Tõnis Hinnosaar

I have been playing an important role in altex marketing for some while already, so here’s a short bio of who I am.

Having lived in different smaller and bigger cities I am actually more of a country guy since I grew up in Väike-Maarja, Lääne-Virumaa, where I spent my first 15 years.

I have been close with computers since ´91. At the age of 11 I already used to create small programs with Turbo Basic (I think my master piece was a Quiz game inspired by “Mnemoturniir”).

In 1998 I went to US as an exchange student. I stayed in a really nice pastor family in Brookville, Indiana and during that time had a great change to get to know lots of wonderful people.

Back in Estonia, I continued my studies in Nõo Science School where I specialised in physics. Nõo years went by fast, full of interesting days inside and outside school. Apart from the great maths, IT and physics background, those years gave me lots of good friends and acquaintances. And as they say – you meet at least one „nõokas” everywhere you go.

My studies continued at University of Tartu, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration. By that time I had realised that programming is not for me and this is something that professionals should do. But how to run a business and how to develop successful marketing activities is more like it.

By far, my most important year during my university studies was when I spent a year at University of Bologna Rimini College. While in Italy, I spent also a month in Siena (absolutely one of the most gorgeous cities in the world) and a month in Bologna. Apart from studying economics and Italian and hanging out with ERASMUS people I also had a chance to dig deeper into my current interests, e-business and e-commerce. Reading books, taking notes - I think this is something that everyone should do at some stage when going through their studies or making important choices about their lives.

When I came back to Estonia in 2006 I had a clear vision that traditional marketing is not for me and it is e-marketing that attracts my attention fullest.

During my last year at university I dug in more to see where and how I could use that interest and luckily came across altex marketing.

My first impression of altex was during the interview at the old Maakri office. Bunch of weird people around a big round table …but I liked them, and their attitude. Unfortunately at this stage I did not get a job offer but about one month later Robin called me and offered a job.

Since then I have learned a lot from altex and have also worked a lot as well. After first 8 months I was given an opportunity to head altex Estonian team and of course I took this opportunity. So whilst Robin established a London operation and focussed on acquisitions and partnerships in the UK market, I managed the Estonian operations.

Since august 2008, I am responsible for our tech services (such as SEO and digital auditing) and also web analytics. I am also running the new Rakvere office where altex is establishing a technical services team.

You can visit my personal homepage for more info in a structured way.