Founding PayPal and the Rivalry with X.com

PayPal was the defining tech company of its generation, with alumni going on to start YouTube, Tesla, Yelp, LinkedIn, among many others. But the company nearly didn’t make it. The PayPal of today only exists because of how its team navigated early, unprecedented inflection points. Find out why Max Levchin now says he does “not recommend” a merger of equals to anyone, how the team pioneered CAPTCHA to fight $10M in monthly fraud that nearly sank the fledgling business, and how they maneuvered through ongoing battles with eBay on their way to an IPO.

Host: Roelof Botha, Managing Partner of Sequoia Capital 

Featuring: Max Levchin, Michael Moritz, Jimmy Soni

Transcript: https://www.sequoiacap.com/podcast/crucible-moments-paypal/