Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App

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

Taavet Hinrikus

Related Quotes:

" 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

" No amount of PR works if you've got a bad product. "

Taavet Hinrikus

" Costs should always be presented up front so that consumers can make informed choices and get a fairer deal. "

Taavet Hinrikus

" I think that if Britain does decide to leave the E.U., that would be a disaster for the technology sector here and probably also for the broader economy. "

Taavet Hinrikus

" The world is getting smaller thanks to technology. "

Taavet Hinrikus

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

Taavet Hinrikus

" 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. "

Taavet Hinrikus

" 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

" 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

" 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

" Maybe I think too highly of myself, but I think maybe sometimes I can give some good advice - sometimes bad advice, I'm sure - and I think that's a way of giving back. "

Taavet Hinrikus

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

Taavet Hinrikus

" 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

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

Taavet Hinrikus

" 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

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

Taavet Hinrikus

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

Taavet Hinrikus

" At TransferWise, we started out as - and continue as - idealists. We start with what we can do to make things better and how we can solve problems, focusing on what people need. It turns out you can focus on building the best service and be successful as business. "

Taavet Hinrikus

" 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

" 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

" Talent is the lifeblood of a fast-growing company. "

Taavet Hinrikus

" 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

" 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

" 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

" 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. "

Taavet Hinrikus

" A seed depends on a whole host of factors to grow - from the fertility of the soil to the right mix of rain and sun to not being eaten by a passing bird. The same goes for an idea. For an idea to really take hold, other factors come into play, from timing to the emerging technology that makes it possible. "

Taavet Hinrikus

" Changing behaviour is a very slow process. "

Taavet Hinrikus

" As a consumer, I'm definitely waiting for what's going to come after banks. "

Taavet Hinrikus

" 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

" If the hard Brexit happens, I would assume that London wouldn't be the centre of the tech world in Europe. "

Taavet Hinrikus