20VC Exclusive: Mercury Founder Launches First $26M Fund | Why Founders Should Take the Highest Price | Why Serial Entrepreneurs are Better | Why AI Is So Overhyped | The Future of Venture Capital with Immad Akhund

This episode explores Immad's journey from angel investing to launching his first institutional fund, focusing on lessons learned from 350 angel investments and the strategic decisions behind Mercury's growth. Against the backdrop of his experience with Mercury, including a Series B at 120x revenue, Immad emphasizes the importance of listening to entrepreneurs and avoiding the imposition of one's own ideas. More significantly, he shares insights on venture capital value-add, highlighting the significance of the partner relationship and founder networks, using Andreessen Horowitz as an example. As the discussion pivots to valuation strategies, Immad presents a contrarian view, advocating for raising enough capital even at high valuations, while cautioning against overspending. The conversation also covers the evolving landscape of defensibility in AI, the potential of space tech, and the challenges of seed investing amid multi-stage funds' efficiency. Emerging industry patterns reflected in Immad's experiences suggest a shift towards larger, potentially public multi-stage funds, and a growing need for structural changes in public markets to encourage long-term company building.