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
Hiring new people, opening up in new markets, all of that takes money.
I get a kick out of helping the next generation of founders.
Costs should always be presented up front so that consumers can make informed choices and get a fairer deal.
The banks never sent me one chequebook. I'm very happy not to have ever touched one.
Most banks tell their customers that they only pay a small upfront fee for international payments. But in reality, customers pay much more.
Most of my time at Skype was spent doing new things.
Changing behaviour is a very slow process.
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.
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.
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.
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.
As technology progresses, I believe that fintech will fundamentally change finance.
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.
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.
The growth of FinTech has been driven by adoption across age groups, but the demand from the millennial generation to innovate and think about financial services differently has been a catalyst for change.
A preoccupation with job title is an immediate giveaway that someone's priorities are not in line with the company's.
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.
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.
There's one thing a CEO should always keep at the front of their mind, and that's customer needs.
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.
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.
If the U.K. leaves the E.U., we'll have to consider whether it makes business sense to stay headquartered here.
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.
We believe that the future of money is digital.
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.
As a consumer, I'm definitely waiting for what's going to come after banks.
Talent is the lifeblood of a fast-growing company.
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.
We built TransferWise focused on customer innovation. That means we build our product based first and foremost on our customers.
There's the risk of a serious case of FOMO at a place like Davos.
Celebrity-spotting is pretty standard at Davos. It's one of the things that makes it easy to criticise.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Competition and variety in financial services are always good things.
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.
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.
If the hard Brexit happens, I would assume that London wouldn't be the centre of the tech world in Europe.
If you think about the influence it has had, it's incredible. Think of all the relationships that have been saved because of Skype.
Banks are really bad when it comes to building consumer-centred products.
No amount of PR works if you've got a bad product.
Companies that are natively technology-focused I would trust more than a bank.
Large incumbents become big and sometimes become lazy and set themselves up for failure in the future.
Bitcoin, I think we can say, is dead.
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.
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.
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.
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.
