Taavet Hinrikus
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
Taavet Hinrikus

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.

Taavet Hinrikus
Taavet Hinrikus

Talent is the lifeblood of a fast-growing company.

Taavet Hinrikus
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
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
Taavet Hinrikus

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

Taavet Hinrikus
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
Taavet Hinrikus

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

Taavet Hinrikus
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
Taavet Hinrikus

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.

Taavet Hinrikus
Taavet Hinrikus

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

Taavet Hinrikus
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
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
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
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
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
Taavet Hinrikus

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

Taavet Hinrikus
Taavet Hinrikus

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.

Taavet Hinrikus
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
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.