Company pursued me through multiple interviews and lost out because the elderly owner insists on meeting new hires all of sudden

This may be a relatively mild one. But i once went through a 4 interview process with a company for a Product Manager role for a software company.

It seemed to fit and they really bent over backwards to accommodate what I was looking for. I interviewed a number of managers up til but not quite the top dog who was an elderly man that owned the company and didn’t quite have a hand in operations. I wasn’t aware of his existence through my progression.

At the time I made it clear to them that what drew me to keep coming back was that we both shared an interest in turning this around quickly. I wanted to get started ASAP and they wanted me there ASAP too.

After the fourth interview, we all but signed the thing, I was introduced to the team I’d be leading and I was basically shown how to use the coffee machine on my way out.

BUT just as I was stepping out the door, they said they’d get all the contracts together but the owner (elderly man) insists on personally meeting every hire, from top to bottom of the company, it’s his “thing”.

Okay, well _sigh_, do we do that now or?

No, they will need to check is availability.

Two and a half weeks later I get a call, “I think we can squeeze you into his calendar next Tuesday? How does that sound?”

No sorry, I accepted a role 5 days ago and I’m currently sitting at my desk.