Max Levchin - Building Affirm, PayPal, and Why He Only Starts Network Businesses

Max Levchin - Building Affirm, PayPal, and Why He Only Starts Network Businesses

From Fintech Leaders by Miguel Armaza

May 26, 2026 · 55 min · Episode 203

About this episode

Max Levchin discusses his journey in building Affirm and PayPal, along with insights on network businesses.

Send us Fan Mail I sat down with Max Levchin, Co-Founder and CEO of Affirm and one of the living legends of tech and fintech. He co-founded PayPal with Peter Thiel and Elon Musk, invented anti-fraud technology that's still foundational today, and has spent the last 14 years building Affirm into one of the largest publicly traded fintechs in the world with a mission to replace credit cards with transparent lending. He is one of the most thoughtful and brilliant founders I've spoken with. &nb...

People in this episode

Host: Miguel Armaza

Guest: Max Levchin

Topics covered

  • fintech
  • entrepreneurship
  • technology
  • lending
  • credit cards

Keywords

  • Max Levchin
  • Affirm
  • PayPal
  • fintech
  • lending
  • entrepreneurship
  • technology

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Affirm, PayPal

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