Max Levchin
44 statements across 10 episodes · 10 bullish · 7 bearish · 9 people on the record · first statement Jun 5, 2017 by Brian Singerman · said 66 times in 36 episodes since 2016 · across every show →
On the record as a speaker too: Max Levchin's record, appearances and statements → this page counts the times other people say the name.
Mentions by year
brought up most by Harry Stebbings (34), Sahil Lavingia (7), Ali Partovi (4), Keith Rabois (3), Joe Lonsdale (3), Lee Hower (2), Tom Blomfield (1), Taavet Hinrikus (1)
tap a year for its mentions
2025 1 mention in 1 episode
2024 18 mentions in 10 episodes 2 per episode
- Kaz Nejatian: How Shopify Built a $90BN Business to Last 100 Years | E1189 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- Joe Lonsdale: The Future of TikTok; Is it a Danger to US National Security? | E1125 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- Keith Rabois on Rejoining Khosla Ventures | E1102 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- Dmitry Gurski: From Potato Farm to $200M in Revenue: The Never-Before-Told Story of Flo Health|E1205 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- Kevin Hartz: "How I Lost Airbnb at Seed Because of an Exploding Term Sheet" | E1180 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- Tom Blomfield: Do the Best All Raise Pre-Demo Day & YC's Fundraising Advice to Startups | E 1152 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- Larry Shurtz: How to Hire, Train & Retain the Best Vertical Teams | E1151 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- Rujul Zaparde: Why Hiring Inexperienced People is Better | E1144 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- 2 more episodes that year, every mention in 2024 →
2022 5 mentions in 2 episodes 3 per episode
- 20VC: How I Lost a $125M Deal with Yahoo by Being Too Honest, The M&A Meeting with Steve Jobs That Did Not Go Well and How U2's Bono Saved The Day For One Tech Startup with Ali Partovi, CEO @ Neo
- Chris Sacca's True Unfiltered Opinion on Facebook and Softbank | Full Interview · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- every mention in 2022, scene by scene →
2021 7 mentions in 5 episodes 1 per episode
- 20VC: Coinbase President & COO Emilie Choi on Building Coinbase Ventures into One of the Best Performing Funds with 0 Employees, How Coinbase Thinks Through Internal Resource Allocation and Prioritisation & Why, When and How To Hire Your COO and Head of C
- 20VC: The Anduril Memo: Founders Fund's Brian Singerman on What Makes Palmer Luckey One of the Greatest Innovators in History, Why It Is BS The DOD Do Not Want To Work With Silicon Valley & Why in Venture You Have To Play A Different Game to the Hedge Fun
- 20VC: Chris Sacca on Coming Out of Retirement To Unf**k The Planet with Lowercarbon, How Chris Evaluates His Relationship To Money Today, Why We Have Bred a Generation of Ass**** Kids, Do VCs Provide Any Real Value and The True Unfiltered Opinion on Faceb
- 20VC: The Opendoor Memo: Keith Rabois on The Origins of Opendoor from a Conversation with Peter Thiel, Why Cash is Not a Competitive Moat for Startups Today and What People Misunderstand About Black Swan Events in Real Estate and How it Impacts Opendoor
- 20VC: Investing Lessons From Rounds In Peloton and Square, Why Great Investing is Stock-Picking and Sector Penetration & The Next Decade in Venture, Is Tiger's The Right Model with Hans Tung, Managing Partner @ GGV Capital
- every mention in 2021, scene by scene →
2020 14 mentions in 4 episodes 4 per episode
- 20VC: Sahil Lavingia on Rolling Funds and Their Impact on The Future of Venture, How To Evaluate Market, Team and Product, The Value of Party Rounds & The Pros and Cons of Multi-Stage Funds Investing at Seed
- 20VC: 3 Addictions Of Early-Stage Startup Founders, How Founders Should Strategically Think Through Unit Economics From Day 1 & Why Micromanagement Can Be Beneficial In The Early Days with Adena Hefets, Co-Founder @ Divvy Homes
- 20VC: Unity Founder David Helgason on The Hypergrowth Early Days of Unity, Why Running A Company Is Like A Liberal Art, The Secret To A Successful CEO Transition and What Makes Roelof Botha Such A Special Board Member
- 20VC: Gusto Co-Founder, Tomer London on Why Most Founders Approach Fundraising With The Wrong Mindset Today, How To Construct A Values/Motivation Alignment Test To Determine The Right Investors For You & Why Delight Is So Crucial To The Success of Any Con
- every mention in 2020, scene by scene →
2019 6 mentions in 6 episodes 1 per episode
- 20VC: Lightspeed's Arif Janmohamed on Why Market Risk Is The Most Dangerous Risk To Underwrite As A VC, How To Determine When to Stretch vs Not on Price Today & The $TRN of Market Cap Up For Grabs Today In Enterprise
- 20VC: How Founders Can Gain Leverage in Fundraising Negotiations, The Metrics You Need To Raise Your Series A in Consumer & What We Have To Change About Cap Table Construction with Jana Messerschmidt, Partner @ Lightspeed Venture Partners
- 20VC: Why Historical Loss Ratios Are Simply Too High, Why Data Is The #1 Most Important Piece When Evaluating Effective Reserve Allocation & Why Nothing Is Truly Defensible Today with Jonathan Hsu, Co-Founder and General Partner @ Tribe Capital
- 20VC: Why You Must Have A Customer Acquisition Strategy From Day 1, How To Test and Validate Ideas At Speed & Why You Should Speak To Investors Before Starting Work On Your Idea with Kulveer Taggar, Founder @ CEO @ Zeus Living
- 20VC: Lightspeed's Jeremy Liew on Why It Is More Important To Be Right Than Contrarian, The Most Common Mistakes Made By Hyper-Growth Companies & 3 Characteristics That Make An Individual Incredible At Sourcing
- 20VC: Brex Founder Henrique Dubugras on Why Being Mission Driven Is Not The Only Way To Build A Massive Business, Why You Should Not Associate Fundraising with The Cash Needs of Your Business & Why You Don't Have To Follow Startup Theory When It Comes To
- every mention in 2019, scene by scene →
2018 2 mentions in 2 episodes 1 per episode
- 20VC: Lightspeed Partner Adam Goldberg on Why There Remains No Mass Market Crypto Consumer Product, The Future For The Token Economy, The Good and Bad of Telegram's ICO and Why The Rate of Founder Learning is The Most Important Element A VC Can Assess
- 20VC: Lightspeed's Alex Taussig on VC Risk Mentality, The Current State of Retail & The Mechanics of Cash Flow
- every mention in 2018, scene by scene →
2017 12 mentions in 5 episodes 2 per episode
- 20VC: a16z's Alex Rampell on The Struggle Between Innovation vs Distribution, When How To Determine Whether An Application is Optimised Through Centralised or Decentralised Networks & Why Most ICOs Today Are Ridiculous
- 20VC: Why CEOs Must Read Less & Listen Less, What VC Funding, Shelf Space & Time Have In Common & Why CEOs Must Look After Themselves Like Athletes with Sami Inkinen, Founder @ Virta Health & Trulia
- 20VC: Why Valuation Is Of Critical Importance At Seed, How To Understand Innovation Cycles & Having 3 CEOs and Burning $10m a Month with Lee Hower, Co-Founder @ NextView Ventures
- 20VC: Lightspeed's Nicole Quinn on Why We Are Not In A Consumer Downturn, Why M&A Has Not Been This Exciting For A Long Time & Why Amazon Is Never Your Friend
- 20VC: The Blurring of Early & Late Stage, Why Your Go To Market Strategy Is More Important Now Than Ever & Why Venture Is The Academia Of Tech with Roseanne Wincek @ IVP
- every mention in 2017, scene by scene →
Everything said about Max Levchin, oldest first
Jun 5, 2017 bullish
Jul 14, 2017
Levchin: High-potential hires step up to major challenges 90%+ of the time
“Nine out of 10 times or 99 out of a hundred, you will see the person step up to the challenge. And that isn't because everyone has that secret extra gear, but because when you hire really, really carefully and really well, there's always that extra capacity av…”
Jul 14, 2017
Levchin: Self-awareness and mental quickness are the top predictors of success
“So I think the trait that I look for, first and foremost, self-awareness, and I've always had the greatest trouble describing what that means, but I think it's almost self-descriptive. When you interact with people, That seemed just really present, really in t…”
Jul 14, 2017
Jul 14, 2017
Jul 14, 2017
Levchin: Doubts about a team member's integrity are almost always justified
“Whenever there's doubts, there's no doubt. Learned that one the hard way probably more than one time. But anytime you're doubting the integrity of someone very close to you, it's almost certainly the case that That doubt isn't without basis, and you need to ac…”
Jul 14, 2017 positive
Mar 13, 2020 positive
Divvy Homes Was Incubated by Max Levchin's HVF
“So it's interesting, because I would say we were incubated by Max Lovechin. We had an incubator called HVF, and we were incubated within it, and he paid for space for us to be able to ideate, and so I think he's kind of, I guess, would be considered the first …”
Aug 24, 2020
Aug 24, 2020
Max Levchin invested in Gumroad after testing product with an MP3
“So Max Levchin, I wanted him on the cap table so bad for Gumroad. He was the last person to say yes, and he asked for all of these references. It was so intimidating meeting with him, and when he finally said yes, I asked him afterwards. I was like, what got y…”
Sep 30, 2021
Jan 21, 2022 negative
Partovi passed on PayPal despite recognizing Max Levchin's genius
“At my first startup, LinkExchange, we had this brilliant contractor who was younger than us, so I was 25, Max Lefton was 22, and when we sold our company, he left to start PayPal. We all knew Max was, like, just a whole next-level brilliance. I mean, when he w…”
Apr 24, 2024 neutral
Jul 22, 2024 negative
Hartz would not have funded himself given his comfortable background
“I probably would have never given myself a check for, like, growing up in an easy, waspy, white, middle-class American town with, you know, no hard upbringing and a town full of lawyers and real estate people and doctors versus, you know, people like Max Levch…”
Aug 14, 2024 positive
Nejatian: Keith Rabois and Max Levchin are exceptionally aggressive in execution
“And I think it may come out of how they grew in tech, is that they are, I see this with admiration, more aggressive than anyone you can imagine being. They're incredibly kind, but very aggressive, ah, in their execution, in their ambition.”
Feb 5, 2025 neutral
Levchin: Long-term market value weighs profit and growth over investor sentiment
“First we have to get profitable. Then we have to show revenue growth rates. Then we have to show net income growth. And that's what, you know, long term, the weighing machine, that's what that weighs. It's not weighing sentiment.”
Feb 5, 2025 positive
Levchin: Both Peter Thiel and Elon Musk inspire peak effort in others
“They both have this amazing quality that I spent as much time absorbing as I could over times that I worked with them, where they bring out The best effort in people around them. Like they somehow make you feel that you can and should do better work.”
Feb 5, 2025 positive
Feb 5, 2025
Feb 5, 2025 neutral
Levchin removed Affirm's stock ticker from his computer to maintain focus
“I've gone through some great lengths, by the way, to make sure I don't accidentally stumble on my ticker. So, you know, my Apple desktop, if I click in the top right corner and stocks drops down, I cannot see my stock ticker. So I don't accidentally discover t…”
Feb 5, 2025 negative
Levchin: Fully remote teams that never meet in person are deluding themselves
“The argument of I've never met my team, but I'm as productive in person. I only see them on zoom is a stupid argument. That's just not true. Like you form relationships, you understand each other's decision-making style, you break bread together, you form cama…”
Feb 5, 2025 bullish
Levchin: I focus on building business fundamentals over public market AI storytelling
“The storytelling hour of like, oh, by the way, we have this shiny item that we're so excited about, that feeds the voting machine. And I'm sure some of it is important, but I spent a lot more time feeding the weighing machine.”
Feb 5, 2025
Feb 5, 2025
Feb 5, 2025
Levchin: Explosive statements fade quickly, but rational people retain long memories
“Superficial statements, even explosive or Incendiary even, fall off the news line faster than you would expect them to. I think people's reputations recover and get managed and manipulated, and maybe it's true for companies too, but I think rational people hav…”
Feb 5, 2025
Feb 5, 2025 neutral
Feb 5, 2025
Max Levchin includes a Big Lebowski quote in every Affirm shareholder letter
“If you are a careful student of my shareholder letters, of which I have now written on the order of, it cannot possibly be 16, but I think it's 16 or 15 you will see that every single one of them contains a reference to the movie Big Lebowski.”
Feb 5, 2025 positive
Feb 5, 2025
Levchin: Fire employees who hit their limit instead of coaching them
“Sometimes you look at work and you say, wow, like this person cannot do better. Full stop. Don't worry about being direct. The conversation you're going to have with them at some point very soon is, I don't think you have a place on this team anymore. And that…”
Feb 5, 2025 neutral
Feb 5, 2025 negative
Levchin: Treating unrefined MVPs as permanent software generates garbage
“The idea of finding out of the idea was really important, but if you believe that ideas speak for themselves so much that it can be garbage, you will end up with a collection of garbage and generation of garbage software. And I think you just have to know when…”
Feb 5, 2025 negative
Feb 5, 2025 positive
Feb 5, 2025
Feb 5, 2025 neutral
Feb 5, 2025 positive
Levchin: Being a public CEO is a cheat code for investor access
“If you're a private company CEO, they might take your meeting, but they're probably busy. If you're a public company CEO, they might own your stock. And then they want to talk to you because they want to assess you as much as they want to help you. And so that…”
Feb 5, 2025
Feb 5, 2025
Levchin: Narcissism turns extreme talent toxic, but humility excuses tantrums
“Any form of narcissism or selfishness, self-orientedness is probably the most important trigger of turning an extreme personality from good to bad, or said in the opposite way, you can be as great at throwing tantrums or as direct in your criticism as you want…”
Feb 5, 2025
Levchin: Effective post-mortems eliminate emotion and apologies to focus on facts
“And the most important thing you can do about the entire process is you have to completely separate any form of apologizing, responsibility taking, you know, we should do better next time. Like, you have to be clinical about it. Like, this happened. It wasn't …”
Feb 5, 2025 negative
Feb 5, 2025
Levchin: After two years reading AI papers, I'm nowhere near expert status
“I decided two years ago that I was just gonna read the attention paper and become an expert in LLMs, and, you know, just read all the papers after that, and I'm still in the process of getting anywhere near expertly status.”
Feb 5, 2025 negative
Feb 5, 2025 neutral
Levchin: Overhiring during good fundraising environments is a calculated risk
“Yes, it certainly is. Actually, and maybe that's a good answer in retrospect to your question about Calculated risks that did not pan out. You decide that you want every incremental engineer to build more features while the fundraising is good. And then sudden…”