YESTERDAY Podcast

About YESTERDAY Podcast

Interviews on inspiring life stories. originsmedia.substack.com (https://originsmedia.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast)

Publisher

ORIGINS

Category

business · technology

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

13 May 2025

Latest episode

7 May 2026

Latest episodes

26 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   7 May 2026

   The Story of Mercury | $5B Bank With 300,000 Customers

   Immad Akhund is the co-founder and CEO of Mercury, a San Francisco-based digital banking platform for startups. He was born in Pakistan, with his mother working as a teacher and his father owning a mechanic shop. At the age of nine, he moved with his family to London. He would go on to attend the University of Cambridge and later move to San Francisco to participate in Y Combinator with his company Clickpass. Immad then founded Heyzap, a mobile developer tools company that successfully sold for $45 million in 2016. In 2017, Immad co-founded Mercury, which has since raised over $450 million from a16z, CRV, and Coatue. He is a former part-time partner at Y Combinator and recently launched IA Fund to formalize his prolific angel investing, which includes backing more than 350 startups including Airtable, Deel, and Substack. Beyond his illustrious career, Immad is a husband and the father of three children. Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 02:11 Growing Up in Pakistan And Moving to London 06:37 “Yelp For London” and Early Entrepreneurial Endeavors 10:45 Pivoting From Flash Games to Mobile Ad Networks 12:15 Selling a Company After 8 Years of Pivoting 16:42 Thank You to Macroscope and Timeless Partners 17:56 Meeting His Wife Through Facebook 19:09 Finding Your Life’s Work 22:35 The Origins of Mercury 26:44 The Importance of Design at Mercury 27:37 How Mercury Landed Its Initial Customers 29:12 Raising Mercury’s Seed Round 31:09 The Choice to Not Work Weekends 34:58 Immad’s Best Startup Ideas 36:15 Are There Moats with AI? 38:05 Mercury’s 10-year vision 39:50 From Angel Investing to Formalizing a New Fund 42:13 Paul Graham’s Influence 44:33 Parenting Philosophy 46:27 Sources of Happiness This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit yesterdayy.substack.com (https://yesterdayy.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)

2. 

   16 Apr 2026

   Kayvon Beykpour | Selling to Twitter, Rejecting Elon Musk & Getting Trolled by Kobe

   Kayvon Beykpour is the co-founder and CEO of Macroscope, an AI code review agent, backed by Lightspeed, Thrive Capital Google Ventures, and others. Previously, Kayvon was the GM of Twitter’s consumer division until the platform was acquired by Elon Musk. He Joined Twitter after co-founding Periscope, a live video platform where people can create, watch, discover and share live video, Periscope was acquired by Twitter for $120M in 2015. Periscope pioneered technology that inspired Instagram Live, TikTok Live, Facebook Live, and other social networks’ expansion into livestreaming. Prior to Periscope, he co-founded Terriblyclever Design LLC, a software company that was sold to Blackboard Inc. Following the acquisition, Kayvon led Blackboard’s mobile division for four years where he grew its team from five to more than 100 employees and helped the company become one of the most downloaded apps in the education industry. Timestamps: 00:00:00 Intro 00:01:54 Fleeing the Iranian Revolution to California 00:04:32 How Gaming Sparked a Career in Tech 00:08:28 Growing Up With 12 Kids 00:12:32 Pissing Off an Apple Exec with a Jailbroken iPhone 00:14:29 From a Cardboard Sign to Winning Emmys 00:19:20 Building Software for Colleges While Skipping Class 00:20:53 Selling $100k Apps to Best Buy & HP 00:22:32 Getting Acquired Over a Spam Call 00:27:03 The Importance of Passion 00:34:21 The Origins of Periscope 00:39:20 Scott Belsky Invented “Teleportation” 00:43:20 Six Months of Failed Designs 00:47:33 Selling to Twitter Before Launching 00:54:07 Trolled by Kobe Bryant 00:57:41 Turning Down Elon Musk 01:01:54 Founding Macroscope 01:10:21 The Two Most Consequential Life Decisions This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit yesterdayy.substack.com (https://yesterdayy.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)

3. 

   16 Apr 2026

   Frank Guzzone | Head of Design at Thrive Capital

   A conversation with ⁠Frank Guzzone⁠, Head of Design at Thrive Capital. He grew up in Virginia, the son of an immigrant father. Frank and I are from the same hometown & college. Frank enrolled at UVA with the plan to become a doctor. He took the MCATs, spent two years as a scribe but a chance opportunity to design the cover of a textbook accompanied a change of course, he decided to pursue a masters degree at the VCU Brandcenter. He interned at AKQA in San Francisco in the summer between grad school years, worked at Mother New York in advertising, moved to Google’s Creative Lab, and joined Oscar Health - Arriving at the Puck Building in 2015, where he would return years later… From there: City Block Health and four years of freelancing, meanwhile, posting Cinema 4D animations on an Instagram account now approaching 100k followers. Frank then arrived at Thrive already having worked with brands like Apple, Google, Adidas, plus touring musicians like John Mayer and Fatboy Slim. He is now Head of Design, helping portfolio founders design and name companies, designing Thrive’s merch and brand, commissioning the flags on the building, and running a design fellowship. Frank is an amazing designer and an even better person. I hope you enjoy our chat: A glimpse into Frank’s life, past work, and the journey that led him to shaping one of venture’s great brands. Timestamps: 00:00:00 Intro 00:01:57 Hospitality and Hard Work 00:03:06 Choosing UVA Over Art School 00:07:37 Early Creative Outlets 00:13:49 Oscar Health 00:23:02 Going Viral on Instagram 00:25:06 Freelancing for Apple, Rimowa, and More 00:31:32 Building Thrive’s design function 00:37:52 How to Name a Startup 00:42:12 Design as an expression of Thrive’s Values 00:47:20 Why Good Design is Invisible 00:48:48 Design Fellowship 00:57:08 Work-Life Balance 00:59:43 Adaptation is a Superpower This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit yesterdayy.substack.com (https://yesterdayy.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)

Who has been a guest on YESTERDAY Podcast

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Jack Altman
• Haseeb Qureshi
• Spenser Skates
• Dylan Patel
• Brian Distelburger

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

152,935

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Apple Podcasts (US)

4.2 / 5

5 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

4 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 62 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

76

Social presence

0

YouTube

86

Engagement

32

Contact YESTERDAY Podcast

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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