# David Karandish

> David Karandish is a St. Louis software founder and the founder and CEO of Capacity. After six small ventures before college graduation, he and longtime business partner Chris Sims built the company that became Answers.com, survived a search-algorithm shock soon after a $127 million take-private transaction, and sold the business in 2014 for more than $900 million. He launched Capacity in 2017 to automate repetitive support work; by September 2026, the company said it had passed $100 million in annual recurring revenue, served more than 20,000 organizations and raised more than $159 million.

- **Role:** Founder and CEO at Capacity
- **Organizations:** Capacity, Answers Corporation, Find Stuff, Create a Loop, Prepare.ai, Nerdy
- **Education:** Bachelor's degree in computer science with a second major in entrepreneurship, cum laude, Washington University in St. Louis
- **Known for:** Co-founded the business that became Answers.com and led it through a sale valued at more than $900 million in 2014., Built Answers.com's subscription revenue from zero to more than $100 million following a severe loss of search-driven traffic., Founded Capacity, which reported more than $100 million in annual recurring revenue and more than 20,000 customer organizations in 2026.

## Career timeline

- **High school** — Taught himself to code and started a small web and Windows application development business.
- **2005** — Completed his studies at Washington University in St. Louis and left graduation early to appear on The Apprentice: Martha Stewart.
- **2006** — Co-founded Find Stuff with Chris Sims, building comparison-shopping and vertical search sites.
- **2011** — Helped engineer the $127 million take-private acquisition of Answers.com and merged it with Find Stuff.
- **2011** — Within 90 days of the acquisition, a Google algorithm change made the business unprofitable in about two hours, prompting a shift toward acquisitions and subscription revenue.
- **2014** — The parent company of Answers.com was sold to a private equity firm for more than $900 million.
- **2017** — Co-founded Capacity with Chris Sims in St. Louis to automate repetitive customer and employee support work.
- **2019** — The company rebranded from Jane.ai to Capacity and announced a $13.2 million financing round.
- **2023** — Capacity acquired Textel, Denim Social and LumenVox as it expanded across messaging, social and voice.
- **2024** — Capacity announced acquisitions of Lucy, Envision and Linc, plus a $26 million Series D round.
- **2025** — Capacity announced $92 million in investments, reached profitability at $60 million ARR and completed its 10th and 11th recent acquisitions.
- **2026** — Capacity reported passing $100 million ARR in June, serving more than 20,000 organizations and raising more than $54 million in Series E funding in September.

## Achievements

- Co-founded the business that became Answers.com and led it through a sale valued at more than $900 million in 2014.
- Built Answers.com's subscription revenue from zero to more than $100 million following a severe loss of search-driven traffic.
- Founded Capacity, which reported more than $100 million in annual recurring revenue and more than 20,000 customer organizations in 2026.
- Named a 2014 CEO of the Year Gold winner by the CEO World Awards and received a Silver Stevie Award for Executive of the Year.
- Is listed as an inventor on a patent application concerning ingestion and retrieval of dynamic source documents in automated question-answering systems.
- Served as an early investor and board member at education technology company Nerdy and on boards connected to computer science and AI education.

## Latest updates

- **2026-09** — Capacity announced more than $54 million in Series E funding, bringing reported total capital raised to more than $159 million.
- **2026-08** — Capacity was ranked No. 432 on the 2026 Inc. 5000 after reporting 813% three-year growth.
- **2026-06** — Capacity reported surpassing $100 million in annual recurring revenue, representing 20x growth in 3.5 years.
- **2026-01** — Karandish published Capacity's Closure Index research on the gap between a closed customer-service ticket and a customer's sense that the issue is truly resolved.

## Links

- Website: https://capacity.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidkarandish
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/dkarandish
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVUS4MvVt3c

---

Profile page: https://yespress.io/david-karandish
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-09-27