Succession can be difficult for startups, with founders often holding a sacred position within the company that can see them stay long past the time they should have headed for the exit. It’s likely to be even tougher for Afterpay as co-founders Mr Eisen and Nick Molnar take the company from fledgling payments disruptor to ASX darling within a few years.

But speaking at a BetaShares webinar, Mr. Eisen said the issue of succession should be broader than the founders.

“It’s funny when you think about succession when you’re a founder,” Mr. Eisen told BetaShares chief executive Alex Winokur.

"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 your child flourish and you want to see them do things for themselves and grow .”

Mr. Eisen believes applying this thinking to day-to-day business and communication is key to succession planning and gives things a "more natural track."

"The trick is building the best team in the world," Mr Eisen said.

"And if you can just follow that path hard, it finds a really good way to think about things like continuity and continuity."

The legacy question arises as Afterpay looks set to enter the big leagues of Australian financial services by partnering with Westpac to provide banking services to its customers in a move that has sent its share price soaring above $100 at the time of writing. But it wasn't all smooth sailing for Mr. Eisen, who also touched on the times when it looked like Afterpay might not escape.

"When you're a young company doing something new or something different, there's this idea that you have to try and get to proof," Mr. Eisen said.

“You must try to reach a milestone that exemplifies your right to exist. And this seemed very early to us. But we knew our customers loved what we were doing and the amount of virality that came from launching Afterpay into the Australian market initially was just met with so much positive customer response that we knew we were moving in the right direction. "