Max Levchin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Max R Levchin | |
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| Born | July 15, 1975 [1] Kiev, Ukraine, Soviet Union |
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| Occupation | Computer scientist, entrepreneur |
Max Rafael Levchin (born July 15, 1975) is a Ukrainian-born computer scientist and entrepreneur widely known as co-founder (with Peter Thiel) and former chief technology officer of PayPal.
Originally from Kiev, Ukraine (then part of the Soviet Union), he moved to Chicago, Illinois in 1991. He received his bachelor's degree in computer science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1997 and co-founded two companies that made Internet-tools, NetMeridian Software and SponsorNet New Media. In 1998, he founded Fieldlink with John Bernard Powers, (who left the company shortly thereafter) and Peter Thiel, which was renamed Confinity. Confinity was later merged with another company, X.com, and combined entity was named PayPal.
There is a lot of controversy around the merger of X.com and Confinity. Many believe that it was not a good deal for PayPal, and that it was forced upon them by their venture capitalists (VCs). Eric Jackson, an early employee of PayPal, offers a detailed account of the merger in his book PayPal Wars.
X.com CEO Elon Musk published an online rebuttal of these rumours at Valleywag.
PayPal went public in February 2002, and was subsequently acquired by eBay. Levchin's 2.3% stake in PayPal was worth approximately $34 million at the time of the acquisition.[2] He is primarily known for his contributions to PayPal's anti-fraud efforts[3] and is also the co-creator of the Gausebeck-Levchin test, one of the first commercial implementations of a CAPTCHA.
In 2004, Levchin founded Slide[4], a personal media-sharing service.
He also helped start Yelp, an online social networking and review service.
Levchin was an executive producer for the movie Thank You for Smoking. Levchin was also featured in Brilliant Issue of PortFolio Magazine by Condenast Publications.
In June 26, 2009 he got his Ph.D. from the university of Surrey.
[edit] Notes and references
[edit] External links
- Golub`atna about Levchin
- Translated version of Golub`atna by Google
- http://www.levchin.com/ Personal website, includes photos from PayPal IPO.
- Max Levchin has a professional profile on the web.
- NerdTV Interview (video, audio, and transcript available) - 30 June 2005
- iinnovate interview Two Stanford business school students interview Max
- New York Times: After Succeeding, Young Tycoons Try, Try Again Max Levchin profile
- An alternate history of PayPal according to X.com CEO Elon Musk
