Affirm's Max Levchin and a16z's Alex Rampell on 25 years of payments and agentic commerce
a16z · x · 2026-09-03
Affirm co-founder/CEO Max Levchin and a16z's Alex Rampell join Erik Torenberg to discuss 25 years in payments, from PayPal to agentic commerce: payments is the biggest market on earth with no niche under $100B, yet it has barely moved in 60 years; Visa/Mastercard's tight transaction windows stifle innovation; Levchin remains bullish on the plastic card, bearish on agentic shopping — plus why Affirm walked away from the highest margins and the case of a cosmetics brand lifting conversion 30% by moving Affirm offers from checkout to product pages.
Related event: Affirm CEO Levchin Talks AI Agents Reshaping Credit Cards with a16z(2 posts)→
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