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Max Levchin

Max Levchin

Founder, Chairman & CEO, Affirm

Fintech

Max Levchin is the founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Affirm, the buy-now-pay-later lender, according to the annual report Affirm filed with the SEC on 27 August 2026. TechCrunch reported in 2014 that Affirm grew out of his company-building firm HVF, with Nathan Gettings as a co-founder. Before Affirm, he was one of PayPal's original co-founders.

Max hasn’t spoken on a TechTO, TechVancouver or TechWaterloo stage. This profile is here because Max co-founded Affirm, which appears in 2 talks in the archive.

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Quick answers

Who is Max Levchin?

The founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Affirm. Affirm's annual report on Form 10-K, filed with the SEC on 27 August 2026, calls him the company's Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and he signed that report as CEO.

Did Max Levchin found Affirm on his own?

No. TechCrunch reported in June 2014 that Affirm was founded out of Levchin's company-building vehicle HVF. It named Nathan Gettings as his co-founder and chief risk officer, and said former ngmoco chief data officer Jeffrey Kaditz was on the founding team as CTO.

What did Max Levchin do before Affirm?

He co-founded PayPal. The 20VC podcast's February 2025 episode page describes him as one of the original co-founders of PayPal, and Semafor's July 2026 interview says he founded PayPal with Peter Thiel.

How does Max Levchin describe himself as CEO?

Still as an engineer. In a July 2026 interview for Semafor's CEO Signal, he said: "I am an immigrant engineer. That's who I am." Semafor reported that he wants to understand Affirm's software well enough to push its engineering teams to keep improving it.

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Maintained by TechTO · facts sourced and dated · last reviewed Sep 13, 2026