Interview with David Kosmayer | Founder of Bookmark.com

Written by True Tamplin, BSc, CEPF®

Reviewed by Subject Matter Experts

Updated on March 22, 2023

David Kosmayer | Founder of Bookmark.com

Introduction

Success leaves clues.

Finance Strategists sat down with David Kosmayer, founder of Bookmark.com. He shared his thoughts on the past, present, and future of the company, as well as the insight he gained from running the business.

Who is David Kosmayer?

Q: Who are you and what’s your background?

My name is David Kosmayer the CEO and Founder of Bookmark.com. I created my first digital company in 1999 working in my parents' basement. We were a marketing agency and affiliate program that was active for ten years and earned $60 million in total revenue during that span. I exited the business in 2009, took a few years off, then decided it was time to create my current company, Bookmark Your Life Inc.

Q: Who has been your biggest influence, and why did they have such a significant effect on you?

I would say my brother, who is 13 years older. Dan was an instrumental piece of teaching and showed me the ropes of starting a digital business which we eventually partnered on together for ten years. I saw him build an online business on the side in the late nineties that spurred me to explore the internet stratosphere in 1998.

Q: Knowing what you know now, what would you have told yourself when you were starting out?

I’ve thought about this recently so I would say it’s to specialize as a company. To be the best to a specific customer segment niche. It doesn’t have to be the whole pie at first, just a slice to get a foothold in the door and then become a brand that can eventually take a bigger and bigger share of a market.

Business

Q: What is Bookmark.com?

Bookmark is the world's first and fastest AI-powered website builder and eCommerce solution. We enable small businesses to sell anything online, whether that be digital courses, eCommerce products, or to take bookings. We can take care of all of that. The key difference is the sophistication of our AI capabilities, which were architected into the infrastructure of Bookmark from the early planning stages of the software.

Bookmark’s AIDA (Artificial Intelligence Design Assistant) asks you a few questions to understand your business and goals and then your website build begins right before your eyes, literally.

AIDA takes over your cursor and puts together the most optimal website build. You are able to add, delete, or edit any part of your website through our drag and drop editor to personalize your brand. Once your website is published, Bookmark’s AI monitors your visitors' engagement to understand how each visitor interacts with your website.

This data is converted into what we call your VXS (Visitor Experience Score - measured on a 100 point scale). Each week or two (depending on visitors) AIDA sends you suggestions on how to improve your score. These suggestions are easily actionable from your dashboard, though you can approve the AI to apply the actual changes if you approve them.

Bookmark is considered a next-generation website builder with major improvements over the traditional template builders on the market.

Q: What makes Bookmark.com stand out from your competitors?

What makes Bookmark stand out are the AI capabilities incorporated automatically into each website. Our goal is to create the highest engagement for websites. Engagement typically converts visitors into paying customers.

Our proprietary algorithms ensure your website is always optimized to maximize each visitor that comes through. More engagement means more visitors and more sales - all powered by AI. We’re the first and only website builder that can truly make this claim.

Q: What led you to start Bookmark.com?

The first company I founded with my brother worked with a lot of business owners that were taking the leap online for the first time. This was back in early 2000 when going online with a website was still a new business concept. My company helped businesses get traffic to their websites through our affiliate program, but before a business could get traffic, they had to be online.

This is where I discovered and learned about all the options on the market for the creation of websites, and also acquired a deep understanding of transacting online (taking payments) as well.

Through helping hundreds of businesses personally, I came to realize that (for the average person) the process of getting a website online and operational was too difficult. I decided it was time to start Bookmark with the motto of simplicity and automation to level the playing field for entrepreneurs.

Q: What has the experience of building the business taught you?

Oh wow, the lessons keep coming. Eeach week I learn something new and grow. One thing that comes to mind is that past success does not guarantee future success. The first business I created seemed to have come easy. It was the infancy of the internet in the early 2000s and creating a service business to help other businesses get online was a good place to be.

Now the majority of businesses are online, and everyone wants to take a crack at being an entrepreneur. The competition is high. To succeed, you really need to level up and stay on top of your business daily. This is not a task for the faint of heart. The level of resilience and constant self-doubt that you have to overcome is enormous.

The glorified entrepreneur journey has its ups and downs, but what this business has taught me is to not get too high when things are good and not to get too low when it's bad. This ebb and flow is constant.

Q: Where do you see things headed for you personally and in business in the next five years?

I feel Bookmark is on the verge of a breakout year in 2022. We have been in stealth mode building our superior technology and now it’s time to commercialize our product. With strong partnerships like Moneris, BMO, and RBC we know our product is ready for a global audience. We’re completing a strategic fundraising round currently by carefully selecting who we want to be a part of this journey as the next five years will be explosive. I am hoping we will be the overnight success that was five years in the making through hard work and dedication.

For more information, visit https://www.bookmark.com/ .

About the Author

True Tamplin, BSc, CEPF®

True Tamplin is a published author, public speaker, CEO of UpDigital, and founder of Finance Strategists.

True is a Certified Educator in Personal Finance (CEPF®), author of The Handy Financial Ratios Guide, a member of the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing, contributes to his financial education site, Finance Strategists, and has spoken to various financial communities such as the CFA Institute, as well as university students like his Alma mater, Biola University, where he received a bachelor of science in business and data analytics.

To learn more about True, visit his personal website or view his author profiles on Amazon, Nasdaq and Forbes.