Perspectives from Adyen's co-founder Pieter van der Does: what looks simple, often is not
There’s a set of common beliefs in software: build fast, test often, ship small. But not every industry gives you that luxury. In regulated, high-trust environments, shipping something “quick” can take years.
Pieter van der Does knows this well. As the co-founder and longtime CEO of Adyen, he built one of Europe’s most iconic fintech companies by taking the long road: solving infrastructure problems others ignored, listening carefully to customers without blindly building to spec, and assembling teams that could move at the speed of trust.
Pieter joined Duna Conversations to reflect on early days, hard decisions, and what it takes to build something enduring in a system designed for complexity.
Start where the pain is deepest
Adyen didn’t start by chasing the biggest market. It started by solving a thorny problem – supporting in-game payments for the German casual gaming sector. It was niche, but it was real. “You need to find some audience where they have a vested interest to work with you,” Pieter said. “Start there.”
From that first foothold, Pieter and his team began to see patterns: the same infrastructure gaps, the same customer pain, repeated across verticals and countries. But they didn’t just ask customers what to build. Rather, they asked what wasn’t working, then found the better solution. “If you’re just taking instructions,” he warned, “you risk building something that only works once.”
Build for the unhappy path
It's easy to underestimate operational infrastructure, until you run into the edge cases. “How hard can it be to send a card number to Visa?” Pieter joked. “Turns out: very hard.”
The complexity lives in the exceptions. A returned order. A changed business name. A new bank account. That’s where fraud hides. That’s where systems break.
Pieter’s perspective: think in terms of scale and complexity. Don’t build for the perfect scenario. Plan for what breaks – and ask whether your team should be the one to fix it. “In the beginning, we assumed the biggest companies would do this themselves,” he said. “They didn’t. Even the largest merchants outsource payments. Because it’s not where they win.”
Don’t predict the future. Outlearn it.
Asked about his view on forecasting the future, Pieter demurred. “It’s nice to be visionary,” he said, “but I’d rather build an organization that listens really well and reacts really fast.”
Rather than placing bets five years out, Adyen builds systems and teams that can adapt to change, integrate feedback, and move in fast, deliberate steps. “Even very smart people with great data can be wrong,” Pieter reminded us. “You’ll lose to a team that’s fast and adaptive.”
The conversation with Pieter left us with a grounding insight: what looks simple is often not. Payments. Onboarding. Identity. These aren’t surface-level tasks. They’re systems with years of edge cases, inertia, and risk baked in.
But if you’re willing to specialize in the complex and make it repeatable, you can become the team others call when they can’t afford to get it wrong.
Watch the full conversation below.
