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

Taavet Hinrikus

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

Taavet Hinrikus

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

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

" 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

" 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

" 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

" 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

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

Taavet Hinrikus

" Changing behaviour is a very slow process. "

Taavet Hinrikus

" 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

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

Taavet Hinrikus

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

Taavet Hinrikus

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

Taavet Hinrikus

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

Taavet Hinrikus

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

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

" 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

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

Taavet Hinrikus

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

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

" 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

" We're living in a world where international governance is failing to overcome borders, but technology is succeeding in removing them. "

Taavet Hinrikus

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

Taavet Hinrikus

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

Taavet Hinrikus

" 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. "

Taavet Hinrikus

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

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

" 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

" 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