Affirm: Max Levchin (Part 2 of 2)

How I Built This · 20 Jun 2022 · 57m

What this episode covers

Max Levchin, co-founder of PayPal and founder of Affirm, discusses his post-PayPal journey, including the creation of his incubator HVF, the development of the photo-sharing app Slide, and his brief tenure at Google. He explains how personal credit struggles and the 'Hard, Valuable, Fun' framework led him to build Affirm, a 'buy now, pay later' fintech company that uses alternative data and AI to underwrite loans without traditional credit scores or late fees. Levchin details Affirm's unit economics, merchant acquisition strategy with partners like 1-800-Flowers and Peloton, and his philosophy on luck versus work ethic in building billion-dollar companies.

Mentioned

Companies
Affirm, PayPal, Yelp, Google, 1-800-Flowers, Peloton, Casper, Walmart, Palantir, Pointcast, HVF
Products
Slide, Gaussbeck Levchin test

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