Sourcery

Max Levchin, Co-Founder of PayPal and CEO of Affirm, joins Sourcery for a wide-ranging conversation on building companies, surviving failure, and navigating one of the most important economic shifts in decades.
We start inside Affirm HQ (with a masterclass in espresso) before getting into the story behind onboarding 800,000 Shopify merchants in a week, the lessons from PayPal that still apply today, and why the team is the single biggest determinant of success. Max also breaks down how AI is collapsing the cost and speed of building software — fundamentally reshaping company formation, competition, and the balance between labor and capital.
As intelligence becomes more accessible, he explains why weaker, more “scammy” companies will struggle to survive in a world where both consumers and builders are more informed — raising the overall bar for quality, execution, and truth. In parallel, the widespread availability of AI tools may effectively increase baseline capability across the population, shifting what it means to be skilled, technical, and competitive.
From reading research papers daily to staying ahead of rapid innovation cycles, he explains why this moment in AI may be even more consequential than the internet or mobile — and what it takes to build and lead in it.
This was recorded March 30, 2026.
Topics include:
Building Affirm & scaling under pressure

PayPal lessons & talent density

Why ~85% of startups fail

AI and the collapse of build costs

Why low-quality / scammy companies will get exposed faster

AI raising the baseline capability of builders

Fintech, credit, and changing consumer behavior

Max Levchin: https://x.com/mlevchin
Molly O’Shea: https://x.com/MollySOShea 
Sourcery: ⁠https://x.com/sourceryy 

𝐄𝐏𝐈𝐒𝐎𝐃𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐊
YouTube : https://youtu.be/yC_dWibdvHY

𝐒𝐏𝐎𝐍𝐒𝐎𝐑𝐒
• Brex—The modern finance platform, combining the world’s smartest corporate card with integrated expense management, banking, bill pay, & travel. https://brex.com/sourcery
• Turing—Turing delivers top-tier talent, data, and tools to help AI labs improve model performance—and enables enterprises to turn those models into powerful, production-ready systems. https://turing.com/sourcery• VCX—VCX is the public ticker for private tech, allowing investors of all sizes to invest in venture capital. View The Portfolio at http://GetVCX.com
• Deel—Deel is the global people platform that helps startups hire, manage, pay, and equip anyone, anywhere. Trusted by more than 35,000 fast-growing companies, Deel is the people platform that just works, so teams can scale without the chaos. Visit: https://www.deel.com/sourcery
• Public–Investing platform Public just launched Generated Assets, which lets you turn any idea into an investable index with AI. With Generated Assets, you can build, backtest, refine, and invest in any thesis with AI. Gone are the days of one-size-fits-all ETFs. https://public.com/sourcery
• Merge—The leading provider of customer-facing integrations and agentic tools for frontier LLMs, Fortune 500 organizations, and B2B SaaS companies. Visit: https://merge.dev

Follow Sourcery for the latest updates!
https://www.sourcery.vc/

Disclosure
Paid Endorsement. Brokerage services by Open to the Public Investing Inc, member FINRA & SIPC. Advisory services by Public Advisors LLC, SEC-registered adviser. Crypto trading provided by Zero Hash LLC, licensed by the NYSDFS. Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool by Public Advisors. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. See disclosures at public.com/disclosures/ga. Matched funds must remain in your account for at least 5 years. Match rate and other terms are subject to change at any time.

We got rare access inside Applied Intuition’s commercial garage with Co-Founders CEO Qasar Younis and CTO Peter Ludwig, where they’re building AI systems that power cars, trucks, mining equipment, defense systems, and more.
In a never-before-seen tour to the public, Applied Intuition showcases where/how real machines across industries are being rebuilt with AI.
Valued at $15B, Applied Intuition is one of the most important companies in physical AI, powering 18 of the top 20 global automakers and deploying autonomy across automotive, trucking, construction, agriculture, and defense.
Inside this garage, you’ll see:
Self-driving cars, trucks, & heavy machinery

Autonomous mining & construction operations

Defense systems & remote-controlled fleets

A unified operating system running across every machine

Qasar and Peter break down how one platform can run everything from a car to a boat to a mining site, and why the future of AI is no longer just software, but systems that move the real world.
This is what “atoms” looks like.

Qasar Younis: https://x.com/qasar
Peter Ludwig: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterwludwig
Molly O’Shea: https://x.com/MollySOShea 
Sourcery: ⁠https://x.com/sourceryy 

𝐄𝐏𝐈𝐒𝐎𝐃𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐊
YouTube : https://youtu.be/XhuG-xhw94A

𝐒𝐏𝐎𝐍𝐒𝐎𝐑𝐒
• Brex—The modern finance platform, combining the world’s smartest corporate card with integrated expense management, banking, bill pay, & travel. https://brex.com/sourcery
• Turing—Turing delivers top-tier talent, data, and tools to help AI labs improve model performance—and enables enterprises to turn those models into powerful, production-ready systems. https://turing.com/sourcery• VCX—VCX is the public ticker for private tech, allowing investors of all sizes to invest in venture capital. View The Portfolio at http://GetVCX.com
• Deel—Deel is the global people platform that helps startups hire, manage, pay, and equip anyone, anywhere. Trusted by more than 35,000 fast-growing companies, Deel is the people platform that just works, so teams can scale without the chaos. Visit: https://www.deel.com/sourcery
• Public–Investing platform Public just launched Generated Assets, which lets you turn any idea into an investable index with AI. With Generated Assets, you can build, backtest, refine, and invest in any thesis with AI. Gone are the days of one-size-fits-all ETFs. https://public.com/sourcery
• Merge—The leading provider of customer-facing integrations and agentic tools for frontier LLMs, Fortune 500 organizations, and B2B SaaS companies. Visit https://merge.dev 
Follow Sourcery for the latest updates!
https://www.sourcery.vc/

Disclosure

Paid Endorsement. Brokerage services by Open to the Public Investing Inc, member FINRA & SIPC. Advisory services by Public Advisors LLC, SEC-registered adviser. Crypto trading provided by Zero Hash LLC, licensed by the NYSDFS. Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool by Public Advisors. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. See disclosures at public.com/disclosures/ga. Matched funds must remain in your account for at least 5 years. Match rate and other terms are subject to change at any time.

𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒
(00:00) Inside Applied Intuition physical AI garage
(03:00) Cars are a wiring mess
(04:31) Why modern architecture matters
(06:30) From simulators to autonomy
(07:50) Real-time autonomous operations
(08:34) AI solving labor shortages
(10:09) The mobile AI command center
(12:50) How defense became a core focus
(16:20) Becoming more public
(17:10) Connecting mines, ports, and roads
(19:07) Driverless trucks in Japan
(20:09) Why they don’t operate in China
(21:40) Which country is adopting fastest?
(23:00) Scaling a 1400-person AI company
(25:43) New vs old AI players
(27:49) "Bits are out, Atoms are in"
(29:40) Physical AI is just getting started
(32:06) The "Japan corner"

Qasar Younis (CEO) & Peter Ludwig (CTO) of Applied Intuition join Sourcery to break down how they’ve quietly built one of the most important AI companies in the world reaching a $15 billion valuation.
Founded in 2017, Applied Intuition is building the infrastructure layer for vehicle intelligence and physical AI, powering systems across automotive, defense, trucking, construction, mining, and agriculture. Today, 18 of the top 20 global automakers and major U.S. Department of Defense programs rely on their software.
The company has raised $1B+ in total funding, including a $600M Series F at a $15B valuation, co-led by BlackRock and Kleiner Perkins, with participation from global investors such as Franklin Templeton, Qatar Investment Authority, Abu Dhabi Investment Council, Premji Invest, Stripes, Greycroft, BAM Elevate, and 137 Ventures.
Existing investors include Fidelity Management & Research Company, General Catalyst, Lux Capital, BOND, Elad Gil, Addition, and Tribe Capital, alongside early backing from Marc Andreessen.
What makes the company especially unique: despite raising over $1B, Applied Intuition has largely not relied on that capital to fund operations, instead building a profitable, capital-efficient business with long-term customer contracts and deep integration across industries
In this conversation, we cover:
Why physical AI is fundamentally different from software AI

How breakthroughs like transformers unlocked real-world autonomy

The company’s horizontal-first strategy across industries

Why they stayed quiet for years—and why that changed

How they deploy autonomy in defense and industrial environments

What hiring looks like in the AI era

Applied Intuition isn’t building another AI app—it’s building the infrastructure for AI in the real world.

Qasar Younis: https://x.com/qasar
Peter Ludwig: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterwludwig
Molly O’Shea: https://x.com/MollySOShea 
Sourcery: ⁠https://x.com/sourceryy 

𝐄𝐏𝐈𝐒𝐎𝐃𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐊
YouTube: https://youtu.be/TyLDPNTbkEA

𝐒𝐏𝐎𝐍𝐒𝐎𝐑𝐒
• Brex—The modern finance platform, combining the world’s smartest corporate card with integrated expense management, banking, bill pay, & travel. https://brex.com/sourcery
• Turing—Turing delivers top-tier talent, data, and tools to help AI labs improve model performance—and enables enterprises to turn those models into powerful, production-ready systems. https://turing.com/sourcery• VCX—VCX is the public ticker for private tech, allowing investors of all sizes to invest in venture capital. View The Portfolio at http://GetVCX.com
• Deel—Deel is the global people platform that helps startups hire, manage, pay, and equip anyone, anywhere. Trusted by more than 35,000 fast-growing companies, Deel is the people platform that just works, so teams can scale without the chaos. Visit: https://www.deel.com/sourcery
• Public–Investing platform Public just launched Generated Assets, which lets you turn any idea into an investable index with AI. With Generated Assets, you can build, backtest, refine, and invest in any thesis with AI. Gone are the days of one-size-fits-all ETFs. https://public.com/sourcery
• Merge—The leading provider of customer-facing integrations and agentic tools for frontier LLMs, Fortune 500 organizations, and B2B SaaS companies. Visit https://merge.dev 
Follow Sourcery for the latest updates!
https://www.sourcery.vc/

Disclosure
Paid Endorsement. Brokerage services by Open to the Public Investing Inc, member FINRA & SIPC. Advisory services by Public Advisors LLC, SEC-registered adviser. Crypto trading provided by Zero Hash LLC, licensed by the NYSDFS. Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool by Public Advisors. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. See disclosures at public.com/disclosures/ga. Matched funds must remain in your account for at least 5 years. Match rate and other terms are subject to change at any time.

David Baszucki, Founder & CEO of Roblox, has quietly built one of the largest & most complex systems on the internet: a real-time, global platform with ~150 million daily active users, 35 billion hours of engagement per quarter, and a $6.8 billion digital economy running on top of massive AI and infrastructure.
But Roblox isn’t just scale — it’s a fully functioning economy. The platform has paid out over $1.5 billion to creators, with top 1,000 developers earning over $1.3 million on average, turning games into businesses and players into entrepreneurs. Underneath it all is a deeply engineered system.. 40+ global data centers, hundreds of thousands of servers, and hundreds of AI models powering everything from creation and discovery to safety and real-time interaction.
We go deep on how Roblox designed this economy from first principles, why AI will accelerate (not replace) creators, and what it takes to build a platform that blends gaming, social interaction, and entrepreneurship into one system. This is a curious blueprint for the future of the internet & real life where anyone can create, earn, and participate in a global digital world.
Subscribe to Sourcery for more conversations with the founders and leaders building the next generation of technology.

David Baszucki: https://x.com/DavidBaszucki 
Molly O’Shea: https://x.com/MollySOShea 
Sourcery: ⁠https://x.com/sourceryy 

𝐄𝐏𝐈𝐒𝐎𝐃𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐊
YouTube: https://youtu.be/E0xl3PviQh4

𝐒𝐏𝐎𝐍𝐒𝐎𝐑𝐒
• Brex—The modern finance platform, combining the world’s smartest corporate card with integrated expense management, banking, bill pay, & travel. https://brex.com/sourcery
• Turing—Turing delivers top-tier talent, data, and tools to help AI labs improve model performance—and enables enterprises to turn those models into powerful, production-ready systems. https://turing.com/sourcery• VCX—VCX is the public ticker for private tech, allowing investors of all sizes to invest in venture capital. View The Portfolio at https://GetVCX.com  
• Deel—Deel is the global people platform that helps startups hire, manage, pay, and equip anyone, anywhere. Trusted by more than 35,000 fast-growing companies, Deel is the people platform that just works, so teams can scale without the chaos. Visit: https://www.deel.com/sourcery
• Public–Investing platform Public just launched Generated Assets, which lets you turn any idea into an investable index with AI. With Generated Assets, you can build, backtest, refine, and invest in any thesis with AI. Gone are the days of one-size-fits-all ETFs. https://public.com/sourcery 
• Merge—The leading provider of customer-facing integrations and agentic tools for frontier LLMs, Fortune 500 organizations, and B2B SaaS companies. Visit https://merge.dev 
Follow Sourcery for the latest updates!
https://www.sourcery.vc/
Disclosure
Paid Endorsement. Brokerage services by Open to the Public Investing Inc, member FINRA & SIPC. Advisory services by Public Advisors LLC, SEC-registered adviser. Crypto trading provided by Zero Hash LLC, licensed by the NYSDFS. Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool by Public Advisors. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. See disclosures at public.com/disclosures/ga. Matched funds must remain in your account for at least 5 years. Match rate and other terms are subject to change at any time.
𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒
(00:00) David Baszucki, Co-Founder & CEO at Roblox
(01:21) A spicy start
(03:53) The 10% global gaming ambition
(05:40) The early vision that built Roblox
(07:45) Vision vs metrics
(09:08) The most underrated part of Roblox
(10:55) Why Roblox data matters for AI
(12:55) The future of AI-powered games
(16:27) AI won’t replace creators
(20:46) Virtual concerts and the future of AR/VR
(22:28) What “4D gaming” actually means
(24:29) Staying relevant across generations
(27:00) The viral engine
(27:58) Lessons on human behavior

Fundrise CEO Ben Miller joins Sourcery to break down the launch of the Fundrise Growth Tech Fund (NYSE: $VCX) — one of the first publicly traded venture capital funds.
VCX debuted at roughly $700M valuation and surged to ~$6.5B within days, giving over 100,000 investors access to a portfolio of top private companies including Anthropic (~20%), Databricks (~17%), OpenAI (~10%), Anduril, Ramp, and SpaceX.
The timing reflects a broader shift: private markets are now where most value is created. VCX portfolio companies grew ~193% vs ~25% for public tech benchmarks, highlighting the gap between private and public market growth. Meanwhile, IPO timelines have stretched from ~3–5 years to 10–15+ years, meaning public investors are increasingly missing the highest-growth phase.
We discuss how VCX works as a closed-end fund, why it has traded at a premium (despite most closed-end funds trading at discounts), and how Fundrise accessed top-tier companies during the 2022–2023 venture downturn — including buying from distressed sellers and stepping into competitive rounds.
Finally, we explore what comes next: whether public venture capital becomes a standard allocation, how cycles and volatility impact the model, and what happens if public markets begin directly funding private tech at scale.
Topics Covered
VCX launch & NYSE debut dynamics

Portfolio composition (Anthropic, OpenAI, Databricks, SpaceX)

Private vs public market growth gap (193% vs 25%)

Macro shift: value creation moving to private markets

IPO window + why companies stay private longer

How Fundrise sources and wins allocation

Closed-end fund structure, NAV, premiums/discounts

Risks: volatility, cycles, and downside scenarios

Future of venture: rise of public VC funds

Subscribe to Sourcery for more conversations with the founders, investors, and operators shaping the future of tech, markets, and capital.

Benjamin Miller: https://x.com/BenMillerise 
Molly O’Shea: https://x.com/MollySOShea 
Sourcery: ⁠https://x.com/sourceryy 

𝐄𝐏𝐈𝐒𝐎𝐃𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐊
YouTube : https://youtu.be/3-4AZ-p3tv8

𝐒𝐏𝐎𝐍𝐒𝐎𝐑𝐒
• Brex—The modern finance platform, combining the world’s smartest corporate card with integrated expense management, banking, bill pay, & travel. https://brex.com/sourcery
• Turing—Turing delivers top-tier talent, data, and tools to help AI labs improve model performance—and enables enterprises to turn those models into powerful, production-ready systems. https://turing.com/sourcery• VCX—VCX is the public ticker for private tech, allowing investors of all sizes to invest in venture capital. View The Portfolio at https://GetVCX.com
• Deel—Deel is the global people platform that helps startups hire, manage, pay, and equip anyone, anywhere. Trusted by more than 35,000 fast-growing companies, Deel is the people platform that just works, so teams can scale without the chaos. Visit: https://www.deel.com/sourcery
• Public–Investing platform Public just launched Generated Assets, which lets you turn any idea into an investable index with AI. With Generated Assets, you can build, backtest, refine, and invest in any thesis with AI. Gone are the days of one-size-fits-all ETFs. https://public.com/sourcery
Follow Sourcery for the latest updates!
https://www.sourcery.vc/

Disclosure
Paid Endorsement. Brokerage services by Open to the Public Investing Inc, member FINRA & SIPC. Advisory services by Public Advisors LLC, SEC-registered adviser. Crypto trading provided by Zero Hash LLC, licensed by the NYSDFS. Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool by Public Advisors. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. See disclosures at public.com/disclosures/ga. Matched funds must remain in your account for at least 5 years. Match rate and other terms are subject to change at any time.