Akhund frames Mercury as a response to legacy banks failing to help founders with the money decisions that matter, a frustration he says stretches back to his first company in 2006. He co-founded Mercury with two others, Jason and Max, in 2017 to build, in his words, a radically different way for founders to do banking. Separately, in Mercury's April 2019 Show HN launch thread, Akhund noted his previous company (an ad network) also partly inspired Mercury, though he didn't spell out the specific connection there.

“Creating a radically different way for founders to do banking is the reason Jason, Max, and I started Mercury in 2017.”

Mercury's earliest public users engaged through its Show HN launch post; Akhund personally answered pricing, eligibility, and product questions in the thread as they came in.

“We give a lot more for free than normal banks. We only charge for wires because right now we have a high fee with our partner.”