Affirm founder: We want to be the modern American Express

Affirm (AFRM) has matured as a public company and is taking aim at being the modern competitor to American Express (AXP), according to its CEO.

"From the very beginning we said we're trying to build a modern answer to American Express. I admire American Express greatly ... But it is a club and a club with a velvet rope, and you have to be good enough to be on the right side of the rope,” Affirm founder and CEO Max Levchin told Yahoo Finance at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia and Technology Conference this week.

“I wanted to build a payment system for anyone who wants to be a part of something that stands for no late fees, no deferred interest, real transparency, real pro-consumer attitude, helping people get the things they want without having to get into debt that they can't repay. And that's what we are today."

It has been a wild ride to reach this point for the PayPal (PYPL) co-founder.

Affirm went public in early January 2021. The stock, initially priced at $49, skyrocketed to $100 by the close of its first day of trading, in part due to optimism around buy now, pay later companies and Levchin's strong reputation building tech businesses.