How Affirm Wants to Remake Money TIME Business Small Business Mad Max Levchin has started three technology companies and runs a venture-capital firm David Paul Morris-Getty Images The new charge to disrupt lending Judging by the numbers, Max Levchin's life has had a quantum-leap quality most people would envy. His first jump came in 2002, shortly after he sold off his ownership stake in PayPal to eBay for an estimated $34 million. He was 27 years old, flush with cash and adrift in an ocean of downtime.