People don’t seem to enjoy going shopping anymore. Everything we buy costs more than we bargained for. While shoppers are terrified of extra costs, merchants continue to downplay the additional product fees.

Unforeseen fees became a thing of the past with Max Levinch’s time and cash saving invention, Affirm. Affirm does not disappoint shoppers or makes them overspend. On the contrary, it helps save them money, time, and effort in finding the best products.

To earn the trust of its no-second-thought buyers, Affirm's is all about fair prices and quality products. No late fees or compounding interest — Affirm makes shopping responsible, entertaining, and transparent. Supported by the first-ever financial lending tool - Affirm Plus - the brand tackles payments, sales, and loaning like a pro!

Quality products awaited to be purchased at the best prices, but conceptualizing how it would all work was a challenge to look in the eyes and tackle. Here is how Affirm made it all possible with one designated platform!

An Inventor is Born

Max Levchin was born on 11 July 1975 as Maksymillian Levchin in Ukraine. Early life was not easy for Max at all. As a child, he developed severe respiratory problems that enabled him to breathe properly. Because of his difficulty breathing, doctors actually feared for his life. But, instead of making him weaker, these issues would motivate Max to work harder for everything he wanted.

He promised that he would use every breath to create something to both help himself as well as others. Deep inside, Max had known that great things were ahead of him, and he took his first chance when his family moved from Ukraine to the US. Medically speaking, the family thought the US would provide more solutions to Max’s respiratory issues. Guided by his grandmother and parents, Max Levinch took up the clarinet to expand his lung capacity.

The eagerness Max felt to fight for every breath sparked a zest for life from day one. Every extra day he could spare was a blessing and a new opportunity to create something unique.

Throughout his childhood, Max had a sixth sense when it came to financial purchasing or dealings with cash. Max was a pretty smart child and had the capacity to calculate non-paper; non-stop. He would spend most of his time-solving math equations, a hobby he enjoys to this day. Max also dreamt about running a startup to forever change the way consumers perceive spendings and purchases. Gradually, Max took this path when he attended Mather High School. He continued his education at the University of Illinois. There, he earned a Bachelor's degree in computer science in 1997.

The years to come were Max’s golden hour. If he only knew he was about to reinvent the world of finances.

What You See is What You Pay

A year after graduating from the University of Illinois, Max, alongside his college friend Peter Thielf, founded Fieldlink. A security company, Fieldlink allowed users to store encrypted data on their PDA devices, and serve as a digital wallet. The act of proper purchasing and selling was somehow present in every business plan that Max had from then on. The company, Fieldlink, later developed the highly popular payment service platform, PayPal.

The product completely revolutionized the payment process and focused on digital fund transfers. Max’s dreams began to unravel right before his eyes. Thanks to his ‘digital wallet’ idea Paypal was later acquired by eBay. This was the conceiving milestone that would bring about the rise of an even greater one - Affirm.

Crossing one milestone after the other largely contributed to Max’s increasing urge for reinventing.

A decade after the PayPal triumph, Max started a company called HVF, which later gave rise to the financial technology company that is Affirm. Max’s lifelong goal was to build the next-generation credit network.

Max’s aspiration was to bring back carefree shopping, without any regrets. In other words, users get fair prices for successful purchasing. Affirm was presented as a revolutionary financial technology company that lets users buy without any hidden fees. Affirm allows its buyers to get a simple, easy, and transparent way to shop. This way, Max believed that consumers could shop with ease, without fearing any unnecessary extra fees.

A Monumental Mission

Max Levchin had one leading idea in mind when building Affirm - to deliver honest financial products to improve the lives of consumers. He also wanted to create the kind of platform to help regain trust among uncertain buyers. Modern technology-aided Affirm in reimagining and rebuilding core financial infrastructure components at a level unseen since the 1970s.

Max wanted to make it possible for the less fortunate to participate in microloans at the point of sale, too. This way, buyers can get a more inclusive lending alternative than credit cards. Max Levchin never wanted to earn money from customers’ debts. Instead, he only takes a small cut from Affirm’s acquired sales. Some of the most important moments of Max’s life with Affirm happened in 2015 when the company raised $275 million in revenue.

Two years later, in October, Affirm launched a parallel consumer app to allow purchase loans at any retailer. Not long after, Affirm announced a partnership with the market giant Walmart. This cooperation enabled customers to use Affirm in the store and on the Walmart website.

Affirm’s biggest partner, Peloton, accounted for 28% of its revenue during the troubling 2020 because of the COVID pandemic. But it was not for naught, as the company went public with a market cap close to $10 billion.

On January 13, 2021, Affirm launched its first-ever public offering on NASDAQ.

A total of 24,600,000 shares of common stock were issued to the public at a price of $49.00 per share. This was a way for Max to give back to the community that helped build Affirm to where it is today.

Building an Empire

Affirm’s headquarters are in San Francisco California. The company boasts over 1000+ employees and has a grand impact on the financial industry. After all, it did garner millions of users from the US and Canadian markets.

For the future, Affirm plans on broadening its services globally and implementing new perks of exciting purchases. It took years of dedication and belief to build an empire such as Affirm. Max went from a boy that had respiratory difficulties to standing among the biggest names of today.

Alongside his partners Nathan Gettings, Jeffrey Kaditz, and Alex Rampell, Max reinvented the process of safe shopping and graced the world with it.

It is a luxury to spend hard-earned money but Affirm makes sure that everyone does it with pleasure. With Affirm, buyers can finally keep up with where exactly their cash goes.

The platform promises to make clandestine shopping a thing of the past. No more extra fees. No more user experience hassles. Best of all, no more unforeseen costs - Affirm is here to get your purchases in order and for years to come!