Mercury – Banking built for startups • Hacker News Board

Re: Mercury – Banking built for startups

#81

Post by serf » Fri, Apr 19, 2019, 5:35 AM UTC

immad wrote: post #75

dumbfoundded wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you work with hemp companies?

Unfortunately not. Until federal laws change (which might be soon) we can’t bank anything marijuana related.

hemp isn't marijuana (referring to psychoactive cannabis strains), by design.

(and less importantly (imo), marijuana is a slang term born from racist origins.[0][1])

I think that you mean 'cannabis related'.

Sorry if there is a perceived pedantry on my part; I just think that the distinction is important both conceptually and legislatively, especially given that other countries have understood the distinction between hemp and other cannabis products for some time.

[0]: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jan/29/marijuana-na...

[1]: https://splinternews.com/the-racist-strain-of-marijuana-1822...

Re: Mercury – Banking built for startups

#82

Post by immad » Fri, Apr 19, 2019, 5:47 AM UTC

serf wrote: post #81

immad wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately not. Until federal laws change (which might be soon) we can’t bank anything marijuana related.

hemp isn't marijuana (referring to psychoactive cannabis strains), by design. (and less importantly (imo), marijuana is a slang term born from racist origins.[0][1]) I think that you mean 'cannabis related'. Sorry if there is a perceived pedantry on my part; I just think that the distinction is important both conceptually and legislatively, especially given that other countries have understood the distinction between…

Makes sense. Thanks for clarifying. Is hemp a controlled substance federally too?

Re: Mercury – Banking built for startups

#83

Post by mifeng » Fri, Apr 19, 2019, 5:51 AM UTC

immad wrote: post #5

I am co-founder, CEO of Mercury. Excited to see this on HN. Happy to answer any questions. We set out wanting to: a) deliver an amazing online banking experience for startups b) help entrepreneurs understand their revenues/costs better and succeed c) deliver great financial services. We have a long way to go but are excited to unveil what we have achieved so far. Mercury will provide your startup a FDIC-insured check…

Do you work with blockchain / crypto companies?

Re: Mercury – Banking built for startups

#84

Post by smcnally » Fri, Apr 19, 2019, 5:53 AM UTC

Good onboarding. Confirmation of acceptance arrived within 30 minutes of completing my application. It was great to be able to save my application progress: I started on one device, moved to another, and logged out and back in a few times while finding docs and photos between bouts of work-work. Looking forward to discovering where Mercury saves me time and hassle.

Re: Mercury – Banking built for startups

#85

Post by j-zhang » Fri, Apr 19, 2019, 5:59 AM UTC

cheeyoonlee wrote: post #57

What are the partner rewards mentioned for Tea Room?

We're starting with up to $100k in AWS credit, $1,000 off a 409a and 20% off Pilot bookkeeping for 6 months. More to come. Email me at jason at mercury.co if you want to know more.

Re: Mercury – Banking built for startups

#86

Post by tasubotadas » Fri, Apr 19, 2019, 6:08 AM UTC

kisamoto wrote: post #69

Looks good but without hijacking the thread does a service like this exist in Europe? If not is it due to different financial regulations (maybe easier to get started in the US?) or something else?

It is easier. There are quite a few alternatives: N26, Paysera, Revolut, Transferwise

Re: Mercury – Banking built for startups

#87

Post by ignoramous » Fri, Apr 19, 2019, 6:37 AM UTC

adityapurwa wrote: post #18

immad wrote: post #5

I am co-founder, CEO of Mercury. Excited to see this on HN. Happy to answer any questions. We set out wanting to: a) deliver an amazing online banking experience for startups b) help entrepreneurs understand their revenues/costs better and succeed c) deliver great financial services. We have a long way to go but are excited to unveil what we have achieved so far. Mercury will provide your startup a FDIC-insured check…

What is the availability of the service for countries outside US? Is it supported? If not, what are the plans for supporting it?

Are you based out of India? If so, lookout for https://razorpay.com/x-club/

Re: Mercury – Banking built for startups

#88

Post by ignoramous » Fri, Apr 19, 2019, 8:03 AM UTC

MaxGabriel wrote: post #34

craigsmansion wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How did you sell Haskell? Once Haskell was decided on, how did you approach development?

We were a team of 3, with the CEO and myself technical, so ultimately it came down to just co-founder trust. Immad was somewhat skeptical, but after interviewing some amazing candidates who wanted to work for us to use Haskell, he's really liked it. Development was pretty simple, I just created a yesod-postgres template and we got started with authentication. Are you asking about something specific?

Offtopic but I really find this haskell rant by Steve Yegge hilarious https://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2010/12/haskell-researchers...

I also came across a post from immad [0] on hiring for startups, and it looks like you guys have a high bar for tech talent anyway so using Haskell shouldn't hurt. I wish you the best.

[0] https://web.archive.org/web/20120808074423/http://stdout.hey...

Re: Mercury – Banking built for startups

#89

Post by fro0116 » Fri, Apr 19, 2019, 8:14 AM UTC

cheerlessbog wrote: post #73

syedkarim wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had previously read somewhere that the actual cost to a bank for sending/receiving wires (even international) is less than $1. Why do banks still charge so much for this service?

Because by the time you want to send a wire, you've already decided where to put your money. Plus, it's often a relatively large amount of money an the fee doesn't seem so big.

That explains why everybody puts up with it. It doesn't explain why a startup like Mercury can't come along and shake up the status quo by not nickle and diming their customers like the greedy fucks that are the incumbents.

Missed opportunity IMO.

Re: Mercury – Banking built for startups

#90

Post by kmlx » Fri, Apr 19, 2019, 8:54 AM UTC

kisamoto wrote: post #69

Looks good but without hijacking the thread does a service like this exist in Europe? If not is it due to different financial regulations (maybe easier to get started in the US?) or something else?

there's like a thousand services like this in Europe.

The US is lagging the UK (for example) by at least 2-3 years when it comes to banking.

To understand how far behind the US is, take this example: the London Tube (subway) started accepting contactless payments at all of their stations years ago. All they did was turn it on; all the functionalities were already built into the normal card readers years before that. Here's another example: all banks in the EU are required to offer APIs for consumption.