Authors

Franziska Kunz

I’ve been a part of the marketing team at dotSource since April 2018. In addition to organising and writing content for Handelskraft.de and Handelskraft.com, my colleagues and I create trend books, write white papers and success stories as well as manage and maintain our social media channels. I also mentor new content marketers and get involved in just about every creative session, brainstorming session and task force that has anything to do with communication concepts, wild ideas and new hot stuff.

I studied English/American Studies, German and Romance Philology at Friedrich Schiller University Jena. Graduating from FJS Berlin with a degree in journalism set the stage for turning my passion for writing into my profession.

Before joining dotSource, I was a mouthpiece and writer for a small label from Gotha as well as a content contributor at one of the big players in e-commerce. In the past, I was able to see both sides of the e-commerce scene. These experiences have helped me throughout my career – and as a blogger at Handelskraft, I can now also look at them from a new and (more) exciting perspective.

As a child of the eighties, the Internet, e-commerce and Co. were incredibly exciting developments for me, too. Digital transformation is still a long, impressive journey with many stops and destinations. I’m all the more pleased that I can now officially set out on this journey and take you along with me in my Handelskraft articles.

Birthe Struffmann

I’ve only been a part of dotSource since July 2021. Nevertheless, I’m already in the thick of things, dealing with the trends of the digital world and learning new stuff every day.

I knew early on that my heart beats for marketing. In order to build up a basic understanding of economics, I decided to study Business Administration with a focus on marketing at Friedrich Schiller University Jena. After five years of studying, I graduated with a master’s degree in October 2020.

In addition to theoretical knowledge, which I was able to impart and expand as a tutor and research assistant at the marketing department, I also had the opportunity to gain some practical experience as a social media manager for a gym. By the way, dotSource isn’t entirely new to me either. During a three-month internship as part of my bachelor’s degree, I was already able to get an insight into marketing here.

That’s why I’m even more delighted to be back. As a blogger at Handelskraft, I can combine my interests in economics and creative content and learn from the coolest marketers in the digital industry ?

Although I grew up with the Internet, digital transformation always brings up new ideas to think about. I look forward to taking you with me on my journey of discovery and introducing you to the digital trends that are driving our economy.

Luise Beyer

I’ve been supporting the dotSource team since February 2016. I started as an intern and wrote my master’s thesis on »Marketing Automation« with the help of dotSource.

I studied Business Administration with a focus on marketing at Friedrich Schiller University Jena and completed both my bachelor’s and my master’s degree there. After six years of traditional business studies, however, my focus at dotSource is now on e-commerce.

As a digital native, I’ve been fascinated by the world of the Internet since my childhood and I’ve always been able to follow its exciting development. What fascinates me most is how digital technologies and social networks have changed our lives in recent years – the way we live, communicate and, last but not least, shop.

Sara Herrera

I joined the dotSource marketing team in December 2015 to keep on rocking e-commerce. My main task is to create content for our blogs Handelskraft.de and Handelskraft.com. Blog marketing, SEO and writing white papers is also part of my job.

Before I took up my exciting new role as a blogger at Handelskraft, I had worked in customer service and social media roles for a multinational online company in the UK for three years. I’m passionate about social media and online marketing, which is why I graduated from Carlos III University of Madrid with a degree in journalism and decided to do a master’s degree in Communication and Marketing Management afterwards.

As a digital native, I’m fascinated by everything the Internet has to offer in terms of interaction, socialisation, commerce and communication. Since I want to stay up to date and am very eager to learn new things, I acquire new knowledge about these topics every day.

At Handelskraft, I continue to examine the latest trends and developments in e-commerce – both on a national and international level. I also want to share my point of view with you so that we can engage in a dialogue and build bridges between you and Handelskraft. However, irony, sarcasm and fun are still welcome, especially on Fridays.

Christian Otto Grötsch

In 2006, I founded the digital agency dotSource together with Christian Malik. With the help of our young and constantly growing team, we provide consulting services to medium-sized companies as well as international corporations with regard to strategies and technologies in digital business.

Over the course of 14 successful years as an agency, we opened three more offices in Berlin, Leipzig and Dresden and welcomed the 300th employee to our large international family in 2020. Both internally and externally, being human is our top priority. This way, we manage to maintain our start-up spirit despite the growing number of employees and offices. This is felt by our employees as well as our clients and partners.

As my professional career as a

• graduate of EAH Jena (bachelor’s degree) and Steinbeis-Hochschule Berlin (master’s degree) in business and engineering
• project manager at auXion and NavPunkt
• software developer and pre-sales consultant at Intershop
• founder and managing director of dotSource and Digital Business School
• blogger at Handelskraft

shows, I’ve turned my passion for e-commerce and digital business into my profession and I’m very happy to be the initiator, co-creator and facilitator of large projects, unique events and (digital) customer relationships.

Besides the agency business, I’m also engaged in various social, economic and political projects. It’s close to my heart not only to help shape the digital transformation for our clients, but also to invest in the future of young e-commerce talent in Jena. Together with other players in Jena’s digital landscape and the Thuringian Ministry for Economic Affairs, Science and Digital Society, we are committed to encouraging more and more young people to pursue an academic career in e-commerce.

In 2013, we co-initiated the establishment of the e-commerce bachelor’s degree programme and actively helped shape its content. In 2018, we also launched the e-commerce master’s degree programme at Ernst-Abbe-Hochschule (EAH) Jena together with more than 20 partners.

My active blogging days on Handelskraft are part of my personal dotSource story, too. The blog team has also grown and has been providing exciting articles and analyses of current topics and trends day after day since 2007. Since my heart beats for marketing as well, I’m all the more pleased to contribute to this blog from time to time.