K customers. Immad has achieved all of this on his own terms: He's anti-996. Remote-first when rest of Silicon Valley has bounced back to fully in-person. Hires for curiosity and low ego. Optimized to be a founder for life.

Knuckle Up ↓

00:00 Who is Immad Akhund?
01:53 Is culture just the founder's personality externalized?
07:53 Is 996 actually less productive?
13:14 Why is Mercury still remote-first when Silicon Valley went back?
15:52 How did Immad hire Mercury's first ten people?
20:33 What is Mercury's famous “curiosity interview”?
25:06 How do you hold the hiring bar at 1,200 people?
28:48 What does Immad’s day-to-day look like?
34:10 How do you know when an exec is no longer right for the job?
37:32 Why does Mercury run on small, autonomous product teams?
40:27 What breaks when a company runs purely on metrics?
47:03 How is AI changing Mercury?
54:09 What does becoming a chartered bank actually change?
56:19 How did the SVB collapse end up helping Mercury?
1:03:40 What does psyche management look like 20 years in?
1:11:19 What does it mean to be at the founder “bonus levels”?
1:15:21 Quickfire: overrated traits, AI blind spots, and being proven wrong
1:17:52 What would Immad tell his 25-year-old self?

[Muzzammil Zaveri (MZ) @mzaveri]

"I love change. I live for change. Change is the main thing I want in life" - @immad

[Max Zang @maxzang305]

crazy energy in nyc last night hosting some of the best interns in the city. lots of World Cup trash talk - see everyone’s picks below!!

I promise I didn’t force anyone to pick Argentina… but we all know it was the right choice

[Samantha Price @hellosprice]

@francescagnuva @yousufdoes @maxzang305 out in NYC last night! We have another summer series happy hour coming to sf soon!

[Yousuf @yousufdoes]

We had our first young talent happy hour in NYC last night and the energy in the city these days is insane.

We had everyone hang up their world cup picks (accountability). Also, pins apparently don't hold well on canvas, so if you see your picture on the streets of SOHO, sorry!

[Francesca Gnuva @francescagnuva]

Edition #3 of Women in Tech x @AudaciousHQ wine night with a great line up and a fantastic group of ladies who are part of the sf tech ecosystem💐

Already excited for the next wine tasting🍷 (+ 10/10 recommend the appetizers from a16 in the marina!)

[Nakul Mandan @nakul]

@ItzSuds Taking over the podcast circuit too now!!

[Nakul Mandan @nakul]

How does one scale the founder's taste in product and other things when you get to 1000+ people?

@immad's answer: "Complaining is a pretty good skill set..."

"I go pretty deep on the things we ship, and I just wanna have an amazing experience and when it doesn't feel like that, I can manifest that user. What are all the things that would bug me if I turned up to use this product? When that slips up, I'm going to complain a lot."

[Nakul Mandan @nakul]

"I've tried to make it so that the pressure goes down as success goes up. If you're more successful, why are you more stressed about it?" - @immad.

Immad Akhund. Founder and CEO of Mercury.

$650M annualized revenue. $5.2B valuation. 300K customers. Immad has achieved all of this on his own terms: He's anti-996. Remote-first when rest of Silicon Valley has bounced back to fully in-person. Hires for curiosity and low ego. Optimized to be a founder for life.

Knuckle Up ↓

00:00 Who is Immad Akhund?
01:53 Is culture just the founder's personality externalized?
07:53 Is 996 actually less productive?
13:14 Why is Mercury still remote-first when Silicon Valley went back?
15:52 How did Immad hire Mercury's first ten people?
20:33 What is Mercury's famous “curiosity interview”?
25:06 How do you hold the hiring bar at 1,200 people?
28:48 What does Immad’s day-to-day look like?
34:10 How do you know when an exec is no longer right for the job?
37:32 Why does Mercury run on small, autonomous product teams?
40:27 What breaks when a company runs purely on metrics?
47:03 How is AI changing Mercury?
54:09 What does becoming a chartered bank actually change?
56:19 How did the SVB collapse end up helping Mercury?
1:03:40 What does psyche management look like 20 years in?
1:11:19 What does it mean to be at the founder “bonus levels”?
1:15:21 Quickfire: overrated traits, AI blind spots, and being proven wrong
1:17:52 What would Immad tell his 25-year-old self?

[Nakul Mandan @nakul]

@sterlingmsnow Congrats man! Huge!

[Nakul Mandan @nakul]

I steelmanned 996 to @immad.

His counter: "Was that (extra 2 hours) really 20% more productive? I'll be shocked if it was 20% more productive... maybe 5% more productive. Hiring a 6th person on a 5-person team is 20% more productive."

[Nakul Mandan @nakul]

"I've tried to make it so that the pressure goes down as success goes up. If you're more successful, why are you more stressed about it?" - @immad.

Immad Akhund. Founder and CEO of Mercury.

$650M annualized revenue. $5.2B valuation. 300K customers. Immad has achieved all of this on his own terms: He's anti-996. Remote-first when rest of Silicon Valley has bounced back to fully in-person. Hires for curiosity and low ego. Optimized to be a founder for life.

Knuckle Up ↓

00:00 Who is Immad Akhund?
01:53 Is culture just the founder's personality externalized?
07:53 Is 996 actually less productive?
13:14 Why is Mercury still remote-first when Silicon Valley went back?
15:52 How did Immad hire Mercury's first ten people?
20:33 What is Mercury's famous “curiosity interview”?
25:06 How do you hold the hiring bar at 1,200 people?
28:48 What does Immad’s day-to-day look like?
34:10 How do you know when an exec is no longer right for the job?
37:32 Why does Mercury run on small, autonomous product teams?
40:27 What breaks when a company runs purely on metrics?
47:03 How is AI changing Mercury?
54:09 What does becoming a chartered bank actually change?
56:19 How did the SVB collapse end up helping Mercury?
1:03:40 What does psyche management look like 20 years in?
1:11:19 What does it mean to be at the founder “bonus levels”?
1:15:21 Quickfire: overrated traits, AI blind spots, and being proven wrong
1:17:52 What would Immad tell his 25-year-old self?

[Nakul Mandan @nakul]

YT: https://t.co/dihd8LkTCY
Spotify: https://t.co/mYgwddfCpu
Substack: https://t.co/empIcc2Hoq

[Nakul Mandan @nakul]

"I've tried to make it so that the pressure goes down as success goes up. If you're more successful, why are you more stressed about it?" - @immad.

Immad Akhund. Founder and CEO of Mercury.

$650M annualized revenue. $5.2B valuation. 300K customers. Immad has achieved all of this on his own terms: He's anti-996. Remote-first when rest of Silicon Valley has bounced back to fully in-person. Hires for curiosity and low ego. Optimized to be a founder for life.

Knuckle Up ↓

00:00 Who is Immad Akhund?
01:53 Is culture just the founder's personality externalized?
07:53 Is 996 actually less productive?
13:14 Why is Mercury still remote-first when Silicon Valley went back?
15:52 How did Immad hire Mercury's first ten people?
20:33 What is Mercury's famous “curiosity interview”?
25:06 How do you hold the hiring bar at 1,200 people?
28:48 What does Immad’s day-to-day look like?
34:10 How do you know when an exec is no longer right for the job?
37:32 Why does Mercury run on small, autonomous product teams?
40:27 What breaks when a company runs purely on metrics?
47:03 How is AI changing Mercury?
54:09 What does becoming a chartered bank actually change?
56:19 How did the SVB collapse end up helping Mercury?
1:03:40 What does psyche management look like 20 years in?
1:11:19 What does it mean to be at the founder “bonus levels”?
1:15:21 Quickfire: overrated traits, AI blind spots, and being proven wrong
1:17:52 What would Immad tell his 25-year-old self?

[Nakul Mandan @nakul]

wow.

[Sam Parr @thesamparr]

Replit's CEO on the months right before they blew up:

- Lost half the team. 120 people down to 60.
- Had just moved into a huge new office. Empty, cold, dark.
- Every morning he knew someone was gonna walk to his desk and quit.
- "You can see it in their eyes when they stop believing in you."

[Nakul Mandan @nakul]

@Appyg99 @BesteverAI @samba_tv @ashwinnavin @AudaciousHQ @f7Ventures @a16z @offlineventures @amralshihabi @williampbarnes Congrats @Appyg99! Was a pleasure partnering with you. Excited to see your next chapter!

[Nakul Mandan @nakul]

At this point, the world's second richest person, Larry Page, is closer in wealth to you than he is to Elon Musk.

[Brendan McCord 🏛️ x 🤖 @Brendan_McCord]

@CameronLMcCord is the rare guy who lives these maxims.

One I'd add from my time on submarines:

1. Turn left.

Off watch, an officer is usually in or near the wardroom. When an emergency happens - fire, flooding, a hydraulic leak (and they often do), you have two choices:

Turn RIGHT and go man the 1MC (public address system). Meaning, orchestrate emergency response.

Or turn LEFT and be the "man in charge," putting on firefighting equipment and heading to the source of the fire.

Both necessary, but you need to go to where the fire is.