I'm going to start this episode of Business Daily Meets with Max Levchen, the founder of a firm and co-founder of PayPal, with a moment many high-flying business leaders might find humiliating.

Despite co-founding the digital commerce giant PayPal and seeing it go public, Max found

himself in an unexpected situation.

I was suddenly independently wealthy and I decided it was time to upgrade my car.

So I went to a fancy car dealer and the guy actually recognized me and said, I saw the news

of your company going public, congratulations.

That said, your credit score is so bad company going public. Congratulations. That said,

your credit score is so bad, you're going to have to pay cash. Now, for listeners unfamiliar

with the US system, a credit score represents financial trustworthiness. It's based on factors like

payment history and length of credit history. Super embarrassing, obviously not a thing you want to hear

as you're celebrating your newfound independence.

And that became the seed for a firm,

a company that offers consumers an alternative to credit cards.

Credit scoring in the US, in a majority of the Western world,

is not designed to keep up with ups and downs of

entrepreneurs or students or immigrants. They're all these people who lead much more dynamic

lives that traditional credit scoring is designed to assess.

I'm Leanna Byrne, and you're listening to Business Daily Meats on the BBC World Service.

This is where we bring you in-depth interviews of people in business across the globe.

Today we're exploring the extraordinary journey of Max Levchen,

from his beginnings in Kiev, Ukraine to becoming a pioneer in financial technology,

co-founded PayPal and later founding the Buy Now Pay Later company, a firm.

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