David Mankovics

I have led marketing in agencies and inside consumer businesses

I have led brands and commercial marketing at agencies, inside consumer businesses and as a startup founder. Those roles taught me how decisions change when the same person has to answer for the campaign and its commercial results. I am pursuing a senior in-house marketing leadership role where that experience can help a team move from direction to execution.

10

years in senior marketing leadership

35

people on the largest team I led

Shrooly consumer hardwareShrooly
Rossmann television campaignRossmann
Sybrillo campaign imagerySybrillo

I built my marketing frameworks during my MBA

During my MBA at Budapest Metropolitan University, I developed the frameworks I still use with most businesses. Agency work and founder roles tested them under commercial pressure.

Across national accounts

At Reason & Friends, I led Brand and Performance Marketing across 14 national accounts in retail, healthcare and automotive as the team grew from five to 35 people. I also led a Suzuki influencer campaign that introduced turbo engines to a consumer audience.

Inside consumer businesses

At Sybrillo and Shrooly, the role carried direct commercial consequences. I had to connect product, audience, acquisition and customer communication with the choices the business made next.

The projects that shaped how I lead

These projects show the business situations I have faced, the responsibility I brought to each one and the decisions that moved them forward.

Shrooly

Consumer hardware and subscriptions · Brand repositioning, paid acquisition, lifecycle marketing and crisis communication · 2023–2024

Shrooly moved beyond a specialist audience and built a broader consumer proposition

Paid media had plateaued at roughly $200K in monthly gross revenue, while the business prepared to introduce subscriptions. As Head of Marketing, I shifted the brand from a specialist mycology niche toward everyday consumers who wanted the product without becoming mushroom-pod enthusiasts.

Obstacle
Acquisition had exhausted a solution-aware audience, and shipping delays had created a customer-trust problem just as the business needed a new commercial model.
What I brought
Hands-on leadership across communication, paid media, direct mail and email, coordinating a 12-person marketing team and a media-buying agency.
What I did
I defined new ICPs, rebuilt messaging and positioning, launched education-led acquisition, and led the crisis response around delayed pre-orders.
10×

larger addressable market

3.4×

blended ROAS

Explore the Shrooly case
Rossmann

Reason & Friends · Retail · Brand strategy, TV commercial and integrated campaign · 2019–2023

Rossmann replaced the printed leaflet with a character built for television and the customer journey

Rossmann wanted to leave printed promotional leaflets behind, raise brand awareness and give customers a reason to enjoy the campaign. I created the centaur concept, shaped the hero character, wrote campaign elements and directed point-of-sale design with the agency team.

Obstacle
A familiar retail promotion model needed a new format that could entertain viewers while remaining useful across campaigns, employee training, roadshows and loyalty programs.
What I brought
Retail strategy, integrated campaign thinking and the ability to connect a character concept to television, point of sale and the wider customer journey.
What I did
I developed the central concept and character, guided campaign writing, directed point-of-sale design and led the television commercial with client, creative and production partners.
10M

campaign views

40%+

target audience reached

Explore the Rossmann and Suzuki campaigns
Sybrillo

Consumer hardware · Product marketing, ecommerce and crowdfunding · 2015–2019

Sybrillo took a programmable action-camera system to 52 countries

I founded Sybrillo to make smooth, remotely controlled action-camera footage possible across uses from skiing to watersports. As CMO, I built the story, audience and commercial path for a hardware category that customers had not seen before.

Obstacle
A new consumer product needed to earn attention, build demand and secure capital before it could compete internationally.
What I brought
Founder responsibility for brand, positioning, messaging, crowdfunding and investor relations, supported by a 12-person team.
What I did
I built a 13,000-person newsletter, created the Kickstarter launch and email sequence, then combined paid social and PR to maintain momentum after acquisition slowed.
13K

newsletter subscribers

52

countries reached

Explore the Sybrillo case

I set direction, then stay close to execution

I lead as a player-coach. I set commercial and brand direction, make the decisions that need leadership attention and stay directly involved with specialists as each campaign takes shape. That gives a team a clear brief, visible trade-offs and a practical standard for what reaches the customer.

My agency background made me comfortable working across disciplines. My client-side experience made the commercial consequence of every decision impossible to ignore.

Current leadership across education, SaaS and global sports data

Since 2024, I have been Fractional CMO at ScaleGrove. I lead customer-data, marketing-system and digital-product initiatives.

University enrollment became a connected digital system

At a university, I led a 10-person digital team through the introduction of Salesforce and AI. I digitalized intake processes and optimized marketing and funnel operations, saving 600 administrative hours each month while increasing student intake.

Surgeon education SaaS

For a surgeon education company, I worked on a subscription and SaaS product.

World Aquatics

For 1.5 years as an independent consultant, I advised World Aquatics on global digital-product and vendor strategy for its live sports-data ecosystem.

Healthcare education growth

I rebuilt growth strategy for a healthcare education company, increasing inbound leads 25% in three months.

I use AI to keep marketing decisions connected to evidence and judgment

I designed and built a personal operating system that connects research, production, review and delivery. It makes sources and decision points visible, while a person remains accountable for the final acceptance.

The system gives me one place to inspect sources, outputs, review results and human acceptance decisions before a marketing decision moves forward.

See the AI operating system

Industries I have led marketing in

Direct roles and national account experience across consumer businesses, retail, automotive, EdTech, SaaS and sports technology.

Retail, healthcare and automotive

Reason & Friends. Brand and performance marketing across 14 national accounts, including Rossmann and Suzuki.

Consumer hardware and subscriptions

Sybrillo and Shrooly. Product marketing, ecommerce, paid acquisition and lifecycle marketing.

EdTech and SaaS

At ScaleGrove, I lead customer-data and marketing-system projects for a university and a surgeon education company.

Sports technology and live data

World Aquatics. Global digital-product and vendor strategy for a live sports-data ecosystem.

I am looking for a senior in-house marketing leadership role

I set a clear direction and make the hard marketing calls. Then I stay involved until the customer sees the result.