7 Business Ideas from a Unicorn Founder
About This Episode
Shaan Puri interviews Immad Akhund, the founder and CEO of the $3.5 billion fintech unicorn Mercury, to discuss emerging opportunities in space and defense technology. They explore Immad's unique 'top-down and bottoms-up' approach to ideation and his philosophy on building businesses that eliminate the 'accepted abuse' found in traditional industries like banking.
Episode Description
Show Notes
Links
Check Out Shaan's Stuff
- Shaan's weekly email
- Visit
- Mercury - Need a bank for your company? Go check out Mercury (mercury.com). Shaan uses it for all of his companies!
- Mercury is a financial technology company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group, Column, N.A., and Evolve Bank & Trust, Members FDIC
Check Out Sam's Stuff
Key Takeaways
Identify 'accepted abuse' in a market—friction points that customers have become so accustomed to that they no longer recognize them as problems—and solve them with superior software.
Target 'great ideas' at the intersection of 'sounds like a bad idea' and 'is actually a good idea,' particularly those enabled by new technological inflections like SpaceX's launch frequency.
Build product-driven trust during crises by creating features that visualize solutions, such as Mercury Vault's display of FDIC insurance coverage during the SVB collapse.
Business Ideas Mentioned
Nuclear Power Plant on the Moon
Boring Business
Billboards in Low Earth Orbit
Content & Media
Specialized AI Test Prep Tutors
SaaS
AI Digital Twin for Executives
SaaS
Autonomous Military Infrastructure and Trenching
AI & Automation