Scaling the next peak

PIETER van der Does, the 48-year-old chief and co-founder of global payments company Adyen, has an offbeat way of evaluating talent for his startup. His hiring tactic seems - at least to this writer - original and creative, and frankly, quite brilliant.

Asked "what is the one thing you look out for in a new hire?", he replies: "It's got to be someone that I would like to sit next to on a 13-hour flight."

"It doesn't have to be somebody like me," he adds. "He could be a developer ... just not a person who would make me go: 'Oh no, not 13 hours with him!'"