The best part about going to the @a16z Consumer event with @ThineAI running on my phone?
I can actually enjoy the drinks and still remember every conversation tomorrow. #NYTechWeek
Everyone says consumer AI is dead. No clear winners. No one’s making money.
please come to NYC and realize how wrong that is.People are building insanely good products, obsessed with design, and growing month after month.
left the NY Tech Week event at Fenwick even more convinced:
There’s no better place to build consumer than New York City.
hope everyone made it to NYC for Tech Week and no one stayed home.
now if someone could also filter the 900 identical AI/networking/tech events on partiful and luma, that’d be great.
thanks!
w so many vibecoded and ai slop apps coming out every day, i think the biggest differentiation now is design and how thoughtfully things are shipped.
at @thestatusai we spent a lot of time figuring out PMF and shipping as fast as possible just to see what actually works and what users genuinely like. Getting people to love the product is probably the hardest part, and I’m glad we’ve been able to get there.
now the focus shifts to the next challenge craftsmanship. the small details, the polish, the design decisions, and making every part of the experience feel smooth and intuitive.
we’re in that second phase now, where the bar is no longer just shipping fast. It’s about shipping things that feel beautiful, reliable, and well thought out.
My conversation with @immad, CEO and co-founder of @mercury.
Immad's story is so unique yet largely underdiscussed. His father owned a mechanic shop and his mom was a teacher. After immigrating to the US, he spent nearly a decade pivoting before finally selling his first company for 45M. We dug into the sheer pain tolerance required to pivot constantly and still find sources of motivation, something many early-stage founders don't hear about enough.
From there, Mercury got off the ground — but with a unique twist. Immad generally doesn't work weekends and has still built one of the most successful fintechs. This goes entirely against Twitter hype that promotes working every waking hour, and Immad's clarity on this topic was refreshing. He feels like he's "playing the bonus levels" and is still just getting started.
Mercury is now worth multiple billions of dollars with 500M+ in recurring revenue, 10 consecutive quarters of profitability, and still growing 40% YoY. I hope you enjoy this conversation, Immad's clarity on company building, and learning about his life.
PS. As quite the ending, Immad & I tried Habanero hot sauce off his conference room table!
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
2:11 Growing Up in Pakistan And Moving to London
6:37 "Yelp For London" and Early Entrepreneurial Endeavors
10:45 Pivoting From Flash Games to Mobile Ad Networks
12:15 Selling a Company After 8 Years of Pivoting
16:42 Thank You to Macroscope and Timeless Partners
17:56 Meeting His Wife Through Facebook
19:09 Finding Your Life’s Work
22:35 The Origins of Mercury
26:44 The Importance of Design at Mercury
27:37 How Mercury Landed Its Initial Customers
29:12 Raising Mercury's Seed Round
31:09 The Choice to Not Work Weekends
34:58 Immad's Best Startup Ideas
36:15 Are There Moats with AI?
38:05 Mercury’s 10-year vision
39:50 From Angel Investing to Formalizing a New Fund
42:13 Paul Graham's Influence
44:33 Parenting Philosophy
46:01 Sources of Happiness
46:52 Immad & I Taste Hot Sauce Off a Conference Table!
@LifeOfShandi bro do you mind taking a quick 45mins master class this sunday, sharing all tips and tricks and must know things for codex/cursor/claude!?