Jonas Lieske & Manuel Osterloh
Name: Jonas Lieske & Manuel Osterloh
Study: Business Informatics / Software Engineering
Company: Merchkraken
Selling white-labelled products with your own designs printed on it has been in the trends for some time now, the process is called Print-on-demand (POD).
No wonder, considering there are a lot of people praising POD as an easy way to earn passive income. Nevertheless, POD requires lots of work and experience, whether it be the design realization or research of profitable niches to sell in.
There are plenty of people experimenting and failing to get into this business, even though it has been a growing market for years now. Seeing this opportunity, Jonas Lieske decided in the beginning of 2020 to offer a graphic design service for POD beginners and experts.
Starting with close to none orders on the freelancing platform “Fiverr”, the business built up over months. Two orders in February became twenty in November, so Jonas decided to get help from a friend – Manuel Osterloh.
With his help, the company MerchKraken was founded – A graphic design company, focussed on print-on-demand designs.
Manuel’s expertise in customer relations led to the realization that the only way to stand out in an otherwise overcrowded pool of graphic designers would be to step up customer satisfaction by offering top quality, highly detailed designs and outstanding communication.
Soon they climbed the ladder to the top selling sellers in their niche on Fiverr. Larger companies, agencies and even some big players reached out to them to get their work commissioned. By then the company was already making 4 figures and needed additional working force to proceed offering the best outcomes.
That was when Jonas and Manuel got a dedicated designer engaged in the business process.
Right now MerchKraken is growing and has around 40-50 orders per month. Manuel and Jonas are constantly trying to scale the business by validating new sales channels and broadening their offered services (Apparel design, logos, infographics, illustrations and more).
Both of them share a common vision where they want to create a casual working environment where everyone can flourish and grow their personal traits.
