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    a16z Shares Video Interview on AI Agents in Payments

    a16z account posts about a video interview with Max Levchin and Alex Rampell on payments history and agentic commerce.

    A1
    1 Source, 27d ago, first seen 27d ago

    TLDR

    The official a16z account posted a tweet highlighting a 59-minute YouTube interview. It features Affirm CEO Max Levchin and a16z General Partner Alex Rampell discussing 25 years in payments from PayPal onward. The post states payments form the biggest market on earth with every niche exceeding $100 billion and notes the industry has barely moved in 60 years. It mentions Visa and Mastercard keeping card transaction windows too tight. The video explores how AI agents could reinvent credit cards.

    Combined views

    193.8K

    1 Source, first seen 27d ago

    Combined views

    193.8K

    1 Source, first seen 27d ago

    268 likes
    268 likes
    20 comments
    343 saves
    23 reposts

    Sentiment

    Positive——Negative

    Summary

    Not enough discussion yet.

    No sentiment analysis available yet.

    20 comments
    343 saves
    23 reposts

    Sentiment

    Positive——Negative

    Summary

    Not enough discussion yet.

    No sentiment analysis available yet.

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    1 Source

    @a16zAffirm co-founders, CEO Max Levchin and a16z's Alex Rampell, on 25 years inside payments, from PayPal to agentic commerce: Payments is the biggest market on earth. No niche in it is smaller than $100 billion, and the industry has barely moved in 60 years. Visa and Mastercard keep card transaction windows too tight to build anything new inside. Max still calls the plastic card the best payment interface ever built. Affirm began in a 2011 email thread in which Max and Alex agreed that the nearest version of the idea was a bad business. Then a cosmetics brand using Affirm moved the offer from its checkout page to its product pages, and conversion jumped 30%. In this conversation with Erik Torenberg, they get into why Affirm walked away from the highest margins in payments, what a negative customer acquisition cost is actually worth, and why Max is bearish on agentic shopping but bullish on agentic payments. 00:00 Intro 01:00 The fraud rule that built Apple Pay 03:35 Visa's problematic transaction windows 05:30 No niches under $100 billion 07:10 The email that said Affirm was a bad idea 10:00 The wand that should've killed the card 12:36 Booed off stage for presenting PayPal 15:02 Why crypto still can't buy a cup of coffee 17:16 How Max and Alex met 20:11 The 500-Facebook-friends idea 26:48 The all-nighter PHP demo 30:58 Every startup gets 40 years in the desert 32:46 Moving one line lifted conversion 30% 35:02 Why Affirm walked away from the highest margins in payments 39:03 One article created an entire industry 40:37 The asterisk next to 0% 42:17 What BNPL misses about Affirm 44:03 Why merchants give Affirm customers 47:00 Why a 3-year loan is harder, and better, than a 6-week one 48:19 Why PayPal produced so many founders 52:43 Bullish on agentic payments, bearish on agentic shopping 57:51 Grocery shopping is already 100% agentic YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3pegsM5drk @mlevchin @Affirm @arampell @eriktorenberg

    1 Source

    @a16zAffirm co-founders, CEO Max Levchin and a16z's Alex Rampell, on 25 years inside payments, from PayPal to agentic commerce: Payments is the biggest market on earth. No niche in it is smaller than $100 billion, and the industry has barely moved in 60 years. Visa and Mastercard keep card transaction windows too tight to build anything new inside. Max still calls the plastic card the best payment interface ever built. Affirm began in a 2011 email thread in which Max and Alex agreed that the nearest version of the idea was a bad business. Then a cosmetics brand using Affirm moved the offer from its checkout page to its product pages, and conversion jumped 30%. In this conversation with Erik Torenberg, they get into why Affirm walked away from the highest margins in payments, what a negative customer acquisition cost is actually worth, and why Max is bearish on agentic shopping but bullish on agentic payments. 00:00 Intro 01:00 The fraud rule that built Apple Pay 03:35 Visa's problematic transaction windows 05:30 No niches under $100 billion 07:10 The email that said Affirm was a bad idea 10:00 The wand that should've killed the card 12:36 Booed off stage for presenting PayPal 15:02 Why crypto still can't buy a cup of coffee 17:16 How Max and Alex met 20:11 The 500-Facebook-friends idea 26:48 The all-nighter PHP demo 30:58 Every startup gets 40 years in the desert 32:46 Moving one line lifted conversion 30% 35:02 Why Affirm walked away from the highest margins in payments 39:03 One article created an entire industry 40:37 The asterisk next to 0% 42:17 What BNPL misses about Affirm 44:03 Why merchants give Affirm customers 47:00 Why a 3-year loan is harder, and better, than a 6-week one 48:19 Why PayPal produced so many founders 52:43 Bullish on agentic payments, bearish on agentic shopping 57:51 Grocery shopping is already 100% agentic YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3pegsM5drk @mlevchin @Affirm @arampell @eriktorenberg