Estonian start-up stories by Toivo Tänavsuu
”Due to regular maintenance, there may be disruption to electronic Internet bank channels tonight” – Estonian banks treat their customers to such announcements on quite a frequent basis. But if their development teams adopt use of the new tool from Zeroturnaround, LiveRebel, they won’t be a need for downtime during maintenance. Zeroturnaround evolved out of [...]
Sportlyzer, a startup that unites virtual sports trainer software and social networking, plans to conduct a study starting in January 2011 involving dozens of amateur endurance athletes. Sportlyzer is developing a Web-based service —a user-friendly training and motivation software program aimed at exercise enthusiasts. The goal of the company is to launch a “virtual trainer” [...]
A number of companies in Estonia are developing services for the über-popular gadgets iPhone and iPad. Head and shoulders above the rest is former Skype employee Mikael Suvi (pictured with his wife), whose company CandyCane earned 140,000 euros of net profit in 2009 and has enjoyed good sales in 2010 as well. Suvi, who currently [...]
Beware, clairvoyants and fortune-tellers! Meet a young man named Timo Sulg (pictured) who predicts the future using algorithms. Timo Sulg is usually, like most IT people, anything but flamboyant. He studies at Tallinn University of Technology and will graduate in two years. What is unusual about him is the fact that whereas students at his [...]
It is quite possible that Estonians have come up with the world’s most user-friendly and lowest-cost tool for setting up online stores. The e-store creation platform created by the start-up Pipfrog is so simple and idiot-proof that CEO Bruno Lill says it could even be used by retirees who don’t know anything about computers. But [...]
One of Webmedia’s latest products, the company’s workforce optimization and work schedule planning software StaffLogic, appears so promising that Webmedia is considering launching a separate start-up for this business area. StaffLogic is a tool that will make life much easier for the people responsible for one of the most tiresome jobs – drawing up work [...]
A start-up established by active salespeople, New Pipe Technologies is developing a web-based sales management software program called Pipedrive, which focuses on initiating and closing sales. One of the founders, Urmas Purde, says an ordinary tool used by salespeople – customer records management – is often too complicated, static or time-consuming. Pipedrive on the other [...]
Rally racer Markko Märtin (pictured) and Janis Kaal, who runs the Märtin-owned Estonian publishing house Presshouse, are developing a new website called Vroom.ee that is being pitched as the Google of the car world. Not long from now, customers will be able to pick and choose features from the catalogues of various car makers. After [...]
Deal24.ee, an upstart on the Estonian market offering special daily deals, is part of an international group that offers similar service in 25 countries and close to 300 cities. That’s why Deal24’s minority owners Ingvar Kupinski and Matis Metsala promise to bring unprecedented offers to Estonia. Deal24 features daily offers from stores, restaurants and cafes, [...]