Max Levchin facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Max Levchin
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| Максиміліан Левчин | |
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Levchin at TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2013 in San Francisco, California
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| Born |
Maksymilian Rafailovych Levchyn
July 11, 1975 |
| Education | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (BS) |
| Occupation | CEO of Affirm Co-founder and former CTO of PayPal |
| Spouse(s) | Nellie Minkova (m. 2008) |
| Children | 2 |
Maksymilian Rafailovych "Max" Levchin (born July 11, 1975) is a smart Ukrainian-American engineer and businessman. He is famous for helping to start PayPal in 1998. Max Levchin also helped make sure PayPal was safe from fraud. He even helped create a special test called the Gausebeck-Levchin test. This test was one of the first CAPTCHAs used by companies. A CAPTCHA is like a small puzzle that checks if you are a human, not a robot.
Max Levchin also started or helped start other companies like Slide.com, HVF, and Affirm. He was one of the first people to invest in Yelp. Yelp is a website where people can review businesses. He was also a producer for the movie Thank You for Smoking.
Contents
Early Life and School Days
Max Levchin was born in Kyiv, which was part of the Soviet Union back then. His family was Ukrainian-Jewish. In 1991, when he was a teenager, he moved to the United States and lived in Chicago.
When Max was a child, he had breathing problems. Doctors were not sure if he would live. But with help from his grandmother and parents, he learned to play the clarinet. This helped make his lungs stronger. He went to Mather High School. Later, he studied computer science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He earned his bachelor's degree in 1997.
Max Levchin's Business Journey
In 1995, while still in college, Max Levchin and two friends, Luke Nosek and Scott Banister, started a company called SponsorNet New Media. This was his first step into the business world.
Creating PayPal
In 1998, Max Levchin and Peter Thiel started a company called Fieldlink. Their first idea was to create a security company. It would let people store secret information on their PalmPilots. These were small handheld computers, like early smartphones. The idea was to turn these devices into "digital wallets."
They later changed the company name to Confinity. They then created a popular way to send money called PayPal. They focused on sending money digitally using those handheld devices. In 2000, their company joined with another company called X.com. By 2001, the company was fully known as PayPal.
PayPal became a public company in February 2002. This means its shares could be bought and sold by anyone. In July 2002, a big online marketplace called eBay bought PayPal. Max Levchin owned a small part of PayPal. When eBay bought the company, his share was worth about $34 million.
Max Levchin is well-known for helping PayPal fight against fraud. He also helped create the Gausebeck-Levchin test. This was one of the first times a CAPTCHA was used by a business. A CAPTCHA helps websites tell if a user is a real person or a computer program.
In 2002, a magazine called Technology Review named him one of the top 100 innovators under 35. He was also named Innovator of the Year.
Max Levchin is part of a group called the "PayPal Mafia." This group includes about twenty people who worked at PayPal early on. After leaving PayPal, many of them became very successful. They started or invested in many other technology companies.
Starting Slide
In 2004, Max Levchin started a company called Slide. Slide helped people share photos and other media on social media sites. These included sites like Myspace and Facebook. In August 2010, Google bought Slide for $182 million. Max Levchin then joined Google as a vice president of engineering. However, in August 2011, Google decided to close Slide. Max Levchin then left Google.
HVF and Affirm
In late 2011, Max Levchin started a new company called HVF. HVF stands for "Hard, Valuable, and Fun." The company's goal was to find and support new projects. These projects would use data to create new technologies.
In early 2012, a new financial technology company called Affirm was created from HVF. Affirm's goal is to build a new kind of credit system. Max Levchin, along with Nathan Gettings and Jeff Kaditz, started Affirm. The company is located in San Francisco.
In 2013, HVF also launched Glow. Glow is a special app that helps couples understand their fertility. This helps them try to have a baby naturally. After Affirm became a public company, Max Levchin's share was worth about $2.5 billion.
Board Roles and Investments
Max Levchin was an important early investor in Yelp. Yelp is a website that lets people find and review local businesses. He owned the most shares in Yelp in 2012. He was the chairman of Yelp's board of directors from when it started until 2015. He also helped another company called Mixpanel survive and become successful.
He also invested in Evernote, a popular note-taking app. He was on Evernote's board of directors for ten years, from 2006 to 2016.
In December 2012, Max Levchin joined the board of directors for Yahoo. He stayed on the board until December 2015.
In 2015, he was asked to join an advisory board for the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). This group gives advice on money matters to protect consumers. He was the first tech executive from Silicon Valley to join this board. In 2021, Max Levchin said that technology companies should work more closely with government regulators.
As of 2021, Max Levchin's wealth was estimated to be about $3 billion.
In the Media
Max Levchin has spoken at many events. In 2007, he spoke at a "Startup School" event. He shared his story as a business owner. He talked about his mistakes and what he learned. He was also featured in a special issue of Portfolio magazine. In 2022, he was interviewed on an NPR podcast called "How I Built This." He talked about his early life and his work with PayPal.
Politics and Public Service
Max Levchin has supported groups that work to improve things like immigration laws. He was a contributor to FWD.us. This group, started by Mark Zuckerberg, wants to make it easier for skilled immigrants to come to the U.S. They also want to improve education and support new technologies. Max Levchin even shared his own story as an immigrant in a video for the group.
In 2013, there was a lot of discussion about government surveillance. Max Levchin defended the NSA, a U.S. government agency. He believed the NSA helps protect the U.S. from terrorism. He felt that even if they sometimes go too far, people should still support them.
Other Activities
Max Levchin also created and funded the Levchin Prize. This award, started in 2016, recognizes important advancements in cryptography. Cryptography is the science of secure communication, like making sure your online messages are private.
Personal Life
In 2008, Max Levchin married his longtime girlfriend, Nellie Minkova. They have two children. He lived in San Francisco for many years. In 2019, he sold his home in San Francisco.
