Max Levchin compares the best cofounder relationships to successful marriages: both work when partners grow together and continually try to impress and support one another. He recounts his long marriage and his partnership with cofounder Peter—describing split responsibilities (Peter handling fundraising/business, Max handling technology), intense conflicts (they once hung up on each other during a crisis), and the mutual commitment that helped PayPal survive external threats and eventually succeed. He emphasizes that such deep, reciprocal relationships are rare and crucial.
Chapters
The most successful co founding relationships are very similar to the most successful marriages. What I think makes a marriage successful is when you grow vis a vis your partner together, where you never wake up one morning and say, I've outgrown you. I used to be here and you were an equal partner. And now I'm just, you know, I've evolved and you haven't kept up. And one of the reasons why I think my now I've known my wife for 20 years, always been married, obviously, but we've been married for 10 and know each other for 20. Not a day goes by that I don't think I gotta work to impress this girl. She's really smart, she can totally outpace me, need to read a new book. So, you know, she always surprises me and I always try to stay on top of my game in many ways, my relationship with Peter and my other co founders over the years. But Peter in particular was one where I always wanted to make sure that Peter thought I did the best I could because I was always trying to be the best possible co founder for the guy because I could see that he was trying extra hard to do the best he could for me to impress me to, you know, we split our responsibilities. Very early on he said, look, I'm going to make sure the business survives, I'm going to raise money and drive us to the best team. You figure out the tech. And from that point on, my marching orders were always if there's a tech thing to solve, I got to make sure Peter's really impressed. And I don't doubt that his point of view had always been if we ever come up against running out of money, I got to make sure this guy Max sees that I'm good for my word, amazing. I think that relationship has been in many ways seminal and formative in my view of how to start companies, how to run companies, how to treat co founders, how to be inspired. And no person, no relationship without it warts. There was a time when Peter called me from Japan and told me that if I don't ship whatever it is, we were late on by three months, I can go find myself another co founder. And I hung up on him, or he hung up on me. So there were plenty of moments where I was staring the guy down and he was staring me right back. Sharp elbows happen sometimes, right? Yeah, it's very intense. But the flip side is, you know, if you work four years with Russian hackers in the background and you know, rogue nations and crazy banks trying to pull you out of business, and ultimately all you try to do is just do the best for the other guy. And you know, it. It keeps working and eventually ends in success. Can't. Can't help but think that that stuff is rare and important. Yeah, you got.
