De Milliano: Executive hires are like arranged marriages, not love marriages
Eeke de Milliano · What makes (or breaks) executive hires | A deep dive with Eeke de Milliano (Stripe) · Mar 6, 2025 · at 40:10
Eeke de Milliano, Head of Product at Stripe, discusses how executive candidates should evaluate joining a company and aligning with founders.
“The way I've described leadership hires at companies, it's like, it's kind of like an arranged marriage. You both really have to choose to want to, like, make it work. It's not like a love marriage where, like, you know, which is like what I think happens with early employees when they join a startup. They're just, man, I like, I love it here. Like, I never want to leave. Yeah, I'm obsessed with this place. By the time you have a founder and a leader coming together, they have pretty established things, they, the ways they like to work and opinions, and so like you both have to decide, is this something I want?”
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