Instacart's Max Mullen on Building Instacart and the Future of AI: First Live Founders in Arms

What does it take to build a company in a category where everyone says the idea is dead? In this special live recording from Mercury's San Francisco office, Immad Akhund and Raj Suri sit down with Max Mullen, co-founder and former Chief Product Officer at Instacart, for an honest conversation about the founder journey.

Max shares how Instacart started in 2012 when there was no gig economy, no Uber X, and investors repeatedly told them grocery delivery was a dead idea after Webvan's failure. The conversation explores the controversial early days of building Instacart, why Max believes founder pain tolerance is the biggest moat, and the critical importance of market timing even when you're executing well.

Max opens up about the challenges of being a technical co-founder without deep technical skills, navigating co-founder dynamics, and the reality that many startup outcomes are heavily influenced by timing and luck. The discussion shifts to AI's transformative potential, with Max offering a compelling framework: software engineers are experiencing "the tip of the spear" of AI capabilities today, and this same 10x productivity leap will soon apply to lawyers, doctors, accountants, and every other profession.

He explores what AI-native companies will look like and why the next wave of startups will be built around professionals orchestrating fleets of agents. This episode offers essential insights for founders building in challenging markets, navigating co-founder relationships, timing market opportunities, and understanding where AI is creating the biggest opportunities for new companies.