Why Max Levchin wants Affirm to act like your smarter older sister
Levchin describes the product philosophy he wants Affirm to embody: nudging consumers away from debt they cannot service rather than maximising credit extended.
Max Levchin
Founder & CEO, Affirm Holdings, Inc. (AFRM)
The CEO view
Co-founded PayPal; founded Affirm in 2012 to reinvent consumer credit with transparent, no-late-fee financing.
Podcasts, interviews & articles
9 recorded appearances
2026
The Path from The Soviet Union to Building Multi-Billion Dollar Companies — Max Levchin
Wide-ranging episode (#869) on his Soviet childhood, the founding of PayPal and Affirm, and an extended argument comparing real-world socialism with capitalism drawn from his own family's experience.
Affirm CEO Max Levchin on America's secret to success
Short segment in which Levchin, an immigrant founder, ties US economic outperformance to its openness to outsiders starting companies.
Max Levchin - Building Affirm, PayPal, and Why He Only Starts Network Businesses
Levchin explains his rule of only founding businesses with network effects, and walks through what he carried over from PayPal's risk and fraud work into Affirm's underwriting.
Affirm CEO Max Levchin goes one-on-one with Jim Cramer
Post-results conversation on consumer credit quality, merchant growth and Affirm's willingness to cap growth at whatever its risk models allow.
Max Levchin: "The Net IQ of the World Is About to Go Up 50 Points"
Levchin argues AI will act as a broad cognitive multiplier across the workforce, and talks through surviving failure and building companies through economic regime changes.
An Honest Conversation w/ Affirm CEO Max Levchin
Consumer-facing conversation on how buy-now-pay-later underwriting actually works and why Affirm refuses late fees and compounding interest.
2025
Diving Deep with Max Levchin
Nearly two-hour technical discussion of Affirm's credit models, funding mix and its position against card issuers and other BNPL providers.
Affirm's Max Levchin & Axios' Dan Primack
On-stage interview with Dan Primack covering the state of the US consumer, regulatory scrutiny of BNPL and Affirm's distribution deals.