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Max Levchin

๐Ÿ‘ค Speaker
819 total appearances

Appearances Over Time

Podcast Appearances

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Affirm Max Levchin on Why Grading Talent by Letter (A or B) is Total BS | How to Create a Culture of Post Mortems and Writing | Why You Should Only Study Failure Not Success & The Biggest Surprises Scaling to $18.7BN Market Cap

When you observe someone closely for a long time, you don't actually notice the change. You see the episodes, but you don't know how the person really changes. We've all grown up. We've all become probably more measured and slightly more careful, slightly less crazy, maybe slightly more crazy. I don't know. He hasn't changed very much.

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Affirm Max Levchin on Why Grading Talent by Letter (A or B) is Total BS | How to Create a Culture of Post Mortems and Writing | Why You Should Only Study Failure Not Success & The Biggest Surprises Scaling to $18.7BN Market Cap

The thing that makes Peter Peter is, and by the way, actually very similar to Elon in that sense. So there's a really interesting echo between the two. 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.

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Affirm Max Levchin on Why Grading Talent by Letter (A or B) is Total BS | How to Create a Culture of Post Mortems and Writing | Why You Should Only Study Failure Not Success & The Biggest Surprises Scaling to $18.7BN Market Cap

The thing that makes Peter Peter is, and by the way, actually very similar to Elon in that sense. So there's a really interesting echo between the two. 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.

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Affirm Max Levchin on Why Grading Talent by Letter (A or B) is Total BS | How to Create a Culture of Post Mortems and Writing | Why You Should Only Study Failure Not Success & The Biggest Surprises Scaling to $18.7BN Market Cap

The thing that makes Peter Peter is, and by the way, actually very similar to Elon in that sense. So there's a really interesting echo between the two. 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.

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Affirm Max Levchin on Why Grading Talent by Letter (A or B) is Total BS | How to Create a Culture of Post Mortems and Writing | Why You Should Only Study Failure Not Success & The Biggest Surprises Scaling to $18.7BN Market Cap

Like they somehow make you feel that you can and should do better work. The conversation with Peter always left me thinking, the problem that I thought was really too hard to solve, I should go give it another try. I think I can. I think this is actually doable. And he is genuinely excited about you solving this problem through the capacity that you have.

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Affirm Max Levchin on Why Grading Talent by Letter (A or B) is Total BS | How to Create a Culture of Post Mortems and Writing | Why You Should Only Study Failure Not Success & The Biggest Surprises Scaling to $18.7BN Market Cap

Like they somehow make you feel that you can and should do better work. The conversation with Peter always left me thinking, the problem that I thought was really too hard to solve, I should go give it another try. I think I can. I think this is actually doable. And he is genuinely excited about you solving this problem through the capacity that you have.

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Affirm Max Levchin on Why Grading Talent by Letter (A or B) is Total BS | How to Create a Culture of Post Mortems and Writing | Why You Should Only Study Failure Not Success & The Biggest Surprises Scaling to $18.7BN Market Cap

Like they somehow make you feel that you can and should do better work. The conversation with Peter always left me thinking, the problem that I thought was really too hard to solve, I should go give it another try. I think I can. I think this is actually doable. And he is genuinely excited about you solving this problem through the capacity that you have.

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Affirm Max Levchin on Why Grading Talent by Letter (A or B) is Total BS | How to Create a Culture of Post Mortems and Writing | Why You Should Only Study Failure Not Success & The Biggest Surprises Scaling to $18.7BN Market Cap

And I think that's an amazing thing to work with someone on anything because they're just fueling your desire to stay late and do more work. What's your favorite consumer brand and why them? I love Airbnb. The overall brand is amazing and obviously it's a super successful company, but their tagline, at least the one they promoted for a while, was belong anywhere. I think it's such a profound...

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Affirm Max Levchin on Why Grading Talent by Letter (A or B) is Total BS | How to Create a Culture of Post Mortems and Writing | Why You Should Only Study Failure Not Success & The Biggest Surprises Scaling to $18.7BN Market Cap

And I think that's an amazing thing to work with someone on anything because they're just fueling your desire to stay late and do more work. What's your favorite consumer brand and why them? I love Airbnb. The overall brand is amazing and obviously it's a super successful company, but their tagline, at least the one they promoted for a while, was belong anywhere. I think it's such a profound...

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Affirm Max Levchin on Why Grading Talent by Letter (A or B) is Total BS | How to Create a Culture of Post Mortems and Writing | Why You Should Only Study Failure Not Success & The Biggest Surprises Scaling to $18.7BN Market Cap

And I think that's an amazing thing to work with someone on anything because they're just fueling your desire to stay late and do more work. What's your favorite consumer brand and why them? I love Airbnb. The overall brand is amazing and obviously it's a super successful company, but their tagline, at least the one they promoted for a while, was belong anywhere. I think it's such a profound...

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Affirm Max Levchin on Why Grading Talent by Letter (A or B) is Total BS | How to Create a Culture of Post Mortems and Writing | Why You Should Only Study Failure Not Success & The Biggest Surprises Scaling to $18.7BN Market Cap

two word brand statement like you know exactly what it means you know exactly what they stand for it's evocative you imagine yourself in all kinds of crazy places you're in the himalayas or in the amazon and you're like that is an amazing story told with two words look back to my brevity love of brevity I think kind of the old world, probably my favorite brand that I look at every morning.

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Affirm Max Levchin on Why Grading Talent by Letter (A or B) is Total BS | How to Create a Culture of Post Mortems and Writing | Why You Should Only Study Failure Not Success & The Biggest Surprises Scaling to $18.7BN Market Cap

two word brand statement like you know exactly what it means you know exactly what they stand for it's evocative you imagine yourself in all kinds of crazy places you're in the himalayas or in the amazon and you're like that is an amazing story told with two words look back to my brevity love of brevity I think kind of the old world, probably my favorite brand that I look at every morning.

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Affirm Max Levchin on Why Grading Talent by Letter (A or B) is Total BS | How to Create a Culture of Post Mortems and Writing | Why You Should Only Study Failure Not Success & The Biggest Surprises Scaling to $18.7BN Market Cap

two word brand statement like you know exactly what it means you know exactly what they stand for it's evocative you imagine yourself in all kinds of crazy places you're in the himalayas or in the amazon and you're like that is an amazing story told with two words look back to my brevity love of brevity I think kind of the old world, probably my favorite brand that I look at every morning.

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Affirm Max Levchin on Why Grading Talent by Letter (A or B) is Total BS | How to Create a Culture of Post Mortems and Writing | Why You Should Only Study Failure Not Success & The Biggest Surprises Scaling to $18.7BN Market Cap

So I'm a huge fan of coffee and bicycles. Not at the same time frequently, but sometimes at the same time. So every morning I roll out of bed, I stumble downstairs and make myself an espresso. My favorite espresso machine brand is La Marzocco. It's this, like, I don't actually know that much. They're an Affirm customer, so I have to full disclosure.

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Affirm Max Levchin on Why Grading Talent by Letter (A or B) is Total BS | How to Create a Culture of Post Mortems and Writing | Why You Should Only Study Failure Not Success & The Biggest Surprises Scaling to $18.7BN Market Cap

So I'm a huge fan of coffee and bicycles. Not at the same time frequently, but sometimes at the same time. So every morning I roll out of bed, I stumble downstairs and make myself an espresso. My favorite espresso machine brand is La Marzocco. It's this, like, I don't actually know that much. They're an Affirm customer, so I have to full disclosure.

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Affirm Max Levchin on Why Grading Talent by Letter (A or B) is Total BS | How to Create a Culture of Post Mortems and Writing | Why You Should Only Study Failure Not Success & The Biggest Surprises Scaling to $18.7BN Market Cap

So I'm a huge fan of coffee and bicycles. Not at the same time frequently, but sometimes at the same time. So every morning I roll out of bed, I stumble downstairs and make myself an espresso. My favorite espresso machine brand is La Marzocco. It's this, like, I don't actually know that much. They're an Affirm customer, so I have to full disclosure.

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Affirm Max Levchin on Why Grading Talent by Letter (A or B) is Total BS | How to Create a Culture of Post Mortems and Writing | Why You Should Only Study Failure Not Success & The Biggest Surprises Scaling to $18.7BN Market Cap

But they were a huge favorite of mine long before I convinced them to give Affirm a try. It tells this amazing story of Italian manufacturing and, you know, the someone with a mustache smelling the coffee fumes going, oh, this is a perfect espresso. And it's this sort of a story in a cup that you just think, It has to go hundreds and hundreds of years back.

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Affirm Max Levchin on Why Grading Talent by Letter (A or B) is Total BS | How to Create a Culture of Post Mortems and Writing | Why You Should Only Study Failure Not Success & The Biggest Surprises Scaling to $18.7BN Market Cap

But they were a huge favorite of mine long before I convinced them to give Affirm a try. It tells this amazing story of Italian manufacturing and, you know, the someone with a mustache smelling the coffee fumes going, oh, this is a perfect espresso. And it's this sort of a story in a cup that you just think, It has to go hundreds and hundreds of years back.

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Affirm Max Levchin on Why Grading Talent by Letter (A or B) is Total BS | How to Create a Culture of Post Mortems and Writing | Why You Should Only Study Failure Not Success & The Biggest Surprises Scaling to $18.7BN Market Cap

But they were a huge favorite of mine long before I convinced them to give Affirm a try. It tells this amazing story of Italian manufacturing and, you know, the someone with a mustache smelling the coffee fumes going, oh, this is a perfect espresso. And it's this sort of a story in a cup that you just think, It has to go hundreds and hundreds of years back.

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Affirm Max Levchin on Why Grading Talent by Letter (A or B) is Total BS | How to Create a Culture of Post Mortems and Writing | Why You Should Only Study Failure Not Success & The Biggest Surprises Scaling to $18.7BN Market Cap

They must've been making coffee in Venice, you know, with mortar and pestle or something. I don't think it's nearly that old. I think it's maybe on the order of 60 to a hundred years old, but it's just this like timeless coffee awesomeness that I love. And I use it every day. And every time I look like, yes, yes. My coffee machine. I love it so much.