• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Blu Mint Digital

Results-driven digital marketing for online businesses

  • About
    • Company
    • FAQ
    • Clients
    • Portfolio
  • SEO
    • SEO Services
    • Conversion Rate Optimisation
  • Content
    • Content Marketing
    • Copywriting
    • SEO Copywriting
    • Brand Journalism
    • Corporate Blogging
  • PPC
    • PPC Services
    • Google Ads
    • Bing Ads
    • Remarketing
    • Display
    • Facebook Ads
    • LinkedIn Ads
  • Contact
Women in Business: Anna-Greta Tsahkna

Women in Business: Anna-Greta Tsahkna

20/10/2016 by David Bailey-Lauring Leave a Comment

Share4
Tweet
Share
Pin
Share
4 Shares

Interview with Anna-Greta Tsahkna, Co-Founder & CEO of Timbeter

Anna-Greta Tsahkna - Timbeter

This month, the American Chamber of Commerce in Estonia held a Women in Leadership Dinner event, opened by the Estonian Minister of Entrepreneurship, Liisa Oviir. Blu Mint Digital was in attendance and decided to focus on three amazing entrepreneurial women in Estonia: Anna-Greta Tsahkna, Berit Bailey and Piret Mellik. In a series of interviews our team begin with Anna-Greta Tsahkna.

You co-founded Timbeter. What is it?

Timbeter is a really easy way to measure timber using a smartphone. Loggers simply snap a photo of their pile and then the app instantly calculates everything they need to know, as well as keeping track of the data. Timbeter is digitising forestry data and bringing increased transparency and efficiency to the industry.

What’s your role?

I’m the Chief Executive Officer.

My main task is leading the monetisation of our product and providing feedback to the engineering team on what product enhancements are required to make Timbeter even better.  This involves speaking to lots of stakeholders, including national departments, forest owners, harbour operators, saw mill owners and transportation companies. I´m also responsible for investor relations, marketing and communication.

What brought you to this area?

Actually, it was a coincidence. I just happened to participate at the Garage48 event and joined the team by chance. The team turned out to be quite successful. One year later I understood that it was a question of all or nothing so I dedicated myself fully to Timbeter. It was scary turning my back on a great job in a large software development company but I kept thinking “well, if not now then when and if not me then who?” There’s been plenty of ups and downs in those 3 years and times when I’ve questioned myself, but that is simply part of the startup process.


What has been the most difficult part of running a business?

Running a startup is always a challenge, although the nature of these challenges change as the company grows. I guess the really difficult part was getting that first paying customer, but we still have to continually work hard to earn new customers. We want to keep reaching higher so yesterday`s record is today’s minimal level.

But these challenges all form a learning curve and you need to go through them to to develop both professionally and personally. This may sound odd but feeling like a complete idiot is good ground for development. You can only get better. Throughout this journey I came to know my weaknesses and strengths very well. Being outside your comfort zone in not very comfortable, but it teaches you a lot.

What’s the best thing about working at Timbeter?

It’s the feeling that you’re doing something very innovative that will make a great change in  a really conservative sector. We get to see how our solution is making a whole sector more effective, reducing the amount of manual work to a minimal level, digitalising the whole data, getting rid of loads of paper and minimising bureaucracy. Fighting illegal logging, overweight trucks and tax fraud is also really important.   

For us it was also a proud moment when the State Forest Management Centre decided to use Timbeter on all its trucks. It is definitely a big step forward to become the global standard for timber measurement. Start-ups don’t usually make contracts with government institutions, but Timbeter is different.

Anna-Greta Tsahkna - Timbeter
Anna-Greta and the Timbeter team on location in USA

Your husband is a minister and you have 2 children. I guess both of you have a challenging professional life. How do you manage to balance your work and family?

My husband and I support each other a lot. We have a sense of good teamwork, always try to be positive and find solutions to challenging situations. If needed, I can always ask for help from either of our mums or our relatives when we’re both travelling.

Weekends are usually fully reserved for family so we always try to do something all together and just relax.

What is the best advice you have ever received? Anna-Greta Tsahkna - Timbeter

Ask, don’t assume. It’s my mantra that works in every life situation.  


And finally, what is the one piece of advice you would give to an entrepreneur starting out?

Believe in yourself and simply don’t give up.

Anna-Greta was speaking to David Bailey-Lauring

Send me the latest!

Women in Business: Anna-Greta Tsahkna 1

Need tips on online business, business tools or digital marketing?

Join our community and get the latest delivered right to your inbox.

Success! Now check your email to confirm your subscription.

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

Powered by ConvertKit

Success! Now check your email to confirm your subscription.

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Related

Share4
Tweet
Share
Pin
Share
4 Shares

Filed Under: Business Leadership & Entrepreneurship Tagged With: Leadership, Startups, Women In Business

About David Bailey-Lauring

David is the CEO of Blu Mint Digital. A British national living in Estonia writing about digital marketing and entrepreneurship. David is also a Board member of the British-Estonian Chamber of Commerce.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Get the best tips, hacks, and advice delivered to your inbox once a week.

How We Can Help

  • Home
  • Blog
  • Services
  • Portfolio
  • Clients
  • Sitemap

Google Partner

About Blu Mint

  • About
  • FAQ
  • Careers
  • Partners
  • Press
  • Contact

Recent Articles

  • Why Building Relationships is Important in the Digital Age
  • How do you get your Instagram colour palette spot on?
  • Clutch Recognises Blu Mint Digital as Top B2B Provider in Estonia!
  • Instagram marketing tips you can’t ignore

Let’s Connect

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Search

Clutch Global Leaders BadgeTop US B2B CompanyTop Estonia B2B Company

© 2021 · Blu Mint Digital · Privacy Policy ·

We use cookies to give you the best online experience. By using our website you agree to our use of cookies in accordance with our cookie policy. Learn More