Max Levchin is the founder and CEO of Affirm and former co-founder of PayPal. Speaking with Harry Stebbings on 20VC, he reflects on the perks and downsides of managing a public company.
“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's a cheat code to access some of the best brains out there.”
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More from Max Levchin
Insight
Levchin: B players hire C players out of fear of being outperformed
“The Steve Jobs quote, A players, higher A players, B players, higher C players, is profoundly true. There should be an asterisk explaining why this is true, and the reason for it is fear.”
Max LevchinFeb 5, 2025▶ 11:16Max Levchin, Founder & CEO @ Affirm:The Biggest Surprise Scaling to $18.7BN Market Cap · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
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…”
Max LevchinFeb 5, 2025▶ 25:24Max Levchin, Founder & CEO @ Affirm:The Biggest Surprise Scaling to $18.7BN Market Cap · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Opinion
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…”
Max LevchinFeb 5, 2025▶ 36:44Max Levchin, Founder & CEO @ Affirm:The Biggest Surprise Scaling to $18.7BN Market Cap · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
PredictionNot checkable as stated
Levchin: Pure LLMs are hitting efficiency limits; AI will expand beyond them
“Agree. But I don't think we are going to stay with LLMs forever. I think we're going to expand the systems that use LLMs.”
Max LevchinFeb 5, 2025▶ 50:57Max Levchin, Founder & CEO @ Affirm:The Biggest Surprise Scaling to $18.7BN Market Cap · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Levchin: Once trust is broken, it can never be restored
“The hard red line for me is always, once I can't trust you, I can't ever trust you.”
Max LevchinFeb 5, 2025▶ 5:08Max Levchin, Founder & CEO @ Affirm:The Biggest Surprise Scaling to $18.7BN Market Cap · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Levchin: Brilliant employees are worth managing despite extreme quirks
“But most of the time, Truly brilliant people are worth the quirks, and it's a hallmark of a good manager who knows how to bring out the best from the people, even if they are extreme.”
Max LevchinFeb 5, 2025▶ 1:12Max Levchin, Founder & CEO @ Affirm:The Biggest Surprise Scaling to $18.7BN Market Cap · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
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