Breaking Founder Dependency and Building Leadership That Scales with Andrew Razumovsky with CANDA Solutions

Featuring Andrew Razumovsky, co-founder of CANDA Solutions, this episode of *Growth Think Tank* explores what it takes to scale a company, develop leaders, and build an organization that can operate beyond the founders. Founded in 2008, CANDA Solutions has grown into an Inc. 5000 Rank No. 538 (2026) company serving federal government needs in vetting, adjudication, and investigations management. Andrew shares lessons from CANDA's growth journey, including bringing in outside coaching to sharpen strategy, establish metrics, and strengthen leadership. He also discusses using AI to analyze data while keeping human judgment at the center and empowering teams to solve problems independently. Episode Highlights & Time Stamps 0:03 Founder Growth Challenge 4:06 Building Kenda Solutions 5:01 AI and Human Judgment 7:58 Early Growth and Founder Dependence 10:19 Learning to Ask for Help 14:02 Growing Leaders Internally 18:08 Starfish Leadership Model 21:15 Advice for Scaling Founders In This Episode, You'll Learn: Why founder dependency can become the biggest barrier to growth How founders can transition from doing everything to developing leaders Why investing in your own leadership development matters How outside coaching and perspective can accelerate organizational growth Why internal leadership development creates a stronger organization How to create a culture where employees bring solutions, not just problems What the starfish leadership model looks like in practice How AI can complement human judgment rather than replace it Why founders need to become comfortable letting go of decisions How to build a company that can operate and scale beyond the founder The ultimate goal isn't to make yourself less important to your company. It's to build a company that no longer depends on you for everything. Connect With Today's Guest Andrew Razumovsky is the Co-Founder and Principal of CANDA Solutions, a technology and risk management company serving national security and federal government organizations. With more than two decades of experience in technology, enterprise architecture, risk management, and business development, Andrew has helped lead CANDA's growth and product innovation. He is also focused on using technology and AI to improve risk management while keeping human decision-making at the center. How to Connect with Andrew Razumovsky LinkedIn: Andrew Razumovsky(LinkedIn) https://www.linkedin.com/in/arazumovsky/ Company Website: CANDA Solutions https://www.candasolutions.com/ – to learn more about his work and platform Get In Touch with Andrew: Contact https://www.candasolutions.com/contact Resources & Next Steps Ready to take your leadership energy to the next level? Explore free training and resources at training.coreelevation.com https://training.coreelevation.com/ to help you identify energy leaks, strengthen your leadership presence, and elevate your team's performance. 🌐 Explore More: training.coreelevation.com https://training.coreelevation.com/ 🎧 Listen to the Full Episode: Growth Think Tank Podcast https://growththinktank.com/

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Realize that in order for us to grow, few things need to happen. We need to grow kind of management within the company or bring people who we know. And at the same time that we as founders need to grow, okay? And the most important thing, kind of which and kind of it's an old saying, you know, but you don't want to be the smartest people, person in the room. But we were kind of the smartest in our company, right? Obviously, because we started, we were wearing all hats. We were doing it all from, from sales to cyber, okay? I mean, to, to anything, to government registration websites. And we were doing it all. So, and what we did, because obviously we didn't have enough resources to learn kind of how to do financial management.

• 0:45Speaker 00

  My business partner took a financial track in Wharton. And I took kind of sales and leadership track in Harvard Business School. And it was over a few years. And that was kind of a first push for us, kind of to start thinking a little bit differently.

• 1:01Speaker 01

  If you're a founder who's built something real and now your business can't grow without you in the middle of everything, you're in the right place. I'm Gene Hammond. This is Growth Think Tank, where founders who are ready to stop being the ceiling of their own company, come to think differently, lead better, and build a company that doesn't need them. This is the longest running leadership podcast in the world. Hundreds of Inc. 5000 CEOs have told their stories here. Let's get to work. Today, we're going to talk about breaking founder dependency. Now, when you think about your business, you may think that you just need to work harder, hustle a little bit more, catch up on the weekends, come in early, do a night session after dinner, get that and, you know, catch up on email, whatever it may be. And that is a phase that your business is in now.

• 1:46Speaker 01

  And if you are, listen in because you can continue down that path. And eventually you will get a point where you are the bottleneck of your company. You, it can't grow beyond your hustle because you don't have any more to give. And you're stealing moments away from the team actually supporting you and growing you by being as good as you are. I know that's kind of weird to say, but I've just seen this pattern happen over and over and over. I've been through it myself. My clients have been through it. And so we're here to talk about breaking founder dependency. Our special guest today is the co-founder of Kenda Solutions. They're a software company that serves the government. And he talks about how they've grown beyond the founder dependency, the breaking founder dependency,

• 2:29Speaker 01

  to a company that scales beyond them, leadership at all levels. And, and what that really means and some of the, the things that they, they learned along that journey. That is Andrew Resemowski, probably did not get the, pronounce the future of his last name. But Andrew and I talked about that breaking founder dependency, how they did it. And they went outside their organization. They knew that they couldn't do it alone. And so they were willing to get help. I will be fully transparent. This is not a case study. They're, they're not clients of mine. Some other executive coach had the honor of walking them through this. But what was really beautiful to hear is that they were a good, strong company before, but that executive coach came in and really helped them. And so this is what I do for my clients.

• 3:10Speaker 01

  If we could do it for you, if you're curious about the work we do, the first place to start is download our free book, Get Founder Freedom. We work with a lot of companies that are in this, this mode of founder dependency. And we help them break through that. We do it in a very systematic, organized way through coaching, but also through our proprietary frameworks that will help you create the leadership operating in your system. You can download it for free. Just go to getfounderfreedom.com and you can get started today. You don't have to do anything other than that. And if you do qualify, you will get a chance to talk with me to help you grow your business. And there's no strings attached to that. It's just a chance for us to connect. So go ahead and download the book for free, getfounderfreedom.com. Now here's the interview. Hey Andrew, how are you?

• 3:54Speaker 00

  Hey, I'm good. How are you doing?

• 3:56Speaker 01

  I am fantastic. Excited to have a conversation with you about all things leadership. Let's dive into this. I already let my audience know a little bit about you and about what we talked about today. But tell us about your company, Kenda.

• 4:07Speaker 00

  So Kenda Solutions, and I always spell it out, you know, really, because as even you asked me, people mess it up with Canada, Chris and Andrew, two founders. And I always joked that we were marketing geniuses in 2008 when we named it Kenda. But when we started, idea was really, and we continue to do really the same thing. We realized that there is no good systems in federal government of which look at the personal vetting adjudication and investigations management. And since we implemented the systems on behalf of government and we knew this business domain pretty well, we basically decided with Chris Hagenboom, who was my, still is my business partner,

• 4:51Speaker 00

  to build the software from scratch.

• 4:55Speaker 01

  I know that AI seems to be having an impact. I'm just kind of curious, how is your company embracing AI in this new era?

• 5:02Speaker 00

  So it's interesting. So we kind of started, so certainly, obviously AI is on everybody's mind. And, and you can hear it, I believe every newspaper probably is on the front page, you know, doesn't matter which one you open. But we decided actually kind of to implement our first versions and not generative AI, but AI which actually helps us to bring data together, integrate data together, analyze the data and make a decision on the individual using AI. So that's how we are using it today. Now, across the company, we had some interesting situations that everybody, including developers, I mean, from top to bottom, you know, started using AI.

• 5:45Speaker 00

  And what we realized, it's good to clarify your thoughts, to shape your vision, but your vision has to be yours. AI not going to help you with that. So, so we kind of quite a lot stepped back a little bit from using AI and actually having more conversations, more collaboration, actually more days in office, bringing people back together. Actually, this is bigger driver than just simply asking, you know, pick, pick which one is your favorite clothes, GPT, or whatever it might be. And actually defining really where we're going, why we are going there, what is the future? And from the future of Fresh Haste, like I just want to add, I think of the world we see

• 6:31Speaker 00

  that use of human with AI, not replacing humans, but actually, and we kind of called it actual, actual intelligence versus artificial intelligence. So you, you use AI to bring the data and help you, but you use your actual intelligence to decide, does, does this make sense?

• 6:54Speaker 01

  I think that's the reality of where we are with this. I think a lot of people are talking about replacement. And I now believe that it is the complement. It is the, it is a tool that helps us analyze things quicker, but we still, we can't remove the human element. So we still need leadership. Is that true, Andrew?

• 7:12Speaker 00

  Yeah, without that would be very hard, very hard.

• 7:15Speaker 01

  There was a moment there where I thought I would be replaced by, you know, some robot. But then I thought about my clients who are a little bit slower to technology. They're like, they're not going to want to have the deep conversations that I have in leadership development coaching with a robot. So I think I'm pretty safe for now.

• 7:30Speaker 00

  You're, you're pretty safe in coaching. Yeah, I think in coaching, we are pretty.

• 7:34Speaker 01

  So let's dive into this. You've given us an idea of your company and, you know, you've grown really fast over the last few years. You've actually climbed the ranks and you've got a team of about 145 people. But you did discover, I'm going back in time, founder dependency. I don't know if it's a word that you understood. I've kind of framed it that way. That's where I help with clients. When you realized you, your company was dependent on you, what were the things going on inside your company?

• 7:58Speaker 00

  We started growing, actually.

• 8:01Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 8:02Speaker 00

  And this was probably a little bit over 11 years ago. Because and again, just to give you a rough idea from the timeline, 2008, for about two thousand, first four years, we were basically, you know, doing kind of consulting and supporting the company while building the product. Okay, that was kind of, the model was very simple. Whatever we're making on services, we were investing in the product. And as we build that product and we got a few pretty successful big customers, we realized that in order for us to grow, few things need to happen. We need to grow kind of management within the company or bring people who we know. And at the same time that we as founders need to grow, okay?

• 8:44Speaker 00

  And the most important thing, kind of which and kind of it's an old saying, you know, but you don't want to be the smartest people, person in the room. But we were kind of the smartest in our company, right? Obviously, because we started, we were wearing all hats. We were doing it all from, from sales to cyber, okay? I mean, to, to anything, to government registration websites. And we were doing it all. So, and what we did, because obviously we didn't have enough resources to learn kind of how to do financial management. My business partner took a financial track in Wharton. And I took kind of sales and leadership track in Harvard Business School. And it was over a few years.

• 9:25Speaker 00

  And that was kind of a first push for us, kind of to start thinking a little bit differently, right? Because we both are coming, he comes from, I'm coming from applied mathematics background. He's coming from electrical engineering background. So it's not necessarily your typical CEO or COO, right? So, but, but we were always thinking though, about the application from software standpoint that. Application has to do something which will help eventually the business. You gotta have all bells and whistles which are made for security, which is based on the business we are in. But if we are not helping business, it will be very hard for us to grow.

• 10:01Speaker 01

  I appreciate you going back to that and you got some, you had to find out the skills that you needed and you went out, you know, externally and got them, whatever it is, financial skills and leadership skills. And you brought that back into the organization. Was it a smooth kind of transition or did you have some challenges that you had?

• 10:19Speaker 00

  It was not smooth. It was not smooth. It's never, it never is smooth. Okay. When I hear that it was very smooth transition, especially from big companies, you know, I know, I know it's, I know it's not true, you know? So, I mean, we had challenges, right? I mean, obviously, so I was involved a lot and still relatively involved in sales, you know, kind of in business development. And simply just because of the relationship which are built over the years. My business partner was involved more with the technical, technical direction of the product, etc. So for us to kind of stand back and don't get involved, you know, certainly, certainly took us a while to get there, you know? And I think you will appreciate this and this is not a plug for you.

• 11:03Speaker 00

  It's just true that actually we started working with executive coach in, actually during COVID in 2021, yeah, or 2020, end of 2020. And he also kind of helped us to shape this vision of the company, kind of prepare using metrics, KPIs, etc. What needs to happen to kind of to grow from the kind of, as you said, founder dependence, from founder operating to a true, you know, to a true business.

• 11:33Speaker 01

  I, you know, I'm glad people are getting the support when they need it. Most people are afraid to ask for help. So I'm kind of curious, why did you ask for help? Because you've been successful before, you've taken it so far, but you went outside to find this executive coach.

• 11:47Speaker 00

  So I'm big, man, we both, my business partner and myself are big believers that if everything is working, don't change it. Okay? But, but our growth did slow down, you know? So we were not growing and this is possibly the gap between 2018 and I believe 22 on Inc 5000. So we were not, we were not growing as, as much as we wanted, although it seemed kind of the path and software and everything we had. It seemed to us that we are doing everything right. But we kind of were always open to listen to others. It could be just friends, coworkers, business partners, you know, etc. To kind of understand where possibly something is wrong.

• 12:31Speaker 00

  And that was kind of one of the, I don't even remember how we get to know him, but kind of to bring him, executive coach, who would be coaching at any time, it was only kind of, if you could call it four of us, you know? It basically, it was my business partner, myself and two more in kind of, and so our, these quarterly meetings were relatively small. Four, now I believe we have like 14 people in these meetings, you know? So that's just, just to tell you the growth, you know?

• 12:59Speaker 01

  If you're listening to this show, chances are you're a founder who's built something significant. But you're still too deep in the day to day to see the path forward. That's exactly what the Founder Freedom Strategy Call is for. It's free. It's 30 minutes with me personally. And we'll pinpoint exactly what's keeping you stuck and what you need to do about it. Book your time with me at my personal URL, schedulewithgene.com. Now back to the podcast. Well, you have to shift a few things first. So I wrote a book with my, my co-founder here, my wife, called Get Founder Freedom. And one of the first freedoms you have to get through, kind of a mental freedom. If you carry the same mental approach to your business of, that you did before, you never would have reached this point.

• 13:44Speaker 01

  Would you agree to that? Like, I get, I guess you gotta hustle harder, I gotta work harder. You wouldn't have gotten to the point where you are today. Is that fair to say?

• 13:51Speaker 00

  It is.

• 13:51Speaker 01

  And so you learn to think differently. And then there's, there's a few more freedoms behind that, but I was looking at the notes because we do a lot of research in the company. But you were able to start developing leaders beyond you and your co-founder. How did you?

• 14:03Speaker 00

  Current. So it was combination. So for us, and it's kind of very interesting when new people join the company, you know? Someone comes to office and you know, you start introductions, hi, hi. And after short conversation, about 15, 20 minutes, they realized that majority of people know each other or known each other from the past company. So I'll tell you, so we, very few people on our management team or executive team are actually from this street. Who we actually hired, it's most, most everybody. So for example, we were, we have somebody who worked in Secret Service before, but now is leading our risk and compliance. But my business partner worked with her for 10 years.

• 14:48Speaker 00

  So when she came for the interview, she didn't even know it was an interview. It was just to sit down with me because he worked with her, you know? So I mean, and then in the end of the interview, we tell her, hey, so you wanna, when you wanna start, you know? So, so this was probably the biggest rage because, and there is an old joke, I know you are not in the Washington, this area, but if you've been around Beltway long enough, you eventually will know everybody. So because we worked with variety of big software integrators, we got to know a lot of people in different organizations. And as you know, people move, right? So, so we slowly, our VTO finance, I worked with, my business partner worked for 25 years ago. I worked with him for last 50 years.

• 15:30Speaker 00

  So in a lot of, a lot of people like that in leadership, actually we brought. In some, obviously always looking internally and see how we can grow somebody, what they are missing actually to get to another level. More on technical side, certainly, but this is kind of the two avenues. Yeah, we're not fans of recruiters. Okay?

• 15:52Speaker 01

  I, I have a love hate relationship with recruiters and I find most of the time the ROI isn't there.

• 15:57Speaker 00

  I agree. I am with you 100%. Unless it's a long term, right? I mean, there is no other way.

• 16:03Speaker 01

  Yeah, I do stress to my clients and to anyone who would listen probably, how important it is to create development from different levels of the company. Let them grow with you. And I, I stress this all the time and you can, you can weigh in on this as it relates to your business. A lot of managers focus on the work, right? The, the problems that need to be solved, the, the goals that we have for the quarter, for the year, whatever it may be. And that's important, but you also have to develop the people around you. We've had clients that have lost key executives and those that had built that pipeline of people behind them, had a very smooth transition, those that did not take the time to do that. They focused on the work and only the work.

• 16:45Speaker 01

  They really struggled because they had to go outside and then they would hire bad people and so different.

• 16:51Speaker 00

  Because you, because you don't know, right? I mean, again, it doesn't matter. It's coming from recruiter. I mean, so majority of people, you know, if we, right, my partner and I, if we work with somebody, this person literally becomes trusted, right? I mean, because we know. And, and but I'll tell you, it's interesting, I think on internally, internal growth. I think if you, most people actually will be dedicated, as you said, on their goals for this quarter. They can't think about second quarter, right? But you have to actually dedicate time to talk with the business and company and even with developers, right? Like tech, pure technical people, you actually, they have to understand where the company is going.

• 17:35Speaker 00

  If they don't understand what is the strategy, where the company is going, it will be very hard for them to grow and be successful later, you know?

• 17:42Speaker 01

  Exactly. Andrea, we're, we're here talking about breaking founder dependency, you know? And I want to make sure that we stress that in there. My question before we ask to talk about the, how you did it was, where are you now? If you had to describe your, your company, your culture in a few sentences that would inspire, you know, other organizations to get, that had gotten to where you are, how would you use those sentences? Like where are you leadership wise? Where are you culture wise right now?

• 18:09Speaker 00

  So culture wise, we actually are pretty good, pretty good, I think on culture. I'll tell you on leadership, so this is quite recent because I think I still can talk about this. You know, kind of Starfish versus Spider Model. I'm sure you're familiar, Jim. So I think this is a relatively recent change we implemented. It's this year change. And I would say we are not done with it, but it's still back to transition, right? So we're still in that transition. But for the most part, idea was really kind of that every arm of the Starfish can operate independently and only come to the middle, which is my business partner and myself, when something is needed, right? So we, I wouldn't say we necessarily.

• 18:55Speaker 00

  Disconnected ourselves totally from everyday, from everyday operations. But in many ways we did, I mean, it's a process, right? I mean, you know, so we never really had CHROs, Chief Human Resource. By the way, lady who about to start working with us, you know, we worked in the past 25 years ago. So we both did, okay? So, so back to kind of where you find people, right? So we kind of brought her in, explained what we need, what we think is working, what we think is not working, where help is needed. She kind of did a couple of months kind of on the consulting side and soon about to start kind of full time. So overall, and that's the idea right now, that every arm operates independently without us.

• 19:39Speaker 00

  And many things, so I don't even remember, it was something with Bang and my, my business partner, this is actually not my story, but I'll use it. He's like, all of this stuff was going on and nobody called me, nobody slacked me, nobody texted me. So it, it was self resolved because that's what he wanted here as a founder, right? It's not, not because I don't want to do it, right? I mean, I can, right? Or he can, but we don't want to be in the middle of every decision and we should not be actually.

• 20:05Speaker 01

  That's what I really, what I was looking for, and I think hope of those listening in is if they're having to weigh in, let me get a few minutes from you, what, what should I do here? Like, you don't mind doing it, but you want to get to the point where people think for themselves. They make those decisions that they should be making and those that need to be escalated, they know how to escalate and they know how to bring ideas to the conversation, not just problems.

• 20:28Speaker 00

  Gene, absolutely. And that's, and that's exactly kind of one of the interesting things we had because again, back to product and engineering and services arm, right? If there is a conflict or there is a discussion, you guys talk first. Don't come to, we are not judges or referees, okay? So you guys try to resolve it first and then come to us with options, right? This is one course of, of action, this is another, this is pros, these are cons. And we, and we will decide it very quickly, right? But you have to do the homework and I, I kind of was joking again, back to proposals and right? Said, don't send me something which is written by AI, it's, it's 50% done, right?

• 21:09Speaker 00

  Send me something which is 90% done, where you actually invested time and I will read it, find our version.

• 21:15Speaker 01

  Andrew, this has been a great conversation. My last question for you is looking back on the transition you've made since you really got the executive coach, which wasn't me, we'll be fully clear about that. I'm not, this is not a testimonial or case. But I'm bringing you on because you've been through the journey and you can reflect back on, you know, some of the challenges you faced. If you could tell another founder about creating the kind of company you have today versus the one you had, what would be some of the things that you would want them to know?

• 21:43Speaker 00

  I would say be ready for change and be open minded, meaning you might know this business, whatever business you are in, but some signs outside perspective of someone who maybe not even, doesn't understand this business based on some processes, frameworks and something which has been already mature enough could be very helpful to, for, for structuring and moving forward.

• 22:10Speaker 01

  Great words of advice for any founder out there that wants to make that journey from founder dependent to creating a company that scales beyond the founder. Andrew, I appreciate you being here and sharing your journey, sharing your wisdom with us.

• 22:22Speaker 00

  Thank you, Gene.

• 22:23Speaker 01

  All right, great interview here. I love how he talked about getting support, getting an executive coach and some of the things that happened in that journey. It's not easy, but it's worth it. He talked about the, the organization he has now, the people are not just bringing him problems, they're bringing him real solutions and ideas and that's the kind of culture you want. And at scale, the next phase beyond this is where they can truly develop those people and they will become more free than they are to even today. And that just happens in a natural evolution when you have a strong foundation. If we can help you in any way, let me know. If you want to download the book, getfounderfreedom.com, it's right here for you. When you think of growth and you think of leadership, think of growth, think tank. As always, they would encourage, we'll see you next time.