Mercury strives to be a leading venture capital platform, driving exceptional outcomes for founders and investors, while materially improving historically overlooked entrepreneurial communities.
The Mercury Way
Vision
Core Values
Values form the foundation of a strong organization. At Mercury, our core values are the clearly defined beliefs that each of us commits to, beliefs that give us a sense of direction and motivation. Everything we do, every action each of us takes, is motivated by our shared values.
Entrepreneurial
Passion
Passion
A unique ambition, drive, and inner passion that propels the entrepreneur inside of each of us; the fuel that inspires us individually and collectively and drives us forward; an excitement and enthusiasm for entrepreneurship and innovation; a fierce commitment to excellence that is shared by our team members and impacts every aspect of our firm.
Intellectual
Curiosity
Curiosity
A deep and persistent desire to: discover new and innovative ideas; connect with entrepreneurs who set these innovative ideas in motion; learn best practices to help our entrepreneurs scale their startups; apply this knowledge in creative and effective ways in our individual roles in helping manage our venture capital firm.
Intentional
Integrity
Integrity
A purposeful and thoughtful way of being and doing; an unwavering inner commitment to doing what is right in every situation, regardless of the repercussions; adherence to moral and ethical principles; promotes openness and transparency to cultivate an environment of trust; embodies the courage to always speak the truth.
Innovation
Mindset
Mindset
A forward way of thinking, acting and leading; looking holistically at a situation and bringing multiple creative solution-sets for consideration, rarely relying on the first answer; a commitment to driving innovation even in the most basic functions; a forward-thinking way of leading and acting.
Intrinsically
Inclusive
Inclusive
Creates an environment where all individuals feel welcomed, supported, and encouraged to fully participate; embraces differences in thoughts and ideas; shows respect in words and actions; allows everyone to bring their full, authentic selves to their work; consistently demonstrates foresight and proactively seeks opportunities to expand knowledge of innovative solutions and ideas.
Why Middle America?
From its roots as the first venture capital firm to consider Middle America as a region unto itself, Mercury has always looked to back the underrepresented entrepreneur. In the mid- 2000’s, the supply-demand imbalance of capital in these ‘fly-over’ states defined underrepresented as all entrepreneurs in the middle of the country. Over time, as Middle American cities such as Boulder, Chicago, and Austin have risen in prominence, the definition of underrepresented has taken on new meaning. Most of the regions have used the same coastal playbook to build their innovation ecosystems. This playbook helps many founders – but also leaves many more behind.
A few years ago, Mercury was purposeful in diversifying its deal sourcing network so that it could ensure it was seeing the best startup opportunities coming from every community. We believe the best founders and market opportunities may be those that are less obvious to many of us. The digitization of customer journeys will affect all walks of life, with many billion-dollar ‘niche’ market opportunities exposed and exploited by entrepreneurs who have lived those journeys.
Mercury will continue to seek out the underrepresented, whether by region, demographic, customer journey, or market opportunity. This work manifests itself not only in our investments, but in our ecosystem building and community involvement to raise all tides in this new world order.
Mercury seeks to drive impact with its every step.
We accomplish this through:
Ecosystem and community building.
Purpose and inclusivity.
Mentoring and enabling a new generation of entrepreneurship.
$9 Billion
of value since inception
Mercury has spent decades building innovation infrastructure throughout Middle America, ultimately creating over $9 billion of value in its startup investments since inception. These are the organizations and connections required for the future of work and life – a future rooted in digital infrastructure, distributed solutions, innovation, and American communities.
We are a team that believes startup and innovation communities are the key to driving prosperity throughout America, and society in general. Innovation is the future but must be built and handled with purpose and integrity.