BREAKING: Max Levchin (
@mlevchin), Co-Founder of PayPal & CEO of
@Affirm — HQ Tour
A Masterclass in: Espressos → Big Lebowski → PayPal lessons → Affirm → Economics of AI
The Dude abides.
“The net IQ of the world Is about to go up 50 points”
Result: As intelligence becomes normalized, bad actors & "fine print" companies will get exposed faster.
We cover:
• Capitalism vs the “warm embrace” of socialism
• You can’t perfectly time an IPO
• The best time ever to be a CS CEO
• AI collapsing the cost of intelligence
• Great economic shift underway
Strikes & gutters, ups & downs.
Recorded at Affirm HQ, March 30, 2026
𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒
(00:00) Max Levchin, Co-Founder & CEO at Affirm
(01:35) Inside Affirm's office espresso bar
(06:46) How the love for espressos started at age 5
(10:30) Truth about bad coffee beans
(13:51) Strava & cycling
(14:56) Meeting Alfred Lin & Tony Hsieh over poker
(21:14) Onboarding 800K Shopify merchants in one week
(22:59) Big Lebowski in every shareholder letter
(32:11) The PayPal lesson that built Affirm
(35:25) Being a technical CEO
(37:57) Why this is the best time to be a technical CEO
(42:10) Should engineers still learn to code?
(44:48) Side quest with AI
(46:59) Companies AI will destroy
(49:46) How AI has changed engineering at Affirm
(50:54) Agentic commerce & DoorDash
(52:28) Devolution of Credit
(55:06) Biggest misconceptions about BNPL
(57:42) Being a public company CEO
(01:07:01) Advice for private companies
(01:11:09) Creating his own economy
(01:14:29) Can AI help solve the $39T debt problem?
(01:16:00) Learnings
(01:17:46) Will average IQ rise or fall?
