Taavet Hinrikus
Partner, Plural. On 3 shows, 2 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
founderinvestorexecutive@taavet ↗LinkedIn ↗pluralplatform.com ↗
Taavet Hinrikus is the co-founder, former CEO, and former Chairman of cross-border payments company Wise, having previously been Skype's first employee. He is currently an early-stage venture capitalist and partner at Plural, as well as a prolific angel investor.
3shows
2appearances
76statements
17resolved
11supported
1contradicted
65%fully supported
18said about them ↓ Everything Taavet Hinrikus said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Hinrikus: The vast majority of European VC partners lack operating experience
“I, you know, I've said many times is that if you look at the European landscape, majority, vast majority of the European GPs have not spent a single day working in a real company. They've worked in consulting firms, banks, but they haven't worked in a real ope…”
Hinrikus: The US Can No Longer Be Trusted to Protect Europe
“And the ways that US cannot be trusted anymore to be the protector of Europe.”
Hinrikus: Russia will attempt to attack another European country
“I think it's a very serious, very real concern. We should be living under the assumption that whatever happened in Ukraine now, Russia will try in another country over the next years, and we need to be ready for this.”
Hinrikus: The UK stock market is subprime due to weak institutional backing
“We don't have enough retail participation in the UK. We don't have enough institutional participation from the pension funds. So I do think UK stock market is subprime in that sense.”
Hinrikus: Standard 2% VC management fees misalign investors from startup outcomes
“Fundamentally, the idea of collecting a two, two and a half percent management fee does not really make sense. It does not align us with the outcomes.”
Hinrikus: VCs shouldn't make big money just for deploying capital
“I don't think people in venture should make a lot of money just because they are deploying capital.”
Plural lead partners write personal checks for every fund deal
“And additionally, every deal we do, the lead partner of the deal writes a personal check.”
Hinrikus: Uniformly exercising pro-rata rights is a VC cop-out
“Fundamentally, I agree with the idea that just doing your prorata is a cop out. You either want to do nothing or triple down.”
Hinrikus: Multi-stage firms' high-volume seed strategy will fail as founders wise up
“I don't think this game will last. I think the best founders will realize that getting a check on good terms from a multistage firm is by no means a guarantee of raising money from them in the future.”
Hinrikus: Median Venture Capital Returns Will Decline as the Asset Class Matures
“The best investors will continue generating best returns, but I think the median is probably gonna come down over time.”
Hinrikus: Critical Tech Sectors Will Divide into a Tripolar World
“A lot of sectors where I think we're going to be living in a, It's a tripolar world. Is that a word? Did I make it up? So there's gonna be an American version. Let's call it Android. There is a European version, Helsing, a Chinese version. Defense, space, ener…”
Hinrikus: European countries must raise defense spending to 3–5% of GDP
“Defense contributions, you know, we were not at two percent in Europe before Estonia was ahead, but in, and Poland was ahead, but, you know, we need to get to three, four, five percent everywhere. And same in other critical industries.”
Hinrikus: Wise would not have received a pricing premium in the US
“I don't believe Wise would have a pricing premium in the US.”
Too many venture-backed startups operate on unsustainable unit economics
“There are many, you know, I would say way too many companies outside Sort of being funded by venture dollars that will never break even. You know, it's kind of ridiculous that you can order an ice cream, pay one dollar for it. It'll get delivered to you in 15 …”
Brexit will only increase the amount of cross-border money flowing on TransferWise
“I mean, if anything, Brexit will only increase the amount of money flowing, I would say.”
Hinrikus: Unexcited to back repeat founders building in their previous category
“Like, I don't think I would be that excited to back a founder who built Fintech company one and then goes on to build Fintech company two.”
Hinrikus: It is hard to get excited about traditional enterprise SaaS
“There are many great founders building great enterprise SaaS companies, but for me personally, it's pretty hard to get excited about the good old SaaS company.”
Hinrikus: Investor alignment depends on investing personal capital alongside LP funds
“I think there is one thing if you're a rich investor and you play with only other people's money, there's a different thing if you're a rich investor and you're investing your own money. So I think it's a question of alignment and hopefully we'll talk more abo…”
Hinrikus: Plural charges half the traditional VC management fee
“At Plural, we charge about half the management fee, and we think we are much better aligned.”
Hinrikus: Early Wise customer support agents made $1M at IPO
“And I think the customer support agents who joined in the beginning, they all made a million dollars when Wise went public.”
Plural partners are collectively the largest investor in their fund
“We are the biggest investor in the fund ourselves.”
Plural covers its own legal fees instead of charging portfolio startups
“Well, we pay our own legal fees. Vast majority of venture deals, as in the term sheets, that you pay your investors legal fees.”
Hinrikus: Plural doesn't believe funds can control sector composition
“You know, in plural, We really don't think we have much control over fund composition.”
Hinrikus: Plural will not write follow-on checks without GDP-level impact
“We kind of promise we're not going to give up before you, but it doesn't mean we're going to write bad money after good money. We've told our founders, we're here to have GDP level impact. If your company's not doing it, I'm sorry, We should not continue fundi…”
The other half of the tape: Taavet Hinrikus's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 13 times in 6 episodes across the shows. 5 statements on the record name them. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Michael Copeland 5Reshma Sohoni 2Nilan Peiris 2Harry Stebbings 2Shaq (Shakil Khan) 1Hussein Kanji 1
Statements about Taavet Hinrikus, by other people (5)
Kanji: I tried to talk Wise co-founder Taavet Hinrikus out of LSE listing
“And then right after that, Tavit went public with Wise on the LSE, and I tried to talk him out of it. I said, go, go in America.”
Hinrikus: The UK leads the US in fintech traction and regulation
“Fintech probably has more kind of traction and more companies in UK, but, and I think that, you know, and regulation is, is slightly better in UK as well.”
Hinrikus: Emerging markets will skip desktop banking for mobile-first finance
“So what happens in China or India or Africa, I think could actually be, you know, even, even more change, you know, Kind of like, you know in a way, let's say, we'll jump over the old internet and go purely mobile, and the ways that will deliver services is pr…”
Hinrikus: Consumer banking attitudes do not vary significantly by age
“If we look at the research and one of the things which was somewhat surprising to us was that the views don't differ that much based on age.”
Wise had zero customers when CPO Nilan Peiris first joined as advisor
“Yeah, so I met them, you'll enjoy this. I got introduced to them by an angel who I had helped previously, and he said, you gotta meet these guys. They're just two of them. They have a great product. They have no customers and they definitely need someone like …”
Every mention by year
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the a16z Podcast 8
20VC 5
2025 2 mentions in 2 episodes 1 per episode
- 20Growth: Inside Kraken's $1.5BN Growth Playbook: What Works, What Doesn't and What No Founders Understand About Growth That Will Change Their Company with Mayur Gupta
- Hussein Kanji, Founder @Hoxton Ventures: Why AI Means London Can Compete with the US | E1248 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- every mention in 2025, scene by scene →
2024 2 mentions in 1 episode
2019 9 mentions in 3 episodes 3 per episode
- a16z Podcast | When Banking Works Like My Smartphone
- a16z Podcast | Scaling Ideas and Startups in the U.K. and Europe
- 20VC: Carta Founder Henry Ward on Why The Best Companies Are Not Product Led But Distribution Led, 3 Requirements Needed For A New Market/Investment To Be Exciting and Why Small Markets Are So Attractive
- every mention in 2019, scene by scene →
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Taavet's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20VCLEDGER | Partner, Plural | 1 | 59 | 60% 3/5 | full record on 20VC → |
 TOP FOUNDERSLEDGER | Partner, Plural | 1 | 17 | 88% 7/8 | full record on Top Founders → |
| a16zLEDGER | Partner, Plural | 0 | 0 | 25% 1/4 | full record on the a16z Podcast → |