Chess.com Staff Profiles: David Kaufmann!

Today it is our great pleasure to present to you another Chess.com Staff Profile, David!

What is your name?

David Kaufmann

Where do you live?

I live in Tarragona, at the east of Catalonia. I love this city because it is a mix between beach and sun and also mountains. It is also a city of rich historical culture of the Romans and it has some very nice traditions like "Castellers". Despite the city is a bit "dead" during Winter, as soon as spring comes, the city is full of life again. People here is very nice and warm and maybe you did not know but we hosted the Mediterranean Games last year (Tarragona 2018) with professional athletes from around the world (like a mini-version of the Olympic games).

I could tell you hundreds of more things but there will be just one way of enjoying it: #visitTarragona.

Note: I have not been paid by the local government to promote our city. :)

How long have you worked for Chess.com and what do you do?

Time flies! On December 2018, it made 2 years since I joined the company and I could not be happier. I started doing some SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and ASO (same but for our apps), also some Spanish translations, social... and step by step focused more on Marketing and global growth.

On December 2016, we had a bit more than 1 million clicks from Google to our site. On January 2019, we have nearly 6M clicks every month to our site (English version + all our i18n amazing versions). Also, our apps (Android + iOS) have grown a lot. On Android, we have now nearly 2M devices with our app installed and on iOS we do not have that metric but we can tell that +370k users use our app on a monthly basis.

Also, we are the #603 most visited site on the planet. That is huge!

What do you like about working at Chess.com?

I moved to Germany 3 years ago to work for another chess company. My wife and I moved there without even knowing much about the language and without knowing anyone. But we were happy about this opportunity. Life there is a bit hard (cold, nearly no-sun hours...). I usually woke up really early (6am) and arrived home pretty late. I was not really happy with my life there but I tried my best and kept working hard.

After a few months, I realized that working there was not a dream. A ton of hours, pressure and no happiness.

9 months later, Erik came to the rescue. He was very nice on day 1 and I can tell the same 2 years later. Working here has changed my life completely. The happiness, team-work and gratefulness that is installed in this company are simply amazing.

I got up every day feeling happy about the opportunity to work here and I hope I will be able to do the same for the following years. I hope to not leave Chess.com for the next years but in case that sad moment happens, I will be always grateful to Erik for all what he has done for me.

Now back to the team, every day I am super impressed for the amazing skills and hard work of each of you. You make things that seem impossible for me and that delight millions of members. You all are amazing and each of you have something unique. Never forget it :)

I was really happy to meet all of you on the yearly meetup. I am sure this year will be even better. Only thing I am worried about is that if we keep growing at this path, we will need to hire an hotel just for us.

What are your other hobbies and interests?

I love chess! I started playing when I was 4 years old and it has been always with me. I am also big fan of the startup world, marketing, growth and specially SEO. As Danny said, I breathe and dream about SEO. haha :)

I also like to watch football and in this last year I have discovered a new passion for watching UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) and doing some small trainings.

But above all, I love travelling with my wife and animals. I still do not have kids but I have 7 animals (3 dogs and 4 cats), which is busy but funny :)

If you could have any superpower, what would it be?

Speak all languages so as to be able to travel to each country in the world and be able to communicate fluently without any issues.

0-0 or 0-0-0?

0-0-0 always produces more interesting games, sacrifices, and as soon as you castle, you know you are ready for the battle. haha :)

Thank you David for your tireless efforts to help Chess.com and thank you everyone for reading!