Our story

Welcome to the Bookbrains community, where readers, writers, students, and all others alike can come together under the umbrella of a most powerful and timeless resource, BOOKS! How many times have you read, read and reread a page because you put your book away and forgot where you left off? My name is Kurt Gabriel, and my father (Bob Gabriel, inventor of the Bookbrains Bookmark) and I are here to solve this all-too-common inconvenience! Now, just as I wouldn’t buy our leather from just anyone, let me tell you our story!

Now, I’m writing this story mostly about my father, because I know he’s too humble to tell it how it really is. Though we have only launched in June 2015, my dad invented the bookmark close to seven years ago, while reading his Bible and wondering “Why does nothing like this exist?” The company, however, has been unfortunately buried under the mass of responsibilities that come along with having seven children and a full time job in the military. He saw us when he could, but there was no chance he would replace the time he had with us, his kids, to go all in with this business. He played with designs at work when he could and developed the product, but couldn’t quite invest and market as much as it would have required to take off, especially with the evolving media and marketing strategies constantly changing and expiring.

It didn’t help in 2008 when he was diagnosed with leukemia limphoma. He was forced to retire from the military, and a series of events landed us across the country from our hometown of 10 years in Lompoc, California to a little town called Swanzey, New Hampshire. Culture shock, weather shift, and income drop. We had as much fun as we could in our 20-foot RV on our road trip across the country, and have many fond memories in spite of the situation. We were blessed to find the bottom floor of a two story house for rent, and only for just as much rent as we receive per month through some mineral rights my parents own. They were stressful times, and we had to resort to receiving food at the local church many times when my dad’s part-time job substitute teaching didn’t give him enough work days. I was barely a teenager, and a lot of interfamilial turmoil and conflict occurred on a frequent basis. But my father stood strong through the intense chemotherapy, financial struggle, and split family as the one constant. He was our rock and our provider, and I’ll never thank him enough. Needless to say, there was no room for the bookmark in that chapter of our story.

To add to things, our only hope for financial stability arrived when my dad got the opportunity to work as a civilian contractor back home in California on the Air Force Base. It was very exciting! At least until he moved out there to work, having to leave us behind. You see, we couldn’t quite afford a house in California just yet, and he and my only older brother shared a small apartment while my dad started to save money to finance the move back to the Golden State. There was definitely no room to start a business while balancing two households and feeding nine mouths.

Bookbrains was put on the back burner for far too long. I was too young to realize what a gem my dad had stumbled upon. So, when we fast forward to 2014, you see a boy who is barely discovering that all of my father's hard work was to be in vain no longer. The next year, I decided to help take on the task, and revive my dad’s dreams. Fighting cancer, raising seven children, putting one through college (soon, I will be going as well), praying his contract would be renewed and that he would not be let go from his job, and paying off debts left over from the rougher years, I wonder how he kept his sanity. I chose to help him spearhead our effort, and people took his idea seriously for the first time. That brings us to where we are now, reaching readers everywhere with our product and hoping to inspire all to follow your dreams and do what you love. Enjoy our content, product, story, and keep reading!