Skift Tech Forum Preview: Affirm’s CEO on Travel Industry’s Oncoming Payments Revolution
Photo Credit: Max Levchin, CEO and co-founder of Affirm, will speak at Skift Tech Forum on June 12. Pictured is Levchin speaking at SXSW in 2016. SXSW
Skift Take
High upfront costs remain a barrier to many travelers who can't make a large purchase all at once. Affirm is trying to remove that obstacle and other travel brands are warming up to the monthly payments model in the process.
Many people's lives are often defined by the risks they take rather than those they do not, and Max Levchin, a serial entrepreneur, investor, and CEO and co-founder of payments technology company Affirm, is no different.
Levchin, who co-founded PayPal in 2002 and has served on the boards of Yelp, Yahoo, and Evernote to name a few, founded Affirm in 2012 to change how travelers pay for trips by letting them use installments for flights, hotels, and other purchases.
Levchin gave the commencement address at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he is an alumnus, earlier this month where he told graduates to experience risk while they're young and have nothing to lose, and embrace failure. It's that kind of attitude that has helped Levchin successfully forge partnerships at Affirm and sell travel brands on a nascent payments model that's still in question.
At the inaugural Skift Tech Forum on June 12 in Silicon Valley, Levchin will discuss why new forms of paym
