Founders used to manually log in every day to send and receive payments because their bank had no API. That changed with Mercury. Founder Immad Akhund (@immad) built the bank he wished existed after hitting that wall himself. What started as banking for startups now includes agentic cards, letting an AI agent hold a virtual card and spend on your behalf. He joined me on Navigators to break down how Mercury decides what to build next, and where he draws the line on what AI should be trusted to do without a human clicking send. 00:00 Why banks never built the API he needed 02:34 A trillion-dollar category still run by incumbents 05:29 "I don't like jumping on hype trains" 07:34 Agentic cards: letting AI spend on your behalf 09:15 AI as a junior employee you've never met 11:09 Why fintech is 3x harder than software 36:39 The "cosmic cube": Deciding what to build next 37:27 The two-year mistake of waiting on the credit card Listen to our full conversation on Navigators, available on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.