Max Levchin: a success story and the rules of business by the creator of PayPal

Now Max Levchin is known around the world as an American Web developer и programmer, one of the founders PayPal - the largest in the world electronic payment systems. Levchin is also vice president of engineering at the company. Google.

But his attempts to achieve success in the field of programming were not always successful, writes Peoples.ru.

Max was born July 15 1975 years в Kiev в Jewish family. In the name of Maximilian, he was named after the poet Maximilian Voloshinwhose great admirer was Max's father - a poet and prose writer famous in literary circles Rafael Zalmanovich Levchin. Mother Elvina Pinkhasovna Zeltsman is a multimedia artist, photographer, translator and programmer.

В 1991 year family emigrates в USAwhere settles in ChicagoIllinois.

By the time he moved to the USA, Max knew well Englishand it helped him enroll in University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaignwhere he studied computer science. He graduated from university in 1997 yearthen moved to Silicon Valley.

Before PayPal Levchin launched 3 startupswho did not bring him success and profit. The first big money managed to earn in 2002 yearWhen eBay purchased payment system PayPal for $ 1,5 billion. To him, as one of the co-founders (PayPal was founded in 1998, by Levchin, Peter Thiel and Ilon Mask), then belonged to the 2,3% of the company, and he received about $ 34 million by takeover.

PayPal Begins at the end of 1999. The now known system was the sixth attempt, it was she who was invulnerable to hacker attacks that ruined some other electronic payment systems. This system is obliged to the talent of the programmer and mathematician Max Levchin, one of the 6 people who stood at the origins of this project.

The project turned out to be more successful than its creators had expected: in the very first months of its existence, the company Nokia invested $ 3,5 million in the project, Deutsche Bank — $1,5 million. Many other banks have invested in PayPal a total of over $ 20 million. Thanks to the growth of the Internet user community soon after launch PayPal already had about one and a half million customers in the database, and the daily turnover exceeded $ 2 million. That's when the project decided to purchase eBay.

In 2004, Levchin launched his own startup slideThe main development of which was the service of conveniently displaying a large number of photos for social network users. MySpace. Later slide reoriented to the creation of social services for Myspace and Facebook.

As a result, Levchin's photo hosting site has acquired GoogleLevchin himself became vice-president of the company.

In 2009 year Max Levchin took 25 line in the list of the most successful businessmen younger than 40 years, according to the publication Fortune.

Edition Ain.ua gathered the rules of a business known programmer who has achieved success by trial and error.

1. It is usually better to work with a co-founder than to work alone.

2. When your team is initially homogeneous in terms of education, experience, values, preferences, etc., it saves a lot of time - less useless arguments.

3. A team in which people hate each other, but at the same time deeply respect, can be successful. But if the opposite is true - love without respect is a failure.

4. If you are at least for a second doubted the candidates for your first 5-6 positions - do not hire them. There can be no doubt.

5. You can not hire a co-founder to work.

6. Do not allow senior managers to develop long-lasting conflicts with each other. You will then have to take them apart, while a lot of time is being pushed down the tube.

7. Information about salaries sooner or later becomes public knowledge, and “sooner or later” = “very quickly.”

8. Often, “working from home” doesn’t actually work.

9. As a rule, when someone wants to leave your company, you should let them go. Trying to keep them with salary and authority increases, you reduce incentives for other employees.

10. Office romance is usually (but not always) bad news.

11. Identify one thing that your investors are really well-versed in, and insist that they help you with this. This at the same time will save you from their intervention in all other areas.

12. Consider whether the adjective “tireless” can be applied to your team. If not, you need to do something about it.

13. Leadership by personal example is the most effective option. If you want your people to work at night without a meal break, you should do so yourself, even if the task is beyond your competence. It's a little irrational, but it inspires people.

14. Usually money attracts impressive stories or results. Raise investment before or immediately after launch. Do not plan fundraising a couple of weeks after the start.

15. A big and tangled board of directors is hardly a good idea. Several ideological angels are better than thousands of $ 5 from anyone.

16. The board meeting should not turn into a debate on product strategy. Better talk about tactics.

17. You must have a duty box in which everyone puts their phones at the very beginning of the meeting. At least offer such a start.

18. Make sure there is food at board meetings.

19. If you have a co-founder, give him a chair in the council. One more hold for yourself and leave empty. It will come in handy later.

20. As a rule, co-founders must own shares in the company.

21. Raising investments from May 20 to August 10 and from November 10 to January 15 is harder than at any other time of the year. Many investors at this time on vacation.

22. Never. Never agree to privileged participation.

23. The right to redeem securities is normal (a concept familiar to the East Coast) if you have been investing money for many years. Startups should not be in limbo for so long.

24. If you are going to earn a lot on promotions, very carefully consider the final prefs (preferred shares) and their impact on future employee motivation.

25. You are developing a product not for yourself, and should not. Most Internet users do not understand how this works and do not want to understand. Develop a product for them - there are a lot of them, and you are one.

Levchin is a big fan of bicycles and cycling.

Max's mother got his first bike when he was still living in Ukraine. A cycle track was located behind the house in which the family lived. At night, Levchin made his way there and wound circles on his bicycle. Now the entrepreneur continues to spend his free time on the bike - but not at the velodrome, but in the mountains of California, driving 300-400 km a week, writes VC.

Levchin, according to him, is obsessed with cycling. He is closely following various competitions.

When the entrepreneur just moved to Silicon Valley, he did not ride a bicycle, which was gathering dust in the garage. After sales PayPal Levchin gained extra weight and constantly complained to his girlfriend, and now his wife Nelly, was bored. Then the girl offered him a ride - according to her, it would help to bring the brain in order.

Levchin decided that he was ready to take up the bike only a few months later. The entrepreneur was hindered by memories - Max got used to the fact that cycling was always what he was really good at. Levchin was worried that because of his excess weight, he might not be able to drive fast or climb a high mountain.

Founder PayPal decided to “come back” by attending several group training sessions. He found that he did the interval rides on the stationary bike quite well—better than most people who took the class—and didn't feel too short of breath or tired. Then he realized he could get back on the road.

“Every couple of years I promise myself to try to race, but getting back into proper shape took longer than I expected,” Levchin admitted.

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