The story of building a billion dollar business from a loss of pound 500

Alibaba founder Jack Ma said, "Every problem is an opportunity . " Jack Ma may have made this statement at first, but all the big successful entrepreneurs have actually achieved their success by applying this policy.

Steve jobs has made the computer accessible to the common man through Apple Computer. Later, he changed the face of the whole world again with a buttonless phone. A new era has begun. Elon Musk has created a new era of money transactions with his pay-pal. Jeff Bezos has made retailing a one-click affair through Amazon. In a word,Google has brought the world's data base in hand.

Today, of course, I will not talk about any of them. But walking the same path as these, I mean, will tell a story of building a billion-dollar business to solve problems. As well as being a source of inspiration for entrepreneurs, you will also get an idea of ​​how to apply a new business idea, or how to turn a problem into a business.

One mistake and one idea:

Cristo Carman, an Estonian from London, is currently the CEO of the money transfer business "Transferwise". The company has a current market capitalization of কোটি 1.20 billion, or ২ 1.2 billion.

In 2006, when Cristo was 26, he was working in London as a management consultant. He was doing well with his job, his salary and bonus were going well. In 2006, he received an extra হাজার 10,000 as a Christmas bonus. 10 thousand pounds means a lot of money.

Cristo was always intelligent. He decided to make more money using this huge amount of bonus money without wasting it. He calculated that the interest rate was higher in Estonian banks than in London banks. So he withdrew the money from a UK bank and sent it to his own savings account in Estonia. For which he had to pay a fee of only পা 15 to a UK bank.

Cristo thought it would cost ১৫ 15. But a week later he found কম 500 less deposited in his Estonian bank account! At first he did not understand anything. Then the real story came out after a little fuss. Realizing how foolish he was, he wanted to tear his own hair.

In fact, he sent money by looking at the exchange rate in the newspaper. He thought the UK bank would pay him at that exchange rate.

But banks actually exchange currency at least 5% less than the published rate. All banks do it for profit. And no bank informs customers unless they ask themselves.

However, Cristo did not go to the bank and admitted that it was his own fault. Instead of being angry at the bank, he got upset with himself for his stupidity. But at the same time, he started thinking of a way to send money out of the country, in which there would be no need to go to the bank. It was from this thought that at one point he got the idea of ​​Transferwise.

How to get started:

[From left - Tavet Hinricas and Cristo Carman]

Cristo often exchanged money on a personal level with another Estonian friend, Taveet Hinrikas, an official at Skype Messenger.

They would have no problem doing this, because one of them (Christo) would take the then Estonian currency 'Karun' with a pound, and Tavet would occasionally take a pound instead of Karun. And for this they exchanged an average of the exchange rates shown in different newspapers on the day of the transaction. Banks would not have any commission here, so they would not have any loss.

These transactions gradually increase from two to more. Gradually a network of transactions developed between their Estonian friends and acquaintances living in different countries. Friends in Estonia and those outside Estonia began exchanging money regularly.

This network continues to grow day by day. The volume of transactions continues to increase. And Tatev and Cristo think it's possible to turn it into a full-fledged business.

From that realization, the two of them launched Transferwise's first website in London in 2011. This is basically a financial technology (fintech) service provider website. Using this one can convert the currency of one country to the currency of another country and send it to certain people.

And for this the website exchanges the average daily exchange rates available on different platforms. And the fee for any currency is deducted only 0.5%, which is at least 10 times lower than the bank rate.

Change and the beginning of success:

[Transferwise website]

At first the activities of the website were more in their own circle. Then one or two customers continue to grow. At first the name of the website spread through people's mouths, and the initial customers came from there.

At one point, a popular technology-based website published a very positive review of their service. Since then, Transferwise's customer base has grown at a significant rate.

There are several legal complications involved in running any financial service. To avoid this complication, he started his business with permission and license from the highest financial authority in Britain. After that they gradually started moving towards success.

Investment:

Despite the initial success of the website and the increase in customer rates, the two founders could not catch any good investors. Initially, Cristo and Tavet used to run their service by investing their savings.

In 2012, they tried unsuccessfully to attract investors. But they still tried. Talking to 15 European investors, they could not convince anyone. At some point later, they realize that Europeans are more afraid to take risks than Americans.

They later tried to capture American investment, and received their first investment from a company called IA Ventures in New York . After that, Transferwise did not have to look back. The company has received more than ৩০ 300 million in investments, including investments from Virgin Group owner Richard Branson, Paypal co-founder Max Levchin.

Currently Transferwise:

At present, the number of subscribers of Transfer Wise website and app is 4 million. And here they get the opportunity to exchange 49 currencies from a total of 50 countries. More than ০ 3.9 billion transactions are made on the website every month.

The company has an annual profit of about 6 million - and currently has 1,400 regular employees.

According to financial technology expert Chris Skinner, the main reason for this rapid growth of Transferwise is that it is very simple and cheap, and unlike banks, it has no hidden cost.

Appendix:

Two Estonian friends, Christo and Tavet, have proved by hand that they can become real entrepreneurs by solving human problems.

In Christo's words, “I knew nothing at the beginning; We were wondering - who would rely on a website built by two Estonians? Do more people have problems like ours? "It turned out that a lot of people around the world had this problem, and they trusted us."

It doesn't matter where you come from or what you do. If you see a problem, try to solve it. When you get a new idea, go ahead with it. Success comes with honesty and dedication - two unnamed Estonian immigrants have proved it once again.

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