Today we’d like to introduce you to Manuel Christoffel.
Hi Manuel, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I was born and raised in Germany, in a small village in Bavaria, where I lived with my parents and my younger brother. My first passion was food, so I attended culinary school in Germany. I played American football, worked as a DJ every Wednesday and Friday night and graduated with a degree in business and communications after my culinary training.
After a few jobs in Germany, I had an opportunity to work for an Austin startup, so after one quick visit, I moved to Austin. This was in 2002 when the skyline consisted of the UT tower 🙂
A few years later, I went to work for Dell and had an opportunity to move to NYC, something I had mixed feelings about. But the call of the unknown and being closer to my family in Germany made that move feel justified. I went on to work for American Express in a few different roles and (re) discovered the startup world. A few startups later, I found myself back in Austin, TX in 2015 – and the skyline had already changed quite a bit!
Back in Austin, I started my own consulting business, then helped grow the marketing team at woom Bikes USA, where we managed to enter the Inc 5000 list for 2 years in a row as one of America’s fastest growing private companies, partly due to the work my newly formed team was doing. During Covid, I managed marketing, customer experience, and go to market strategies for a German startup, and then, when my neighbor casually mentioned that he was going to open a vineyard with rhinos, I went to work for him, helping him make a lifeline dream come true. Four weeks ago, the Rhinory officially opened its doors!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
My road has been anything but smooth. Moving to a new Country without any family or friends was harder than I had imagined it would be. I still struggle with the networking aspect of ‘job hunting’ and frequently find myself being ‘too intense’ by American standards when it comes to making friends and maintaining friendships. But I’ve learnt a lot about myself, my flaws, shortcomings, and my standards. Professionally, I’ve learnt that I am a bit of a Swiss Army knife and can find purpose and challenges in almost any industry.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I currently manage marketing and customer experience for Rhinory, a brand new Texas winery with a mission to save and help preserve rhinos. Helping to build this business from the ground up helped me combine several skills from past jobs: problem-solving, creative thinking, prioritizing tasks, cross-functional communication, navigating passion vs pragmatism, finding synergies, partners, and allies, and being a sponge for a variety of net new subject matters.
I’m a bourbon and rum guy. A younger me would never have said ‘yes’ to help build a vinery’s online / marketing presence. I’m allergic to sulfites, sulfates, and tannins. But I’ve learnt that I don’t need to be the target audience in order to do a good job. What I need is to understand the mission, see value in the brand, and work with driven, motivated people.
I am great at finding problems and fixing them. Scaling operations. At Rhinory, I was able to build something from the ground up, and it’s been a profoundly humbling experience.
We love surprises, fun facts and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
People often initially think that I’m a very rigid, serious, and stubborn person. When they get to know me / work with me, they realize that I’m very passionate about my work, take great pride in every aspect of my job, and oftentimes forget to smile (I’m told it’s a German thing) or take a breather.
My mission was to help get this amazing brand up and running, and I am now looking for my next career opportunity.
Contact Info:
- Website: ManuelC.org
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/manuel_c_
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/manuel_c
