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" Creating a new country from scratch has given Estonia the license to imagine what a country could be. "

Taavet Hinrikus

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" 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. "

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" Most banks tell their customers that they only pay a small upfront fee for international payments. But in reality, customers pay much more. "

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" The attitude to failure is one of the characteristics that's often called out as the difference between the U.S. and Europe. And we do need to be less risk-averse, more embracing of failure. Having failed makes you look bad in Europe. But in the U.S., it makes you look experienced. "

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" 'Big' problems are overwhelming, but when we distil them down to their simplest forms, then the solutions become simple, too. "

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" For Estonia, joining Europe meant our potential as a country increased - not decreased - because of that connectedness. "

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" The U.S.A. is a huge market which has a large immigrant population from Europe, India, from all around the world; lots of them have, still, strong ties to home, so move lots of money. "

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" 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. "

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" The world is getting smaller thanks to technology. "

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" The technology is not an end in itself: it is a tool. It can make it easier for us to communicate or manage our finances. It can help us take care of our health or help policemen in their work. It can create jobs and boost growth. It can enhance transparency and accessibility to services. "

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" Securing and attracting the best talent is an obsession in the tech industry for good reason. It's your main asset; it's your edge. "

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" 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. "

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" Scaling a business at speed can feel like an out of control roller-coaster. "

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" There's the risk of a serious case of FOMO at a place like Davos. "

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" Companies that are natively technology-focused I would trust more than a bank. "

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" Climate change, migration... they transcend national borders and require an international response. "

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" Competition and variety in financial services are always good things. "

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" A preoccupation with job title is an immediate giveaway that someone's priorities are not in line with the company's. "

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" Bitcoin, I think we can say, is dead. "

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" Most of my time at Skype was spent doing new things. "

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" 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. "

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" 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. "

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" Sometimes, companies are better placed than politicians and governments to make change happen. That doesn't mean that they should not be held to account and follow international rules. But with the right motivation, they can be the force for change. "

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" There's always been a lot of interest in the tech community about how to foster innovation and creativity - both within a company but also in the ecosystem of a tech cluster. In both cases, creating opportunities for people who don't encounter each other normally to meet and talk is key. "

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" If the U.K. leaves the E.U., we'll have to consider whether it makes business sense to stay headquartered here. "

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" You start a business being hungry, foolish, and a little bit naive. But more often than not, you end up being disrupted yourself. It happened to Skype. "

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" I did an MBA because when I left Skype, I didn't have a clear idea of whether I wanted to create or join a company. But you don't need an MBA to become an entrepreneur. "

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" We built TransferWise focused on customer innovation. That means we build our product based first and foremost on our customers. "

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" 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. "

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" There are so many instances in banking where 'free' simply doesn't mean free, whether it's opaque overdraft charges or credit card providers that are quietly raising interest rates without customers noticing. "

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" 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. "

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