Max Levchin
CEO of AffirmWikipedia
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Search complete. 12 mentions across 10 episodes found for "Max Levchin".
Oct 22, 2026
speaker_2NARRATOR
This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions.
Matt ReustleHOST
Today, we are breaking down Affirm, the buy now, pay later company founded by PayPal co-founder Max Levchin.
Matt ReustleHOST
Affirm now processes more than 50 billion GMV and is growing over 30% a year.
Matt ReustleHOST
One of the most interesting ideas we explore is that Affirm is better understood as a payment network than a traditional lender.
Fraser ChristieGUEST
Inadvertently, he was doing a lot of damage to his credit rating.
Fraser ChristieGUEST
Now, unlike a lot of people who never recover when they ruin their credit rating, Max would subsequently go on to be wildly successful.
Fraser ChristieGUEST
As you mentioned, early 20s as the CTO and one of the co-founders of PayPal, working alongside Elon Musk and Peter Thiel and all that cast of characters.
Fraser ChristieGUEST
But Max's poor credit rating still haunted him through this period, despite being very successful.
Carol MassarHOST
Affirm will serve as its exclusive BNPL provider in a multi-year agreement, starting in that role on Sam's Club's website in the coming weeks and then rolling out to stores.
Carol MassarHOST
uh in 2027 that's according to a statement put out um the terms of the deal though not disclosed we are delighted to have back with us max levchin he is the founder chairman and ceo of affirm holdings he joins us uh from las vegas on this thursday hey great to have you back with us max congratulations interesting we're kind of reading between the lines here what does this deal say about the competitive landscape and your rivals
Max LevchinGUEST
I cannot speak to my rivals.
Max LevchinGUEST
I can only speak to the fact that we are truly delighted to be back in Benville with this amazing partnership.
Austin HankwitzHOST
What a great conversation, Robert.
Austin HankwitzHOST
I think it's fun to have, you know, Max Levchin and Reid Hoffman and Harley Finkelstein and these other tech-focused billion-dollar CEOs on the show.
Austin HankwitzHOST
You know, we've done that plenty of times in the past.
Austin HankwitzHOST
But I think it's also a breath of fresh air to have people like David Royce join us, people who are not VC-backed.
Walter IsaacsonGUEST
And they kick him out, and for 20 years, it's eating away at him, which is why, of course, he wants to buy Twitter, and it becomes the booster to create what he'd always wanted, which is a payments platform connected to a publishing platform connected to social media.
Walter IsaacsonGUEST
But he does something that I found somewhat surprising until I fully understood it, is when he gets kicked out of PayPal in this coup by Peter Thiel and Reid Hoffman, Ken Howery, David Sacks, and Max Levchin.
Walter IsaacsonGUEST
Musk decides instead of hating them forever and thinking they're enemies, he makes up with them, even though he says, "They knifed me in the forum, kicked me out of my job." And it comes back as good karma.
Walter IsaacsonGUEST
They end up investing in SpaceX-
Ravin GandhiHOST
And the question is about when you talk about Malay and money lost all of its value.
Ravin GandhiHOST
I watched a podcast between you and Max Levchin where you guys were talking about, you know, FinTech and payments, and at some point, someone asked a Bitcoin question.
Ravin GandhiHOST
And Max said, "Well, look, it's been proven, you know, as a store of value.
Ravin GandhiHOST
It obviously hasn't worked in terms of, like, buying the coffee." But I wanna get to this idea of store of value because-
David DemingHOST
Sequoia Capital invested in X, brought in experienced investors to join the board, and eventually hired a new CEO.
David DemingHOST
At the same time, a company co-founded by Peter Thiel and Max Levchin started a product called PayPal that let people send money to an email address.
David DemingHOST
This competed with Musk's vision for X.com, so the two companies merged and Musk and Thiel fought it out.
David DemingHOST
And by February 2001, the company became PayPal Incorporated rather than X.com, probably because I'll PayPal you the money sounds better than I'll X you the money.
James D. WhiteGUEST
I was on the Affirm board.
James D. WhiteGUEST
Max Levchin, who is-
Evan EpsteinHOST
Yeah
James D. WhiteGUEST
... also a legendary-
Brenda RomeroGUEST
And it was super exciting to me.
Brenda RomeroGUEST
So I went out to, um, I moved out to the Bay and I worked with, uh, originally First Slide, which was like one of the, uh, one of the PayPal mafia, Max Levchin, you know, who's just one of the, you know, the absolute great, um, Silicon Valley, you know, founders, startup leaders.
Brenda RomeroGUEST
He's amazing.
Brenda RomeroGUEST
And I should have stayed there and learned more from him, but instead I went and worked on Ravenwood Fair with John.
Elad GilGUEST
You know, Keith Rabois started multiple companies, also became a prominent investor.
Elad GilGUEST
Max Levchin started a firm.
Elad GilGUEST
Uh, Elon Musk, of course, went and did so many things, uh, between Tesla and SpaceX and et cetera.
Elad GilGUEST
Reid Hoffman started LinkedIn.
Will RobbinsGUEST
That's right.
Will RobbinsGUEST
What would the next, you know, Mark Andreessen or Max Levchin do, right? Would they go to Champaign, Illinois as well and, uh, you know, spend four years in the cornfields, or would they just ship off to SF? And, uh, I think that's probably a preferences question.
Will RobbinsGUEST
It's also a talent identification question, and it's a lifestyle question.
Will RobbinsGUEST
So give it another 10 years, and I think the amount of social infrastructure and, you know, group houses and so on is only going up.