The President of Estonia Toomas Hendrik Ilves Visited the e-Estonia Stand at Slush
The President of Estonia Toomas Hendrik Ilves visited the e-Estonia stand at technology conference Slush in Helsinki.
At this year’s Slush the e-Estonia stand features topics of investing and working in Estonia, Estonia’s innovative e-Residency and the startup scene in Estonia.
The main question posed by the president in his speech held at Slush concerned European single digital market and how it is sometimes more difficult to deliver virtual products compared to physical ones from one European country to another.
“European countries must quickly embrace the innovations of start-up companies in order to give the European Union a competitive edge over the USA and Asia. One effective example of such co-operation between the public and private sectors is the pilot project of technology company Uber and the Tax and Customs Board of the Republic of Estonia, which introduces a solution for global cash-free taxation services. Estonia is looking for a solution instead of prohibiting a new form of business,” said President Toomas Hendrik Ilves who discussed the future of the common European digital market with the former European Commission Commissioner for Digital Agenda, Neelie Kroes.
Kristo Käärmann, the CEO of Estonian-founded FinTech business TransferWise talked on the topic of “Building the next killer app in global payments” and also stressed the value of company culture in a start-up, giving a short but wise piece of advice to all startups: “Doing a startup is hard enough. There should be no drama.”
Kristo Käärmann and Sten Tamkivi (ex-Skype, now CEO of Teleport, a company helping people find the place they should work and live at with the help of a mobile app), also took part of the mentoring minutes at the e-Estonia stand, giving advice to startups.
