Manuel is Principal and Founder of Syntropy. In addition, he is the founder of Emma – The Sleep Company, which he built together with Dennis Schmoltzi Into one of the most successful direct-to-consumer brands in the world – present in 25 markets, more than 750m Euro in revenues, and ca. 1,000 employees across Frankfurt, Lisbon, Mexico City, and Manila. Manuel's entrepreneurial journey started long before Emma. At 19, he founded a company for orthopaedic mattresses, driven by an early conviction that sleep was an underserved category ripe for reinvention. After studying History of Arts and Classical Archaeology at the University of Marburg, he moved into e-commerce and digital marketing before co-founding Dormando, an online multi-brand platform for bedding. When the team launched its own brand – Emma – what followed was one of Europe's fastest consumer scale-ups: from first mattress to market leadership in Germany, France, and the UK, international expansion across three continents, and the acquisition of heritage brand Dunlopillo. Along the way, Manuel developed a deep interest in what drives human behaviour – as consumers, as teams, and as individuals. At Syntropy, he brings together two decades of building, scaling, and rethinking categories with a genuine curiosity for the people and ideas behind great businesses. Manuel holds an Executive MBA from WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management and the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and a Master's in Psychology from Harvard University. Manuel is based in Frankfurt am Main.
