Andy Kurtzig
Andy Kurtzig[1][2][3] (born 1973)[4] is a third generation entrepreneur[5][4] who has used some of his time and profits to serve as an angel investor.[6] In addition to his having founded more than one company, his mother named a company Kenandy, standing for Ken, her younger son, and Andy.[7][8]
Early life[edit]
His mother, Sandra Kurtzig, whom The Mercury News called "the mother of Silicon Valley,”[9] started what became ASK Group as part-time work using a spare bedroom. His father, Arie Kurtzig, was working for Hewlett Packard. Although Arie never worked for ASK, it was named to include him: A for Arie, S for Sandra, K for Kurtzig.[2][10] His maternal grandmother, Marian (Boruck) Brody, was "the first one in the family to have a college degree."[4] She worked as a police reporter, a rare situation at the time;[5] they called her Steve since it was "very unusual for a woman to be a police-beat reporter."
From that grandmother he has the genes for living to age 100.[4] His maternal grandfather did not attend college, but he began a house building business for which his gradnmother became the saleslady. That grandfather died "at the age of sixty-five of cancer." Andy was then less than age ten.
Both Andy's parents were college graduates. Arie had a PhD. Sandra didn't complete her Stanford University PhD.[5] That's where Andy's parents met.[4] The Kurtzigs divorced before Andy and his brother Ken reached their teens. The divorce settlement of $20 million was "one of the largest settlements ever given by a wife to a husband."[5]
His Uncle Greg is Sandra's brother. Kurtzig's upbringing also included the presence of famous business personalities. One of the "legendary technology figures" who visited was Steve Jobs, who redirected young Andy from BASIC to Pascal.[1][11] His mother described an example of Andy's early display of "entrepreneurial genes" as: At the end of a party "thrown by Fairchild Semiconductor co-founder Robert Noyce" Andy "asked the host whether he could have the balloons. He coaxed his mother to a nearby park, "where he sold them."[1]
Career[edit]
In 1996, Andy and his mother co-founded eBenefits "which offers human resource, payroll, and benefit services to small businesses online." He served as president/CEO, younger brother Ken worked there "in business development," with their mother chairing the company's board of directors. [5]
In 2003, Andy founded JustAnswer[3][12] (renamed Pearl.com 2012[13]), an "online paid question-and-answer service" based in San Francisco.[1][14]
This was described as his "third flourishing company. He previously started and sold two others, including one with his mother called eBenefits."[1] His first (which he subsequently sold) was "a software company automating newspaper classifieds called Anser" (SIC), a pun on his mother's ASK Group's name.[1]
Personal[edit]
Andy's wife's name is Sara;[13] they have 3 children.
Kurtzig follows in his mother's sequencing of "family first, business second, and the rest next."[4] His brother Ken named one of his children Arie, after their father, who had died late 2001, and in 2013 copied their mother in how she selected the name Kenandy when he "founded cloud software maker Arizay (named after his two kids, Arie and Alizae)."[15]
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Patrick Hoge (August 17, 2012). "Kurtzig's Entrepreneurial flair runs in family: Mother, sons have started six ventures". BizJournals (San Francisco). Retrieved June 16, 2021.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Andrew Pollack (October 13, 1981). "She programs a success story". The New York Times.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Deborah Gage (October 8, 2012). "Pearl.com Raises $26M, Hires CFO". The Wall Street Journal.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 Gardner Hendrie (September 29, 2017). "Oral History of Sandra Kurtzig" (PDF).
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 "Kurtzig, Sandra L." encyclopedia.com. Retrieved June 16, 2021.
- ↑ "Andy Kurtzig, CEO, Just Answer". iHeartRadio. February 9, 2021.
- ↑ Adam Bryant (December 1, 2012). "Don't Chase Everything That Shines". The New York Times.
- ↑ Deborah Gage (August 29, 2011). "Silicon Valley Pioneer Sandra Kurtzig Back In Start-Up Game With Kenandy". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved June 16, 2021.
- ↑ Mike Cassidy (May 11, 2013). "Cassidy: 'Mother of Silicon Valley' is just Mom to entrepreneur sons". Mercury News.
- ↑ Much later Sandra joked to a reporter that maybe ASK is Andy, Sandy, Ken
- ↑ "Jobs found Andy Kurtzig in his room programming on his Apple II in the Basic computer language. .. 'encouraged me to switch to Pascal from Basic, and he sent me a book on Pascal to help me get into that'"
- ↑ Patrick Hoge (June 19, 2012). "JustAnswer -- now Pearl.com -- raises $25 million". BizJournals (San Francisco).
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Bill Robinson (June 19, 2012). "A Pearl (.com) Comes Out of JustAnswer.com". The Huffington Post.
- ↑ "The Daily Start-Up: Kutcher-Backed Language Site Duolingo". The Wall Street Journal.
a website for connecting people who have questions to professionals
- ↑ Ari Levy (June 17, 2015). "Tech Giant's Second Swan Song". CNBC (Cable NBC news).
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