I tried to open a business bank account at Chase. It took three weeks, four visits, and a fax machine. A fax machine. In 2019. That experience was the final push to build Mercury.
SVB collapsed and 10,000 startups panicked about their money. Mercury gained more customers in that one week than in any quarter before. We didn't celebrate. We just made sure the wires went through.
We're not a bank. We partner with banks. That distinction matters legally, but to the customer it doesn't matter at all. They see Mercury. They trust Mercury. That's the product.
YC companies, a]16z portfolio companies, Sequoia portfolio companies — they all bank with us. When your customer base is the best startups in the world, word of mouth is your entire marketing budget.
I'm a four-time founder. The first three didn't work. Mercury is the one that did. Four tries. That's what entrepreneurship actually looks like — nobody talks about the first three.
Business banking has $10 trillion in deposits in the US. We have a tiny fraction. But we're growing faster than any bank in the country. The incumbents aren't even trying to compete on product. That's how we win.