160. Taavet Hinrikus on taking Wise from 0 to an £8bn Direct Listing, his Investment Principles, the importance of building a 10x better Product, managing Stress & Motivation

Taavet Hinrikus is a partner at Plural, a VC investing in founders on a mission to change the world through technology. 

He co-founded the legendary Estonian unicorn Wise (initially TransferWise) in 2010, where he was CEO and later Chairman. Wise went public in the first-ever direct listing in Europe in 2021. 

Prior to that, Taavet was Skype’s Director of Strategy until 2008, starting as its first employee. He’s been an active investor supporting more than 100 companies globally. More recently he co-founded Jōhvi Coding School to help increase the number of people with coding skills in Estonia. 

On this episode we talk about:

• Early challenges and scrappy marketing strategies at Wise
• Building trust for a Fintech startup
• How the Wise culture shapes the next generation of entrepreneurs
• What sets successful entrepreneurs apart
• Dealing with stress and pressure
• Taavet's investment principles
• The mission of Plural and learnings from investing in 100+ companies
• How to navigate the current fundraising environment

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