Dotkeeper sat down with Niels Bosma, the tech-entrepreneur behind Offerta, FileStar and Tessin, to talk about business ideas and domain names. We got to know more about his new project and find out why he thinks it is so important to secure domains and manage them properly.
“Dotkeeper has helped me buy valuable domains and the entire process ran like clockwork. I am so glad that you managed to get hold of them, and at such an affordable price too. I feel very secure knowing that you’re looking after my domains.”
Niels, tell us a little about your background
I grew up in Höör, in the south of Sweden, and studied computer science at Linköping University. Throughout my entire career I have been involved with start-ups. Among other projects, I started Offerta and managed it for 7 years before selling it in 2017.
Even then I worked with many different domains.
Do you have many projects ongoing?
I have a number of lucrative side-projects that I build up for fun more than anything else. It’s something of a hobby of mine, you could say.
One of these projects is SEO Tools for Excel. It works as a Swiss army knife for marketers and it includes, among other things, links to Google Analytics and AdWords. I’ve been closely involved in this project – I’ve even coded bits of it myself, although I have people to help me with that now.
Side-projects let me try out new things. I’m fast-moving with my ideas so it’s great to be able to try out different growth strategies. I love developing tools that save people time. It comes from trying to create tools and services that I want for myself, so in that sense I put myself in the position of the customer.
Tell us about the FileStar project, that was released at the end of January 2019.
I have a grand vision for this project – you will be able to do whatever you want with whichever file you want!
You should be able to do simple operations with everything being performed quickly, saving you time in the process.
It is a program that integrates with operating systems to help users work with their files in different ways. For example, we support every imaginable type of file conversion. To take another example, say you want to upload a file to a website, but the website only allows files with a maximum size of 1MB. In such a case, you would be able to downsize the file easily in FileStar – it only takes three clicks in fact.
FileStar is a platform with a huge number of small ”skills”. We already have 20,000 skills, but I’d say we need 20,000 more before the current version is complete.
This is how easy tools for managing files should be!
Can you tell us a little about Tessin?
I’ve put my heart into Tessin, and I have two wonderful co-founders on my side. In a typical working week, I spend more time with Tessin than on any other project.
We started it up in 2014. It is a crowdfunding service, a digital platform for property investors. It is a service that helps small investors put money into different property developments. Tessin has enabled investments of over 1.3 billion Swedish kronor since it started, through over a hundred real estate projects.
Dotkeeper helped us to purchase Tessin.com and I am so delighted and thankful that you arranged it! It saved me an unbelievable amount of time. ”Normal people” just can’t make the kind of deal that you made, certainly not at the price you negotiated.
That domain is worth a couple of million kronor now, without a doubt.
With Tessin’s size and status it’s important that we have secure domain management – that’s why we value Dotkeeper so highly.
When you start thinking about new business ideas, how central is the domain aspect?
It is immediately an important question. Before the company name is decided you check on Google to see if the domain exists. It stands or falls with the domain.
As soon as I get a business idea, I take the chance to register the domain. There’re quite a few domains that I’ve bought, that are now lying in wait. I have them locked up and ready to use.
When you decide to invest in a business idea, it’s important to buy-up domains that are similar to your own, misspellings and so on, so that you can protect your brand and its trademarks.
At Offerta we once had a situation where domain pirates tried to blackmail us. There are a lot of jokers and bad actors out there. I’m not a big fan of them.
I’ve talked with people who have forgotten to renew their domains. They’d forgotten to pay their invoice, so the renewal date had passed. In these particular cases, they got lucky and managed to re-register their domains further down the line, but their sites had been down for a whole day. It is so easy to do – all it takes is for a bill to get caught in your spam folder. Therefore, it feels a lot safer to move domain management over to you at Dotkeeper.
Have you any advice to other entrepreneurs in connection with domain names?
At the outset, from day one, you should make sure that your company’s trademarks are protected and secure. Buy up the most common domains, including spelling mistakes. In the end it is a small price to pay to protect yourself.
Manage your domains properly, make sure that you don’t lose them. What happens if, for example, your invoice for domain registration accidentally ends up in the bin?
How have Dotkeeper been able to help you? And how have you found working with us?
I am extremely satisfied with our partnership!
You have bought two especially valuable domains for me, and the whole process really ran like clockwork. I am so glad that you managed to get hold of them, and at such an affordable price too. I feel very secure knowing that you’re looking after my domains. I will definitely get help from you again in the future, and I’d also recommend you to other people. In fact, I’ve already done so several times!