Succession can be tricky for start-ups, with founders often occupying a hallowed position within the company that can see them stick around well beyond the point when they should have been heading for the exit. For Afterpay, it’s likely to be even tougher, with co-founders Mr Eisen and Nick Molnar taking the company from nascent payments disruptor to ASX darling in a matter of years.
But during a BetaShares webinar, Mr. Eisen said the question of succession must be broader than the founders.
“It’s funny when you think about succession when you’re a founder,” Mr. Eisen told BetaShares CEO Alex Vynokur.
“You put so much love into what you do – it becomes a bit like your family… You’ll never be able to live your child’s life, but you want to see them flourish and you want to see them do things by themselves themselves and grow.
Mr. Eisen believes that applying this thinking to everyday business and communication is key to succession planning and gives things “a more natural track.”
“The trick is to build the best team in the world,” Mr. Eisen said.
“And if you can pursue this path stubbornly, you will discover a very interesting way of thinking about things like succession and continuity.”
The question of succession arises as Afterpay appears poised to enter the big leagues of Australian financial services, partnering with Westpac to provide banking services to its customers, which has seen the price of its stock soaring to over $100 as of this writing. But it hasn’t all been smooth sailing for Mr. Eisen, who also discussed times when it seemed Afterpay wouldn’t last the distance.
“When you’re a young company doing something new or different, there’s this idea that you have to try to come up with a proof of it,” Mr. Eisen said.
“You must try to take a step that illustrates your right to exist. And that’s what we felt very early on. But we knew our customers loved what we were doing, and the virality resulting from Afterpay’s initial launch in the Australian market generated so much positive response from customers that we knew we were heading in the right direction.
