{"id":13152,"date":"2026-06-10T23:28:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T03:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/max-levchin-paypal-and-affirm-the-path-from-the-soviet-union-to-building-multi-billion-dollar-companies-plus-real-world-socialism-vs-capitalism-869\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T23:28:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T03:28:11","slug":"max-levchin-paypal-and-affirm-the-path-from-the-soviet-union-to-building-multi-billion-dollar-companies-plus-real-world-socialism-vs-capitalism-869","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/max-levchin-paypal-and-affirm-the-path-from-the-soviet-union-to-building-multi-billion-dollar-companies-plus-real-world-socialism-vs-capitalism-869\/","title":{"rendered":"Max Levchin, PayPal and Affirm \u2014 The Path from The Soviet Union to Building Multi-Billion Dollar Companies (Plus: Real-World Socialism vs. Capitalism)\u00a0(#869)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Profit<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n

Max Levchin<\/strong> (@mlevchin<\/a>) is a serial entrepreneur, computer scientist, philanthropist, and active investor in more than 100 startups. He is the founder and CEO of Affirm<\/strong><\/a>, the payment network that empowers consumers and helps merchants drive growth. He is also the co-founder and chairman of Glow<\/a>, a data-driven fertility company. Both companies were created and launched from his San Francisco-based innovation lab, SciFi VC<\/a> (formerly HVF [Hard, Valuable, Fun]). Max was one of the original co-founders of PayPal, where he served as the chief technology officer until its acquisition by eBay in 2002. In 2002, he was named to MIT Technology Review<\/em>\u2019s TR100 as one of the top 100 innovators in the world as well as Innovator of the Year.<\/p>\n

Prior to HVF, Max founded, and was CEO of, Slide, a personal media-sharing service, which was acquired by Google in 2010. Max also helped create Yelp, where he served as chairman of its board of directors from its founding in 2005 until 2015. He served on the board for Yahoo! from 2012 to 2015.<\/p>\n

Max was born in Kyiv, Ukraine, before moving to the United States and settling in Chicago in 1991. He holds a B.S. in computer science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he founded and led four other technology startups.<\/p>\n

Please enjoy!<\/p>\n

This episode is brought to you by:<\/strong><\/p>\n