Mercury Built on 1,000 Workflow Fixes
Immad Akhund, CEO of Mercury, on the business models of fintechs vs. banks
Mercury’s edge is not one killer feature, but a long list of small workflow fixes that make startup banking feel native to how founders actually operate. That means remote signup, fast wires, cleaner fraud handling, better treasury defaults, and support for companies that are early, global, or investor backed but too small or unusual for a big bank’s standard process. Over time, those small fixes compound into a real distribution advantage.
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SVB won by understanding startup behavior that looked strange to normal banks, and Mercury attacked the same wedge from the product side. Instead of relationship managers and branch visits, it built software for founders moving money quickly, often from outside the U.S., and needing approval in minutes, not weeks.
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This is also why Mercury monetizes differently from a bank. It gathers deposits through a better interface, then earns revenue share from partner banks, plus interchange, wire and FX fees, and venture debt economics. The product can improve constantly without Mercury needing to become a balance sheet heavy lender.
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The closest comparison is Brex, but the center of gravity differs. Brex used cards and spend controls to expand into software for finance teams, while Mercury uses the operating account as the anchor and layers treasury, cards, and startup specific workflows on top. That makes Mercury more deposit and engagement driven than spend driven.
The next step is turning those 1,000 workflow wins into a full startup financial hub. As more founders keep a large bank account only as backup and run daily operations through Mercury, the company gets room to add more treasury, investor, and back office products, and to become the default control panel for startup money movement.