From media studies to the tourism industry, into online marketing. And then a start-up.

Britta Martens | Head of E-Commerce

Hi, I'm Britta, and I recently cracked the 5-year mark at hepster. I'm Head of Webshop, our online store, which is probably the first thing our end customers see when they google us. What exactly is my job? I am responsible for achieving our webshop goals and KPIs, and I make sure that our customer journey is set up in a way that our customers have the perfect shopping experience.

How it all began...

My professional life didn't start by any standard for me. In 1999, I was the only trainee reprographics technician in Mecklenburg Western Pomeranian. So, I always had to go to vocational school in Schleswig-Holstein. After my apprenticeship, I studied applied media sciences. During my studies, I had several jobs in the tourism industry in Thailand and I also ran my own small business in media design. Back in Germany, I jumped into the automotive industry and gained my first experience in software development and online marketing. In my last station before hepster, I was able to live out my private hobby of "playing tennis" to the fullest, as I was Marketing Manager at a tennis and basketball online store in Rostock. But then I wanted something new.

I had never heard of hepster before. The job ad sounded interesting, so I went ahead and applied. Just two days later, Hanna (co-founder and CRO) called me and wanted to meet. In the beginning, I had a few doubts about whether a start-up was too "hip" for me and whether it would really suit me. However, a very good friend who knew hepster then said to me:

And he was right. So I gave it a try.

Why five years of hepster?

The challenges

There are always new challenges, big and small, that make working at hepster so exciting for me and have ultimately led to me being part of the team for over five years now. One big challenge awaited me right at the beginning: making decisions. Decisions that have a significant impact on the company. However, the founders made it clear to me right from the start that they saw me as a specialist in my job and trusted me. From then on, making decisions was much easier for me. One example of a small challenge for me was convincing the founders at the beginning to use the word insurance when you want to sell insurance, even if you don't see yourself as a traditional insurance company.

Other reasons that speak for hepster for me personally:

• the continuous development of the company and its employees
• the team spirit
• the founders' attitude of never giving up
• the internal events and parties
• being part of the success story

If I had to describe my five years at hepster in a few words, I would compare it to a video game, such as Super Mario - from level to level, so to speak. Sometimes you reach the next level very quickly, sometimes it takes several attempts and sometimes you have to start all over again.

My highlight of the five years was definitely the launch of our French webshop. We were all incredibly proud of this project and celebrated our entry into the first foreign market with a legendary France party in our office.

3 things you need to be a true #hepsterhero

For me, it takes these 3 characteristics to become a (long-term) #hepsterhero:

• Patience, because as already mentioned, things can sometimes happen very quickly, but achieving the big vision is more comparable to a marathon. A little side fact: our vision is to become the market leader for embedded insurance in Europe.
• Flexibility, because there is often not just one way to achieve a goal. Especially not in a start-up. You won't hear the phrase "We've always done it this way" from us.
• A sense of responsibility, because decisions have to be made and mistakes can happen - I would almost say that you can't do without mistakes. The important thing is to own up to them and learn from them.