 Innovation leads to success—By Malorie Lucich Published: August, 2007  Stephanie Tilenius V.P. & General Manager of PayPal A product of the ever-changing Silicon Valley culture, Stephanie Tilenius came to the Bay Area to be a part of its high tech environment. After developing a startup and surviving the dot-com bubble burst, she has landed on her feet — at the top. Currently PayPal's Vice President and General Manager of merchant services, Tilenius is responsible for strategy, growth and outstanding financial performance of the group. She sees PayPal, which is a company of eBay, as a business with the potential to grow larger than the eBay marketplace itself. A Harvard Business School graduate, Tilenius wrote on her application that she had plans to develop a healthcare or technology start up. She would later make that goal a reality when she co founded PlanetRx, an online drugstore. While the company ultimately suffered as a result of the burst, the entrepreneur was left with valuable lessons. “I learned what to do differently in a similar situation, and now I keep a box of 20 lessons, as a reminder of what not to repeat,” she says. She also notes that fame and fortune can be short-lived. “The most important thing is character. Life is a bit of a journey and the most important thing you have is your integrity and your character — never compromise on this.” Prior to PlanetRx, Tilenius served as vice president of business and product development of Firefly, a software start-up that was eventually sold to Microsoft. She also worked as an investment banker at Deutche Bank Alex Brown, where she focused on software and telecom, and later joined their corporate development group. Garnered with the love and experience of building a company from the ground up, Tilenius had plans to create another startup, when she met Meg Whitman, President and CEO of eBay. While she thought of asking Whitman to be a board member of her next business, Whitman had plans of her own for. She suggested that Tilenius move to eBay, where she could have more of impact. Tilenius accepted the offer, and found an environment with not only talented people and innovative technology, but a place, where similar to a startup, she could help a business grow. "You can be an entrepreneur in a big company," she says. And as for working mothers, Tilenius says you can have it all, just not exactly at the same time. “You can have a career and a family, but you have to patient about the tradeoffs,” she says. “You cannot have it perfect all the time.” After working in Silicon Valley for nearly two decades, Tilenius has enjoyed the sustainability and growth that many failed to realize after the burst. “Innovation is the lifeline of Silicon Valley,” she says. “If you are lucky, you can build a business that does well by doing good." | ||
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