INTERVIEW
BETTER
FUTURE STRATEGY
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 “go-to-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
building a good team. Think about the ways
that your company could benefit depending
on what size “pond” you decide to locate
your business in, geographically or spatially
speaking. Would a lot of competition
help or hurt your business? How might
your team be different depending on your
geographic location?
The most important lesson that David
outlines, however, is twofold. Most
industries have innovations and changes
that come in waves, meaning that it can
be easy to be either too early or too late to
“catch a wave” and ride it to success. The
example he often uses to describe these
6
waves is that of YouTube, which formed at
the perfect time to become a juggernaut.
Though dozens of other similar companies
existed, YouTube opted to utilize Flash
technology in their videos, which not only
opened them up to a universal user base, but
also foresaw the rise of Flash as an Internet
standard a few years later. The best way to
find your “wave,” according to Karandish,
is to “jump ahead” 10 years into the future
and think about what your industry might
look like. You can then work backwards
from there and determine what the right
course of action might be. Thinking about
the future and planning for it is one of the
keys to success in any industry. Don’t be
caught on the receding tide of the wave; ride
right at the top of it.
Ultimately, Karandish believes that passion
is the driving force behind startups and
businesses in general. Whether your passion
is for the business itself or for the product
that you are creating does not matter, as
long as the passion is within you for what
you are doing. Without passion, there is
nothing to get you through the bad days.
David’s passion is creating things in the
technology space. What passion do you
have? What is your driving force? +
David Karandish is responsible for setting
corporate strategy and driving reven