Risk & Business Magazine Lloyd Sadd Insurance Brokers Fall 2016 | Page 9

MAP YOUR FUTURE STRATEGY

LESSONS FROM DAVID KARANDISH,
CEO OF ANSWERS.COM

Map Your Future
Strategy

Lessons from David Karandish

D

avid Karandish is a giant
in the tech field. Since his
time as an undergraduate,
he was founding companies
(such as Expo Group) and
working as a consultant in e-commerce.
In 2006, he and a partner founded AFCV
Holdings, and in 2011, David and his
partner decided to purchase Answers.
com. Through his leadership as CEO
and the strategies that he set forth since
then, the company was acquired by Apex
Holdings during 2014 in a deal that was
reportedly worth $900 million. There
are a number of key business lessons
that David has learned from his past
successes. Though these were learned
in the tech industry, they translate
surprisingly well to any business.
One of the most important things that
David seeks to impart to businesses
and potential business owners is to
think not only about the product or
service you are hoping to sell but also
the distribution channel, or your “goto-market strategy”. How you distribute
the product that you create is often just
as important, if not more important,
than what the product actually is.
From a business perspective, these
differences can mean drastic changes in
cost. As a quick example, consider the
difference between the overhead cost
of running a brick-and-mortar retail
location and that of an online retailer.
Another important lesson is to weigh
the advantages of operating your
business either in a “big pond” or in a
“small pond”, from a physical-operations

perspective. The advantages of a small
pond are not always so obvious. In tech,
for instance, it is better to be a startup
in the Midwest than it is to be one in
Silicon Valley. Why? Cost, the ease of
finding quality talent, and the ease of
b