During its formative years in the late 1990's, Paypal attracted an extraordinary group of young entrepreneurs, who then went on to build some of the best known companies in tech. They became known as The PayPal Mafia—and Max Levchin was one of the leaders. A computer genius from Soviet Ukraine, Max joined Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Reid Hoffman and others as they grew PayPal into a massively successful online payment service. Along the way, they encountered almost every start-up challenge imaginable, including the emotional ouster of Elon Musk as CEO. After PayPal was acquired by eBay in 2002, Max couldn't sit still, so he launched a startup lab that eventually led to another successful fintech company: Affirm. Guy will talk to Max about Affirm next week, in the second episode of this two-part series. 

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PayPal: Max Levchin (Part 1 of 2)

Guy Raz interviews the world’s best-known entrepreneurs to learn how they built their iconic brands. In each episode, founders reveal deep, intimate moments of doubt and failure, and share insights on their eventual success.&nbsp;How I Built This&nbsp;is a master-class on innovation, creativity, leadership and how to navigate challenges of all kinds. New episodes on Mondays and Thursdays for free. Listen 1-week early and to all episodes ad-free with Wondery+ or Amazon Music with a Prime membership or Amazon Music Unlimited subscription. Get your How I Built This merch at WonderyShop.com/HowIBuiltThis 


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As one of the most successful creators on YouTube, Mark Rober doesn’t see what he does as a business. Instead, it’s a way to celebrate science in the most joyful way possible. While working as an engineer at NASA, he made his YouTube debut with a tutorial on how to make a gory Halloween costume with two iPads and a lot of duct tape. Over time, his videos became more elaborate, including a belly flop into a pool full of Jello, and a demo of a glitter-fart bomb to get revenge on porch pirates. Within a few years, Mark was teaching online science classes and selling subscription boxes for kids. Today, his YouTube channel has 5.5 billion views, 48 million subscribers…and–astonishingly, given that audience–less than 150 videos. 




This episode was produced by J.C. Howard, with music by Ramtin Arablouei

Edited by Neva Grant, with research help from Sam Paulson.




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CrunchLabs: Mark Rober

For decades, Shane Legg has anticipated the arrival of “artificial general intelligence” or AGI. 

In other words: an artificial agent that can do all the kinds of cognitive tasks that people can typically do, and possibly more...

Now as the Chief AGI Scientist and a co-founder of Google DeepMind, he stands by that prediction and is calling on the world to prepare. 

This week on How I Built This Lab, Shane’s path to becoming an early AI expert and the work he and his team are doing to prepare for the technological revolution ahead. 




This episode was produced by Sam Paulson with music composed by Ramtin Arablouei. It was edited by John Isabella with research help from Carla Esteves. Our audio engineer was Cena Loffredo.

You can follow HIBT on X & Instagram, and email us at hibt@id.wondery.com.

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AI is smarter than you think with Shane Legg of Google DeepMind

Best friends Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal started out as “comedians for Christ,” and grew their partnership into one of the most successful YouTube platforms in existence. During college they created silly videos and songs for Christian events, and later built a following on YouTube before most people knew what it was. After struggling to find stardom in Hollywood, they continued to build a presence on YouTube: sampling punishingly hot peppers, writing ear-wormy songs about random things, showing off glasses that turned the world upside down. Nowadays, their entertainment company, Mythical, reports over 75 million subscribers and 25 billion lifetime views.

This episode was produced and researched by Katherine Sypher with music composed by Ramtin Arablouei.

It was edited by Neva Grant.

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Mythical: Rhett and Link

From Wondery, Business Wars is a podcast about the biggest corporate rivalries. In the newest season, host David Brown tracks the power struggles and philosophical differences within OpenAI that culminated in Sam Altman’s shocking firing, the chaos that followed, and what it means not just for OpenAI, but for the future of artificial intelligence safety overall.

Follow Business Wars on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to Business Wars early and ad-free right now on Wondery plus. Wondery.fm/IFD_BW

For more deep dive and daily business content listen on Wondery– the destination for business podcasts. With shows like How I Built This, Business Wars, The Best One Yet, Business Movers and many more, Wondery means business.

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Listen Now: Business Wars

Best-selling author and economics professor Renée Mauborgne thinks that too many entrepreneurs focus on the wrong things—consumed with making their companies outperform one another as they fight for a greater share of a crowded market space. But what if entrepreneurs focused on creating new markets instead of fighting over old ones?

This week on How I Built This Lab, Renée shares insights from her Blue Ocean Strategy series to help founders crack open new opportunities. Plus, what is non-disruptive innovation and can it offset job displacement in the age of AI?

This episode was produced by Kerry Thompson with music by Ramtin Arablouei.

It was edited by John Isabella with research help from Sam Paulson. Our audio engineer was Neal Rauch.

You can follow HIBT on X & Instagram, and email us at hibt@id.wondery.com.







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PayPal: Max Levchin (Part 1 of 2)

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