Once upon a time there was a young man from Eppstein in the Taunus hills. After school, first an apprenticeship as a bank clerk at Königsteiner Volksbank. Then a business degree at Fulda University. A graduate in business administration.
Even during my studies I realised what I'm really good at. On the side I worked for Eismann and Bofrost, selling frozen food door to door. Ring the bell, explain the offer, move on. The standard line at the door was: “Don't need it, everything grows in our garden.” My icebreaker: “Fish fingers too?” Most of the time, I was in. And in that moment I knew: sales and marketing, that's the right thing for me.
After university, that's exactly where it continued. First Hamburg (Anthros, CCN), then Düsseldorf (microm). Direct marketing, database, micromarketing, scoring, the world of data-driven customer engagement. Then BMW Financial Services in Munich. Nine years. From dialogue marketing manager to Head of Marketing Services. After that Weight Watchers in Düsseldorf. Ten years. Head of eCRM Germany & Switzerland. Premium brands, big budgets, big teams.
Every day I built structures that worked. I led teams. I digitised processes. I sat in meetings where million-euro budgets were decided. On paper, I had achieved everything.
One day the career kept going, but I didn't anymore. More than once I was on the edge of burnout. The work was intense, demanding, always at the limit. At the very moment I chose family, shortly before our second daughter arrived, the layoff came. A classic at an American company. In the first moment, a shock. In the second, a rescue. It saved me from burnout and showed me: a career isn't everything.
And then came a turn I could never have imagined. I became an inclusion assistant at a secondary school. Later, head of all-day programmes at a comprehensive school. From marketing manager to the man who helps children. On paper, a career break. In truth, the first honest step in years. For four years the focus was exactly where it belonged: on my daughters, on my family, on a balance I hadn't known before. Not one day regretted.
And then my contract ran out, and AI crossed my path. Fascination from the first moment. Images born from words. Voices that had never spoken. Films no one had shot. I worked my way deep in, and partly lost myself in it. So much new arrived, so fast, that you didn't know where to look first. Prompt engineering. Image models. Video generators. Avatars. The question “Do I use this as an employee, or build something of my own?” ran along for months. But one thing was clear to me: I wanted to do AI.
Through a few coincidences I landed in a small film bubble, people who build films with AI. And that's where I realised: I actually enjoy this. I'm not a trained media designer, not a photographer, not a filmmaker. But that's exactly why I had no blinkers, only curiosity. And the drive to work my way deep in.
Until finally a friend asked me for help. He was giving a talk at a marketing conference and needed a video to go with it. I built it for him, with AI, at my pace, my way. The response afterwards was so positive that I couldn't ignore it anymore. “You have to sell this.” I heard that more than once that weekend. And in that moment it clicked: the boy who opened doors with “Fish fingers too?” is still there. Only the product is new.
And ever since I've been building KiAvatars. From my office in Meerbusch. With the firm conviction that over 20 years in sales and marketing, four years in schools and one year of AI aren't breaks, but the same story from three perspectives.
You're never too old for the next beginning. And anything you truly want to learn, you can learn.
My promise: Reliability. Honesty. Quality. Respect.
My motto: Simplicity always beats complexity.