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" As consumers in general, and with Millennials in particular, we're getting used to everything being cheaper, faster, better - and banks aren't keeping up. "
Taavet Hinrikus
Better
Everything
Used
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" There are lots of people building the next TransferWise, not in a sense of competing with us but in a sense of building large, successful companies that are doing something important. I just enjoy helping these founders navigate the journey. "
Taavet Hinrikus
Building
People
Journey
" The world is becoming more global. More than ever, people are proactively deciding where to live, where to study, where to work. Sometimes it's out of necessity, sometimes it's out of choice. "
Taavet Hinrikus
Choice
Live
People
" Bitcoin and the whole discussion around it shows how big a need there is for innovation about what money is and how it is stored. "
Taavet Hinrikus
Discussion
Need
Money
" Financial services have always been about trust. Perhaps the biggest barrier to entry has been getting new customers to trust an unknown brand or service, and that's particularly true with digital disruptors who lack a physical presence on the local high street. "
Taavet Hinrikus
Street
Service
Trust
" With a smartphone, we have a supercomputer in our pocket and are always connected. The way we bank is changing as part of this macro trend. "
Taavet Hinrikus
Way
Bank
Connected
" There's one thing a CEO should always keep at the front of their mind, and that's customer needs. "
Taavet Hinrikus
Front
Always
Customer
" No amount of PR works if you've got a bad product. "
Taavet Hinrikus
Product
You
Works
" The financial crisis of 2008 created a seismic shift in the dynamics of trust in financial services. FinTech would have happened without the global financial crisis - but it would have taken much longer. "
Taavet Hinrikus
Financial
Shift
Without
" Banks are really bad when it comes to building consumer-centred products. "
Taavet Hinrikus
Banks
Building
Products
" People bought bitcoin because they thought it would be worth more tomorrow. And a lot of people got lucky. But we're not seeing real people use bitcoin. And we don't know what problem it solves. Now, blockchain, I think, is a genius advancement in technology. "
Taavet Hinrikus
Technology
Tomorrow
People
" I was in my early 20s when Estonia joined the E.U. For a kid who'd grown up in the Soviet Union, it seemed like my country had come of age. For a country that had been isolated and cut off from the rest of the world, it seemed like we were becoming part of the global community. It opened a whole new world of possibility. "
Taavet Hinrikus
Kid
Age
Rest
" If we think about how long Google spent searching - I think they came around in '98? And, OK, Gmail came in 2004, but it was literally built by one engineer as a 20%-time project. It was probably 10 years before Google started diversifying. "
Taavet Hinrikus
Think
Google
Long
" In 2011, when we launched TransferWise, it was our frustration with banks not giving us what we wanted or needed as customers. The motivation was a strong desire to solve a problem and not just fix something that was broken but create a better alternative and a new system for doing things. "
Taavet Hinrikus
Broken
Strong
Frustration
" Celebrity-spotting is pretty standard at Davos. It's one of the things that makes it easy to criticise. "
Taavet Hinrikus
Makes
Things
Standard
" Most of my time at Skype was spent doing new things. "
Taavet Hinrikus
Doing
New
New Things
" I think that's the beauty of being a private company: you get to choose when you disclose something. You can play it in a strategic way or in a tactical way. "
Taavet Hinrikus
Think
Choose
Beauty
" Costs should always be presented up front so that consumers can make informed choices and get a fairer deal. "
Taavet Hinrikus
Up
Costs
Choices
" To be a global business, you need access to the best talent from around the world - fix this, everything else falls into place. Whether it's homegrown or imported, we don't mind where it comes from - we just want the best. "
Taavet Hinrikus
Business
World
Talent
" The fact that Skype was founded in Estonia, the fact that Skype had a successful exit, which meant that Estonia benefited in a major way, meant that entrepreneurship became legitimate. There were more than a thousand people who either worked or had worked at Skype who had seen what it takes to build a global business. "
Taavet Hinrikus
Successful
Way
Business
" When a new hire is afraid to roll up their sleeves and get things done, it's a clear sign it's not going to work out. "
Taavet Hinrikus
Things
New
Done
" Traditional consumer finance has been unfair for decades. Banks have had a monopoly on financial services and have been able to overcharge and underserve consumers. "
Taavet Hinrikus
Finance
Unfair
Monopoly
" If the hard Brexit happens, I would assume that London wouldn't be the centre of the tech world in Europe. "
Taavet Hinrikus
World
Assume
Happens
" As technology progresses, I believe that fintech will fundamentally change finance. "
Taavet Hinrikus
Believe
Change
Finance
" I spent my workdays at Skype creating a more connected world. We were shrinking the distances between people, making it easier to connect across countries. Then I'd go to my bank to transfer my euros to pounds, and it was like going back in time 50 years: expensive, inconvenient, and painfully slow. It was a nightmare. "
Taavet Hinrikus
Bank
People
Slow
" Doing something that empowers people makes you realise how boring it would be to work for a place where the goal is just to make more money. It's much easier to get out of bed and look forward to 12 hours of work if you're making the world a better place. "
Taavet Hinrikus
World
People
Money
" If the U.K. leaves the E.U., we'll have to consider whether it makes business sense to stay headquartered here. "
Taavet Hinrikus
Leaves
Stay
Here
" There's most definitely a Davos bubble. You're in a small Alpine town that, for just four days in January, sees its population tripled with world leaders, CEOs, media, police, the army... and a whole bunch of people who aren't invited but just come to hang out. "
Taavet Hinrikus
Police
World
Small
" Hiring new people, opening up in new markets, all of that takes money. "
Taavet Hinrikus
Money
New
New People
" Large incumbents become big and sometimes become lazy and set themselves up for failure in the future. "
Taavet Hinrikus
Become
Future
Failure
" There's the risk of a serious case of FOMO at a place like Davos. "
Taavet Hinrikus
Risk
Serious
Case