Radically different banking deserves more than just one Shaked.

Mercury customer since 2020. Designer, product marketer, AI-native operator.

See my work →

Image created by Ittai Shaked

Scroll

The opportunity

Every founder discovers Mercury
at a different moment.
Each one needs a different story.

These aren't just different customers. They're different emotional moments in a founder's journey. Each one deserves a story built specifically for where they are, and bespoke assets I can take from insight to execution fast, with AI doing the heavy lifting on production. This is just how I see it, one way in.

Founder Segment 01
The first-time founder
Moment: just incorporated
They need a bank account before they need most other things. The content strategy here is top-of-funnel and fast: partner with Stripe Atlas, YC, Clerky. Own the "first bank account" moment with content that makes Mercury the obvious default, not a decision.
What I'd build: comparison guides, incorporation partner content, "day one" onboarding sequence
Founder Segment 02
The post-fundraise team
Moment: just closed a round
They have real money to manage and real spend controls to set up. This is Mercury's product at its strongest: virtual cards, approval flows, cashflow visibility. The story here is about operating like a real company — not a scrappy startup.
What I'd build: vertical case studies, operator-voice content, "how we run finance at scale" series
Founder Segment 03
The agentic operator
Moment: drowning in financial ops
They run lean. They use AI for everything. They want banking that executes, not just records. Mercury has already built exactly this. The opportunity is creating content that makes them feel it, not just understand it, with campaigns that map directly to how they already work.
What I'd build: AI feature demo series, "watch it work" content, a campaign that makes agentic banking feel inevitable
Founder Segment 04
The international founder
Moment: building a US company from abroad
Mercury is one of the only banks that actually works for non-US founders building US companies. This is an undermarketed story with a deeply underserved audience. Localized content, founder testimonials by country, and clear "here's what you need to open an account" guides would unlock a significant acquisition channel.
What I'd build: localized landing pages, international founder testimonials, geo-targeted acquisition content

My work

Used to building with lean teams.
Wired for fast execution.

Globality
Brand & Product Marketing – Sole Marketer
0%
lift in brand impressions
Rebrand + AI GTM. One person.
Enterprise AI procurement platform needed a new brand and a way to make autonomous agent technology feel trustworthy to skeptical Fortune 500 buyers. Led the full rebrand: strategy, identity, design system, execution. Owned the GTM for Glo, their AI co-pilot. 144% lift in impressions, no agency.
Alchemy
Product Marketing (Contract)
Launch
Web3's first ChatGPT dev tools
Launched AlchemyAI. Owned the full GTM.
Web3's biggest developer platform needed to launch their first AI product into an ecosystem that wasn't sure it wanted AI yet. Owned positioning, messaging, launch strategy, and cross-functional execution for ChatWeb3 and the Alchemy ChatGPT Plugin. Strong community response and conversion on launch day.
See the case study →
HappyRobot
Growth Marketing – First Marketing Hire
Category Shift
voice AI to vertical intelligence
Repositioned the company narrative. Solo.
First marketing hire at a $62M-backed AI company. No existing assets, no playbook. Built the full marketing infrastructure from scratch, redesigned the website, and led the strategic repositioning from "voice AI for freight" to "intelligence within any vertical." Covered a team's output using AI as the operating layer.
Genie
Co-Founder
Award-Winning Campaign
student finance app, co-founded
Ditch the Debt. Campaign + product.
Co-founded a student loan optimization app and built the brand from zero. Ran the "Ditch the Debt" campaign: an emotional, story-led push that drove early user acquisition and won an award. Led product, marketing, and creative end to end. Mercury was our bank.
See Ditch the Debt →

How I work

The category is still forming.
That's where I do my best work.

Mercury isn't just a bank. It's a bet that founders deserve financial infrastructure built around how they actually operate. That story is genuinely hard to tell: complex product, skeptical audience, a category that barely existed a decade ago.

I repositioned an AI procurement platform for enterprise teams who had never heard of the category. I launched developer tools into a Web3 ecosystem still figuring out what it was. I launched an AI agent to people who didn't yet trust agents. I've shipped 40+ GTM campaigns and launches in the last two years, solo. I know how to make the unfamiliar feel inevitable.

01
I've sold "agent" to skeptical buyers
At Globality, AlchemyAI, and HappyRobot I made complex AI feel trustworthy to audiences that weren't sure they wanted it yet. I know where the resistance comes from, what language disarms it, and how to build trust before you build belief.
02
Customer signal to campaign, fast
I run the full PMM motion: customer research, narrative, positioning, launch. I don't hand off to a designer or wait for a writer. The feedback loop from insight to shipped asset is weeks, not quarters.
03
Position all the way through to creative
Strategy without execution is just a slide deck. I build the thing: the landing page, the campaign, the one-pager, the deck. The design skill isn't separate from the PMM skill. It means the work looks like the thinking.
IO
Mercury
•••• •••• •••• 2020
Ittai Shaked
Genie • 2020

The connection

I've been on the other side of this product.

In 2020, I co-founded Genie, a fintech startup helping students manage and reduce debt. Mercury was our bank. I sat on the founder side of your product and felt exactly what it means when financial infrastructure actually gets out of the way and lets you build.

Ideas

Banking that works
the way founders work.

Mercury has already built it. The opportunity now is making sure every founder who needs this actually knows it exists, told in a way that makes the switch feel obvious, not just smart. Three campaign directions I'd want to build.

The “relief” campaign
Founders' biggest fear is missing a payment while heads-down building. Don't lead with the feature. Lead with the feeling at 11pm when you didn't have to think about payroll. That's the campaign.
The CFO you didn't know you had
Mercury's AI Insights gives founders financial clarity that used to require a CFO. That's a category claim worth making loudly. Position Mercury not just as banking but as financial intelligence.
The AI-era bank
Mercury is building banking for a world where AI agents execute financial decisions. Get ahead of it. Be the brand founders associate with that future before it fully arrives. Category-defining campaigns are won early.

The founders who choose Mercury aren't looking for a bank. They want banking that moves as fast as they do, that executes while they build, that gets completely out of the way.

See my work ↗ LinkedIn ↗ Email me ↗

Ittai Shaked

Product Marketing – AI-Native Operator

Solo PMM who uses AI to cover what usually takes a team. I've owned positioning, campaigns, creative, and launch across AI companies at every stage: zero to product-market fit, growth, and repositioning at scale.

I work best when the product is technically complex, the category is still forming, and the brief doesn't fully exist yet. The throughline has always been seeing it all the way through, not finding the hand-off.

Product Marketing GTM Strategy Brand AI-Native Campaigns Launches Positioning

There's no company I'd
rather make this case to.

I ran a startup on Mercury in 2020. That experience taught me what financial infrastructure that actually works feels like, and how rare it is. I've watched what you've built since. I know the product is exceptional. There's nowhere I'd rather help tell that story.

ittai@shaked.us See my work → LinkedIn →