I’m Max Levchin, CEO of Affirm and Co-Founder of PayPal, and This Is How I Work
Creating a unified company and achieving profitability would be a source of pride for any entrepreneur, but Max Levchin has done a little more. He has had a hand in the creation of a number of famous and influential startups.
Levchin co-founded PayPal, the now ubiquitous online payment service and served as CTO until they were acquired by eBay in 2002 (which really earned its place, jokingly nicknamed the ” PayPal Mafia, ” a monstrous group of entrepreneurs that includes Elona Musk, etc.)
But this is just one of the many companies that Levchin created, consulted or influenced in their nascent stages. He launched a media sharing service called Slide, which was acquired by Google, provided some of the initial funding for Yelp, invested in Evernote, where he also served on the board of directors, and is now the CEO of Affirm , a finance company that makes consumer lending more significant. accessible and transparent. And this is not even a complete summary. We caught up with Levchin to find out a little about how he works.
Location: San Francisco, California. Current job: CEO and co-founder of Affirm; Founder and President of HVF ; co-founder and chairman of Glow One word that best describes the way you work: Ruthless Modern mobile device: iPhone 7 Current computer: MacBook Pro
First of all, tell me a little about your past and how you became who you are today.
First of all, I see myself and approach problems as a computer scientist and mathematician. My outlook on life is based on first principles. I was born in Kiev, Ukraine. Almost every member of my family was a scientist. I have co-founded and invested in hundreds of companies (mostly through my HVF innovation and investment lab), most notably PayPal, Yelp, Slide, Glow, and Affirm.
What apps, software or tools can’t you live without?
My bikes. Even if I am traveling, if I am away for more than a week, I usually take my bike with me. My backpack usually has a laptop, really good headphones, a good quality notebook (I still love writing on paper), and nice sneakers. If I don’t know how to ride a bike, I can run.
How is your workplace arranged?
At work, I have a permanent desk with a large monitor and headphones are essential. If I don’t have headphones, I would rather have earplugs than nothing. At home, my kids have taken over my corner, so now I just work from my laptop.
What’s your best time-saving shortcut or life hack?
I usually come up with precise routines and repeat them with obsession every day. In perfect detail, every morning at home looks the same. By freeing myself from thinking about what to do next, I have achieved incredible efficiency. For example, I know that exactly 90 minutes pass between waking up and getting on the bike. I know how to shorten this time to 75 minutes if necessary. I have a very specific set of steps, and once I find a procedure that works, I organize it every minute until it’s perfect. This works well with anything that doesn’t require creativity.
What’s your favorite to-do list manager?
I use Evernote a lot. It has a nice checkbox mode. However, I don’t use it for everything. I usually start my day by clearing my inbox and then create a to-do list for the day, usually in Evernote. I start by copying yesterday’s list and then add and adjust. During the day, I sometimes take notes on paper or email, and at the end of the day I return to Evernote.
What device, besides a phone and a computer, can you not live without and why?
Bluetooth headphones. I also wear a heart rate monitor every day and often a power meter on my bike while exercising. They help me not only to train the way I want, but I also know if my body is under stress. If at the beginning of the trip my heart rate is over 50, I know I have not had enough sleep.
What are some of your best everyday activities? What’s your secret?
I can do almost any recipe with extreme precision. When it comes to cooking, I have no creativity, but the recipe – even with 30 ingredients and 50 steps – I can do pretty well. I’m also good at making coffee.
What do you listen to while you work?
It depends on what I am trying to achieve. If I need to think about something, I match the rhythm of the music to the rough tempo in which I expect my brain to work. I listen to a lot of classical music, and if I don’t work, then something darker, like Chopin or Bach. If I’m trying to go through a hundred emails, and it’s not so much about the analysis as about the response, I’m looking for high beats per minute and can listen to music that doesn’t have languages that I understand or fully understand. instrumental. French techno / house, Spanish ska, Argentine or Brazilian ska or rock, Japanese techno, etc.
What are you reading now?
I just finished Player Anatomy and read many of these books. Double your profit: in six months or less . The paper menagerie I discovered because I thought Ken Liu did an excellent job of translating the three-body problem , then I discovered that he also writes his own science fiction. I usually read a lot of business science fiction books, and I also read one science fiction or spy novel a month. I read four to six books a month.
How do you replenish? What do you do when you want to forget about work?
Cook. As I mentioned earlier, I try to keep my days following a pattern. I try to get home on time to cook or help prepare dinner for the kids. In the kitchen, I’m hopelessly not a creative person, but I take instructions well.
What is your sleep pattern?
I’m lucky that it takes about 10 seconds between my head hitting the pillow and falling asleep. I can fall asleep under any circumstance and maybe have insomnia every two years. On planes, I often miss takeoffs. I usually go to bed by 10:30 or 23:00. My goal is 7 hours of sleep, and I only need 5.
Fill in the blank: I would like _________ to answer these same questions.
Hmmm, I’ve asked a lot of people similar questions before. Such as professional cyclists.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
I don’t know, but I think it’s all from my wife.