Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App

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

Taavet Hinrikus

Related Quotes:

" Celebrity-spotting is pretty standard at Davos. It's one of the things that makes it easy to criticise. "

Taavet Hinrikus

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

Taavet Hinrikus

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

Taavet Hinrikus

" Changing behaviour is a very slow process. "

Taavet Hinrikus

" Without immigration, nations would stagnate. It is key for innovation and for economic growth. "

Taavet Hinrikus

" 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. "

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

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

Taavet Hinrikus

" 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. "

Taavet Hinrikus

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

Taavet Hinrikus

" 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

" 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

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

Taavet Hinrikus

" Talent is a complex subject: from the education our kids get in kindergarten and beyond to the re-skilling of some parts of the workforce; from the opportunities available for research to how we attract the best people to work in our companies. "

Taavet Hinrikus

" Being a 'global citizen' is not something reserved for the global elite anymore. Thanks to the democratising power of technology, it's not a trend determined by privilege or even age but by attitude. "

Taavet Hinrikus

" 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

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

Taavet Hinrikus

" The world is getting smaller thanks to technology. "

Taavet Hinrikus

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

Taavet Hinrikus

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

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

" 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. "

Taavet Hinrikus

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

Taavet Hinrikus

" 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

" As technology progresses, I believe that fintech will fundamentally change finance. "

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

" 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

" 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. "

Taavet Hinrikus

" I was pretty vocal about being anti-Brexit before the referendum vote. "

Taavet Hinrikus

" People need the financial sector to be safe; people also need the financial sector to go through a massive phase of innovation. That means delivering on the positive rhetoric, like around settlement accounts, not allowing Open Banking to be diluted, and leading the way on AML. "

Taavet Hinrikus