Fractional GM for wine businesses.

I come in, find what's broken, build the fix, train your team, and hand it off. Tasting room, wholesale, marketing, operations, wherever the problem is.

Start a conversation See the track record

Brands I've worked with

  • Ste. Michelle Wine Estates
  • Stag's Leap Wine Cellars
  • Champagne Nicolas Feuillatte
  • Antinori
  • Winebow
  • Southern Glazer's
  • Columbia Crest
  • Precept Wine
  • Waterbrook
  • Villa Maria
  • Ten to One Rum
  • Riedel
  • Diageo
  • Microsoft
  • Google
  • Salesforce
  • Live Nation
  • Cirque du Soleil

Three ways to work together

Every engagement is scoped after a conversation, not from a menu. These are the shapes it usually takes.

Assessment

2–4 weeks. I walk the business, talk to the team, look at the numbers, and hand you a prioritized plan you can execute with or without me.

Fractional GM

Ongoing, part-time. A standing seat in the business. I own a set of outcomes, run the systems, and report to you like any other senior hire, at a fraction of the cost.

Interim seat

2–4 months. Someone left. I hold the role, clean it up, hire the replacement, train them, and hand it off properly.

Where I work

Tasting room & DTC

Club growth, guest experience, staffing and scheduling, SOPs, events, and the scoreboard that tells you if it's working.

Wholesale & distribution

Distributor management, rep enablement, chain and grocery pathways, pricing, depletion tracking, trade tools.

Marketing & brand

Positioning, brand systems, trade marketing, PR and partnerships, content that sells wine instead of describing it.

Partnerships & programs

National partnership programs, co-branded activations, and trade events, built and run end to end. Past partners include Live Nation, Cirque du Soleil, Riedel, Microsoft, and Diageo.

Operations & systems

Processes, reporting, hiring and training, procurement and sourcing (domestic and overseas), tech stack decisions, software and automation. Built or specified, whichever you need. Data first: I pull it, reconcile it, and build the scoreboard around what it says.

How it works

  1. 01

    Listen

    You tell me what's going on. I ask a lot of questions.

  2. 02

    Assess

    I pull the data myself (POS, club, distributor depletions, financials), reconcile it, and find out what it's really saying before I propose anything.

  3. 03

    Build

    Systems, programs, hires, tools. Whatever the plan calls for.

  4. 04

    Train

    Your team runs it, not me.

  5. 05

    Hand off

    Documented, measured, and yours.

Track record

Most recent

Turned a Seattle tasting room from down 14% to up 19% in one quarter.

Took over the room and market July 1 with full P&L accountability. The room was down 14% through June. First quarter results:

33 pts
revenue swing, H1 to Q3
+123%
club pickups
−52%
aged pickup backlog
17
SOPs and playbooks shipped

Also: four hires recruited and trained, a staff hub (shift board, product quiz, RSVP, booking), a private events program from zero to seven standing partners, club cancellations down 31%, wholesale placements up 7%, and a POS reconciliation error found and corrected that had been understating room revenue.

Twenty years as an operator, not an advisor.

  • Director, Seattle Market Sleight of Hand Cellars 2026–present

    Tasting room P&L, club, private events, and Western Washington wholesale.

  • Co-Founder & Managing Partner Team Material 2023–present

    Brand strategy, sales enablement, and trade marketing for wine and spirits brands.

  • Founder Wine with Seth 2025–present

    Tastings, WineSchool, WineWiki (6,000+ pages), Mistral WineCards, and the WineApp.

  • Sales Manager, Seattle Market Lachini Vineyards 2024–2025

    Grew off-premise accounts 200% and opened a direct-distribution path into Washington grocery.

  • Co-Founder & Managing Director Coolperx 2015–2024

    Scaled a brand-strategy and merchandise firm to $1.6M. Ran national programs with Live Nation and Cirque du Soleil, enterprise accounts with Microsoft, Google, Salesforce, and Diageo, and $1M+ in Shopify operations. Built ClimateCost, a Scope 3 procurement tool.

  • Co-Founder & CEO vSpin 2012–2018

    Patented decanting system, Riedel licensing deal, 2018 German Design Award, NBC Today Show.

  • Director of Sales & Operations Tred 2014–2015

    Built the sales and ops team for a venture-backed auto marketplace. Salesforce rollout; partnerships with Tesla, Microsoft, and Carfax.

  • Account Executive PromoShop 2007–2014

    Sourced and ran branded programs for Ste. Michelle, Antinori, Stag's Leap, Nicolas Feuillatte, Columbia Crest, and Precept. Brokered The North Face's first co-branded corporate program with Microsoft.

WSET Level 3 with Distinction · Speaker at ClimateWeek NYC and Conscious Capitalism · Featured on NBC Today Show and CBS The Talk

30+ national and international brand partnerships negotiated and managed.

Also available

Corporate and private tastings, trade and staff education sessions, speaking, media appearances, Pour Guide for tasting rooms, and WineWiki content licensing. Ask in the form below.

Tell me what's going on.

No pitch. If I'm not the right fit, I'll tell you who is.

Something's not working and you're not sure where to start.

Start a conversation