Erdal Yildiz is Senior Digital Marketing Manager at quirion. As a specialist in search engine optimization and e-commerce, he helps make sure that investors find our offerings. Why he chose this job. And why he is currently digging deep into the topic of "gardening".
When Erdal Yildiz began the internship, he had no idea he would stay for four years. And that he would be setting important course for his professional future in doing so. In 2010, while still studying "Entrepreneurship" at the Berlin School of Economics and Law, he signed on with a small Kreuzberg startup for search engine optimization (SEO). Apart from the founder, with whom he is still friends today, he was the first employee. A full-time job for 400 euros a month. "I was so keen on the subject – I would have taken the internship even without pay," the now 40-year-old says looking back.
The company grew and moved into an office near Kurfürstendamm. Yildiz played a big part in that, ultimately leading a team of 16 colleagues as Head of SEO. "It was a great time in which I learned an incredible amount," Yildiz notes. "But it was also a very intense period: I had to reconcile the full-time job with my studies, I got married and became a father for the first time."
Taking the leap into self-employment
The death of his grandfather then marked a turning point. Yildiz took some time out. He asked himself what he wanted to achieve in his life. "I felt an urge toward self-employment." Starting a company – after all, that was what his studies had been about.
Throwing himself with passion into a new topic that interests him. Diving in deep and opening up a whole new world for himself: this is where Yildiz is in his element. It was the same with the subject of dietary supplements for pregnant women. He had first looked into that before the birth of his daughter. And out of it grew the idea for his own company.
He found a German manufacturer and, together with friends, founded a company for the online sale of such products. Building a website and optimizing it for search engines – he knew how to do that. But the business was slow to get going. Once again, diving into a new topic was called for, in this case the sale of products via Amazon. The fact that he really dug his way into it still benefits him to this day.
His path to quirion
He remained an entrepreneur for a good eight years. Until, at some point, the founding team no longer got along quite so well. He looked for a new challenge. With his know-how in SEO and e-commerce, a new employer – a marketing agency in Berlin – was quickly found. He stayed there for a while, brought his expertise in selling via Amazon to the table, and won and looked after many new clients. Then a former colleague from that agency, who had moved to quirion, got in touch with him. That made him curious. And the head of marketing at the time convinced him. He has been part of the team since April 2022.
Once again, quirion opened up the chance for Yildiz to immerse himself in a new world. He had already looked into crowdfunding. But with the topic of stocks he had had scarcely any contact until then. "In the circles I moved in, that was more or less taboo," Yildiz explains. The stock market as a casino where you're up against professionals and, as an amateur, gamble away your money: like so many in Germany, he grew up with this cliché.
Gift cards for investing
But investing with quirion has absolutely nothing to do with gambling. On the contrary, it aims at building wealth systematically. The science-based investment strategy doesn't engage in speculation and forecasts, relying instead on broad diversification. Thanks to ETFs, investing stays low-cost. At the same time, quirion offers the services of professional wealth management. Investors don't have to take care of anything themselves.
That may not be quite so exciting. That's why it isn't always easy to make yourself heard amid the noisy competition when promoting an investment strategy like this. Yildiz helps with that. For example, by optimizing web pages for search engines. Another focus of his work is on gift cards for investing.
In 2021, quirion was the first in Germany to bring gift cards for investing into retail stores. That attracted a great deal of attention. "But we quickly realized that digital channels are better suited for spreading them," Yildiz explains. The cards are now available on numerous platforms, for example at Amazon, Payback and Wunschgutschein. "Card sales are rising from year to year."
Yildiz is convinced by what he does. And he likes the team spirit at quirion. "I experience a special kind of appreciation here. I have many opportunities to contribute."
Always discovering something new
After work, he looks forward to spending time with his family. And sometimes, on sunny weekends, to a ride on the Harley, out of the big city. Two years ago he got his motorcycle license. "Riding along a country road toward one of the Brandenburg lakes, the wind in my face, plus the scent of the forests – I love it, it gives me a special sense of freedom."
Yildiz has also recently secured himself a small piece of nature in the big city. He found an allotment garden he had been searching for for quite some time. Together with his family, he wants to turn the roughly 500 square meters into a little paradise. That's why he is currently getting more deeply into the subject of gardening. "At first you might think there isn't all that much to know – but the deeper you dive in, the more there is to discover." Evidently, a new world has opened up for Yildiz once again.
More about quirion's gift cards can be found here.
