Fund/Build/Scale

Before Immad Akhund raised money for Mercury, he spent months talking to lawyers, investors, fintech founders and potential banking partners. He’d already experienced the problem he wanted to solve. The harder question was whether he could build the company to solve it.   Recorded at One Way Summit in San Francisco, this Fund/Build/Scale conversation puts 15 questions to Mercury’s co-founder and CEO about building the company, backing early-stage founders and finding opportunities others take for granted.   We discuss: Why Mercury took roughly 18 months to launch (and what had to work before it could). How he reduced the biggest risks before approaching investors. The startups he’d like to see founders build. How an immigrant’s outsider perspective helped him recognize an opportunity in US banking. Why he thinks founders should move to Silicon Valley and participate in its culture. How repeated encounters become relationships, and why transactional networking falls short. His advice for someone facing an H-1B layoff Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/9mDAsf1STvU RUNTIME 18:29 EPISODE BREAKDOWN (1:33) Are You Building Something That's Hard to Explain? (2:09) Meet Immad Akhund: Founder and Investor (3:23) The Startups He Wants to Back (4:00) Why Mercury Took 18 Months to Launch (7:09) Before fundraising, "I basically spent all that time de-risking." (9:07) Who He Backs (9:49) The Benefits of Being an Immigrant Founder (13:20) Build Relationships, Not Just a Network (15:05) An H-1B Layoff: What Comes Next? (16:31) His Advice for Taking the Leap: Just Quit LINKS Immad Akhund Mercury One Way Summit One Way Ventures Are you building something that’s hard to explain? If so, that’s often a sign you’re working on something interesting, but it raises the risk that you’re missing out on fundraising, sales, hiring, and media opportunities. I help early-stage founders sharpen the narrative: what matters, why now, who needs to care, and why they’re the right team to make it happen. If you’re preparing for a raise, launch, important customer meeting, panel, or hiring push, I can help you pressure-test the story before the stakes get higher. 👉🏾 Visit the Fund/Build/Scale website to learn more, or email [email protected] SUBSCRIBE 📥 Get the Fund/Build/Scale newsletter on Beehiiv: https://fundbuildscale.beehiiv.com/ ↔️Follow F/B/S on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7249143254363856897/ 📺 Watch Fund/Build/Scale on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFFH4cs2B1BKatPGs8SFRJw

Before you raise money, hire a team or start building, how much should you already know? Vineet Edupuganti, co-founder and CEO of Cogent Security, joins Fund/Build/Scale to break down the work his team did before committing to the company: talking with roughly 100 potential customers, studying previous attempts to solve the problem, mapping buyer pain and budgets, and identifying the assumptions that could derail the business. We also talk how Cogent recruited its first employees, landed early design partners, decided when customer interest was strong enough to move forward, and learned to distinguish real demand from polite enthusiasm. If you’re not sure how to recognize when it’s time to stop researching and start building, listen to this episode. 📺 Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/xVOcBgsuU2U RUNTIME 44:19 (2:02) Pick a Problem That Survives an 80% Budget Cut (9:11) Build Conviction Before You Build the Company (19:28) How to Recognize When You’ve Learned Enough to Start (27:52) Why Early Customers Take the Risk (34:23) The Signals That Demand Is Real (38:41) Would You Invest $1 Million in Yourself? LINKS Vineet Edupuganti Cogent Security Are you building something that’s hard to explain? If so, that’s often a sign you’re working on something interesting, but it raises the risk that you’re missing out on fundraising, sales, hiring, and media opportunities. I help early-stage founders sharpen the narrative: what matters, why now, who needs to care, and why they’re the right team to make it happen. If you’re preparing for a raise, launch, important customer meeting, panel, or hiring push, I can help you pressure-test the story before the stakes get higher. 👉🏾 Visit the Fund/Build/Scale website to learn more, or email [email protected] SUBSCRIBE 📥 Get the Fund/Build/Scale newsletter on Beehiiv: https://fundbuildscale.beehiiv.com/ ↔️Follow F/B/S on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7249143254363856897/ 📸 Follow Fund/Build/Scale on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fundbuildscale/ 📺 Watch Fund/Build/Scale on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFFH4cs2B1BKatPGs8SFRJw

Why do some startups get taken seriously while others struggle to earn attention, even when they're solving similar problems? Beck Bamberger, founder and CEO of startup communications agency BAM, joins Fund/Build/Scale to discuss how early-stage founders establish credibility before they have much traction. We explore why conviction matters but can't substitute for evidence, what investors look for when customers and revenue are scarce, and why founders who've raised millions sometimes struggle to explain what their companies actually do. Beck also explains the concept of narrative capital, how investors, customers and journalists evaluate startups differently, and what founders can do to earn trust and media attention without an established track record. A practical conversation about confidence, customer validation, clear communication and giving people real reasons to believe in your business. WATCH ON YOUTUBE https://youtu.be/yqdmd7S7jR4 RUNTIME 35:29   EPISODE BREAKDOWN (1:50) Meet Beck Bamberger, Founder and CEO of BAM (4:36) Why Some Founders Earn Belief Before Proof (10:50) What Makes an Early-Stage Startup Credible? (18:45) Your Startup Story Shouldn’t Take 17 Minutes (24:35) Who Needs to Believe in Your Startup First? (28:08) How to Get Journalists to Take You Seriously (31:01) Practical Advice for Building Startup Credibility LINKS Beck Bamberger, PhD BAM Are you building something that’s hard to explain? If so, that’s often a sign you’re working on something interesting, but it raises the risk that you’re missing out on fundraising, sales, hiring, and media opportunities. I help early-stage founders sharpen the narrative: what matters, why now, who needs to care, and why they’re the right team to make it happen. If you’re preparing for a raise, launch, important customer meeting, panel, or hiring push, I can help you pressure-test the story before the stakes get higher. Visit the Fund/Build/Scale website to learn more, or email [email protected] 👉🏾 Learn more SUBSCRIBE 📥 Get the Fund/Build/Scale newsletter on Beehiiv: https://fundbuildscale.beehiiv.com/ 📺 Watch Fund/Build/Scale on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFFH4cs2B1BKatPGs8SFRJw 📸 Follow Fund/Build/Scale on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fundbuildscale/

“Follow your dreams and quit your day job” is terrible advice. That’s not me saying it. That’s Jon Keidan, founder and managing partner of Torch Capital, where he’s backed companies including Sweetgreen, Acorns and Zocdoc. He has a better suggestion: before you blow up your life for a startup idea, find some proof that people actually want what you’re planning to build. The bar may be lower than you think. In this conversation, we break down how Jon evaluates consumer startups from the pain point up, what makes founders credible before there’s much traction, why he initially passed (twice!) on Sweetgreen, and how to tell the difference between focus and distraction. We end with a 30-day experiment you can run while you still have a paycheck to find out whether strangers care about your idea before you go all in. 📺 WATCH ON YOUTUBE https://youtu.be/1VvBiLhvd_g RUNTIME 37:14   EPISODE BREAKDOWN (2:39) Is the problem painful enough to build a company around? (7:01) Start with a niche, but think bigger (19:02) Don't quit your day job just yet (24:17) The deli test: How to tell if your consumer product is venture-scale (26:57) How much proof does a pre-seed investor need? (28:43) AI is not a business model (32:09) Where are the opportunities AI hasn't swallowed? (35:04) Jon's 30-day experiment for consumer/CPG founders LINKS Jon Keidan Torch Capital Sweetgreen Acorns Zocdoc DigitalOcean Ro Are you building something that’s hard to explain? If so, that’s often a sign you’re working on something interesting, but it raises the risk that you’re missing out on fundraising, sales, hiring, and media opportunities. I help early-stage founders sharpen the narrative: what matters, why now, who needs to care, and why they’re the right team to make it happen. If you’re preparing for a raise, launch, important customer meeting, panel, or hiring push, I can help you pressure-test the story before the stakes get higher. 👉🏾 Visit the Fund/Build/Scale website to learn more, or email [email protected] SUBSCRIBE 📥 Get the Fund/Build/Scale newsletter on Beehiiv: https://fundbuildscale.beehiiv.com/ ↔️Follow F/B/S on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7249143254363856897/ 📸 Follow Fund/Build/Scale on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fundbuildscale/ 📺 Watch Fund/Build/Scale on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFFH4cs2B1BKatPGs8SFRJw

Most of us learn culture by adapting to one that already exists. We join a company, figure out what gets rewarded, who has power, what people say in meetings, and what they say after the meeting ends. Founders don’t have that luxury. They’re not fitting into a culture. They’re creating one, whether they mean to or not. SnapLogic President Molly Matthews has a more practical way to think about it: culture is what gets repeated. It shows up in who you hire, what you build, and how you treat customers. “For me, it’s the ethos,” she said. “It’s the energy in which you exchange details with colleagues. It’s how you show up to work.” We get into the first five hires, why “culture fit” is often the wrong frame, what to do with the talented-but-toxic employee, and we’ll end with a self-diagnostic you can run to see if your company is becoming the kind of place you meant to build. 📺 Watch this episode on YouTube RUNTIME 49:56   EPISODE BREAKDOWN (1:58) Molly Matthews on scaling through people (4:29) What company culture actually means (19:09) Why waiting for the perfect hire backfires (26:56) When grit turns into burnout (32:06) The Captain America problem: when talent hurts the team (38:37) Morale and culture are different problems (40:14) Choosing advisors and investors (44:47) What to look for in your first five hires LINKS Molly Matthews SnapLogic Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, Angela Duckworth Radical Candor, Kim Scott Extreme Ownership, Jocko Willink and Leif Babin Are you building something that’s hard to explain? If so, that’s often a sign you’re working on something interesting, but it raises the risk that you’re missing out on fundraising, sales, hiring, and media opportunities. I help early-stage founders sharpen the narrative: what matters, why now, who needs to care, and why they’re the right team to make it happen. If you’re preparing for a raise, launch, important customer meeting, panel, or hiring push, I can help you pressure-test the story before the stakes get higher. 👉🏾 Visit the Fund/Build/Scale website to learn more, or email [email protected] SUBSCRIBE 📥 Get the Fund/Build/Scale newsletter on Beehiiv: https://fundbuildscale.beehiiv.com/ ↔️Follow F/B/S on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7249143254363856897/ 📸 Follow Fund/Build/Scale on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fundbuildscale/ 📺 Watch Fund/Build/Scale on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFFH4cs2B1BKatPGs8SFRJw