Jaan Tallinn

Tallinn, Estonia, from the early 2000s. Tallinn, with Ahti Heinla and Priit Kasesalu, was one of the Estonian engineers who wrote the peer-to-peer software behind Kazaa and then Skype for Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis. Estonia offered skilled, inexpensive programmers and a government keen on digital services. Skype's sale to eBay in 2005 seeded a generation of Estonian start-ups, including Wise, founded by early Skype employee Taavet Hinrikus.