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" International money transfer is a massive consumer rip-off. Banks and companies like Western Union have gotten away with it for too long. "

Taavet Hinrikus

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

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" If you think about the influence it has had, it's incredible. Think of all the relationships that have been saved because of Skype. "

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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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" 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. "

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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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" Large incumbents become big and sometimes become lazy and set themselves up for failure in the future. "

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" Banks are really bad when it comes to building consumer-centred products. "

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

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" 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. "

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

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" While in two very different sectors, both Skype and TransferWise were born out of frustration. "

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" The banks never sent me one chequebook. I'm very happy not to have ever touched one. "

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

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" There's one thing a CEO should always keep at the front of their mind, and that's customer needs. "

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

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" The world is getting smaller thanks to technology. "

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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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" 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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" 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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" 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. "

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" When we talk about technology changing the world, we often hear about how it makes our lives easier, more connected, safer, or even healthier. They're all things we can easily identify with. The Internet makes our lives easier; services like Skype and WhatsApp allows us to be more connected - the examples are endless. "

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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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" Hiring new people, opening up in new markets, all of that takes money. "

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" Building a business is a marathon, not a sprint. I don't believe it when people tell me they've been working 80-hour weeks for five years in a row. I just don't think that's possible. "

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

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