Tech leaders package their wins into neat playbooks for others to follow. But Immad Akhund thinks this approach is broken.
The Mercury CEO and prolific angel investor delivered a sharp warning to startup founders to stop copying and pasting Silicon Valley strategies. These tactics rarely work outside their original context.
“It’s very easy to try to copy and paste a Brian Chesky axiom to your situation,” Akhund said on the “In Depth” podcast. “That never works.”
Why Context Beats Copy-Paste Strategies
Akhund speaks from experience. Since 2016, he has invested in over 350 startups at their earliest stages. His portfolio includes unicorns like Airtable, Rippling, and Rappi. He also founded Mercury, which raised $300 million in Series C funding from Sequoia Capital at a $3.5 billion valuation in March 2024.
The investor sees founders make the same mistake repeatedly. They hear about a successful strategy and try to apply it directly to their company. This approach ignores the specific circumstances that made the original strategy effective.
“The lessons work in their particular way for that particular situation,” Akhund explained. “You have to adapt them to your situation.”
Mercury’s Series C funding announcement highlighted the company’s focus on building products specifically for startups, not copying traditional banking models.
The OKR Framework Trap
Akhund shared a personal example of resisting popular wisdom. When Mercury was small, advisors pushed him to adopt Objectives and Key Results (OKRs), a goal-setting framework popularized by Google.
“When we were small, I was like, ‘OK, this is just silly,'” he said. “We don’t need a structure for objectives, like there are just five people in the room. Let’s just do this.”
The OKR system works for large organizations with complex hierarchies. For a five-person startup, it creates unnecessary overhead without delivering value.
The Metrics Obsession Problem
Beyond structural frameworks, Akhund warns against letting data drive every decision. While metrics matter, an obsession with measurement can kill the magic that attracts customers.
“Doing an extra bit that creates a magical experience for customers, that’s very hard to measure a metric against,” he said.
He believes it’s dangerous to have everything driven by metrics. Some of the most impactful business decisions can’t be captured in spreadsheets.
This philosophy aligns with Mercury’s growth strategy. Rather than focusing purely on acquisition metrics, the company built word-of-mouth growth through Twitter and organic community building.
Success Stories Don’t Equal Universal Truths
Some of today’s most successful tech companies operate under non-founder leadership. Microsoft’s Satya Nadella and Uber’s Dara Khosrowshahi both took over from company founders and delivered strong results.
This reality challenges the founder mode narrative. Different companies, markets, and stages require different leadership approaches.
Akhund’s investment strategy reflects this contextual thinking. He backs companies that will “seem inevitable 10 years from now and can be $10 billion companies,” This requires understanding unique market dynamics rather than applying generic formulas.
The Framework vs. Formula Difference
Rather than rejecting all Silicon Valley wisdom, Akhund advocates for a smarter approach. He suggests understanding the framework and context behind successful strategies, then blending those insights into your specific situation.
This method requires more work than copy-pasting advice. Founders must analyze why certain strategies worked, what conditions enabled their success, and how those principles apply to different contexts.
The approach has served Akhund well. Mercury built a billion-dollar fintech company by understanding banking needs for startups specifically, not by copying traditional bank strategies or generic fintech playbooks.
Beyond Silicon Valley Groupthink
The startup world often treats Silicon Valley methods as gospel. But research shows that strategies often fail when applied in different markets, cultures, or business models.
Akhund’s advice offers a path beyond this groupthink. Instead of chasing the latest management fad, founders can focus on understanding their unique challenges and building solutions that fit their specific context.
This shift from formula to framework thinking could help more startups avoid the common trap of implementing strategies that worked elsewhere but fail in their situation.
