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Why raise $200 million if you are already profitable? That’s the question Jason and Alex put to Mercury’s founder and CEO, Immad Akhund, after the entrepreneur raised another massive round for his upstart, technology-friendly bank. TWiST then welcomed Kled founder Avi Patel to discuss the startup he considers a clear ripoff of his own company. Jason gavels in verdicts on all parties involved, including Y Combinator and venture capital firm General Catalyst. The show closes with a news lightning round, including OpenAI’s decision to offer $2 million in token credits to hundreds of startups.
Guest Links:
Mercury https://mercury.com
Mercury funding announcement https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260520511817/en/Mercury-Raises-$200-Million-Series-D-at-$5.2B-Valuation
Immad Akhund on X https://x.com/immad
Kled https://www.kled.ai/
Avi Patel on X https://x.com/avipat_/
Avi’s complaint https://x.com/avipat_/status/2055384102409253056
General Catalyst https://www.generalcatalyst.com/
Y Combinator https://www.ycombinator.com/
Delve https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/23/another-customer-of-troubled-startup-delve-suffered-a-big-security-incident/
Discussion links:
Anthropic’s attack on secondary trading https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/12/anthropic-warns-investors-against-secondary-platforms-offering-access-to-its-shares/
Vanta https://www.vanta.com/twist
Timestamps:
0:00 Welcome to This Week in Startups!
2:14 Plaud: If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — you need a Plaud NotePin. You can check it out at https://Plaud.ai/twist and use code TWIST for 10% off!
3:27 Immad Akhund (Mercury) joins to discuss $200M raise
6:33 Mercury's origin story and path to $650M run rate
9:53 Northwest Registered Agent - Get more when you start your business with Northwest. In 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you can form your company and walk away with a real business identity — Learn more at https://northwestregisteredagent.com/twist
14:23 Stablecoins: where they work, why Mercury won't launch its own
20:13 LinkedIn - Thanks to our partners at LinkedIn! Post your job for free at https://linkedIn.com/twist then promote it to get access to LinkedIn Jobs' new AI assistant.
22:38 AI agents, and the future of money movement
27:30 Why Mercury raised less this round
30:11 Grasshopper Bank - Time is money. Don't waste either. Go to https://grasshopper.bank/twist and get an exclusive $500 cash bonus just for opening an account.
42:48 Avi Patel (Kled) joins to discuss copycat startups
57:06 Jason's verdict on YC's hacker culture & "appearance of impropriety"
1:17:39 Sam Altman's $2M-in-tokens-for-equity offer to YC founders
1:24:32 NYC hotel housekeepers cross $100K in time under new union contract
1:30:14 Minimum wage, immigration & the case for raising it slowly
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