Yonatan Stern

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Yonatan Stern
EducationTechnion – Israel Institute of Technology (BSE and MSc)
Occupations
  • Entrepreneur
  • media proprietor
  • investor
Years active1981–present
Children3

Yonatan Stern is an Israeli-American scientist and entrepreneur. He is the founder of multiple high tech software companies including Rosh Intelligent Systems, CardScan, Zoom Information, Bizo Inc, Opster Ltd and AltNext Ltd. Stern sold 3 of his companies for more than a billion dollars.[1] He was awarded the Israel Defense Prize for contributions to the defense of the State of Israel.[2]

Early life[edit]

The Bak family started the first Hebrew printing press in Israel in the modern era.[3] Stern's father fled Czechoslovakia after a pogrom erupted in his town of Pezinok in 1939[4] and arrived in Mandatory Palestine the same year.

Stern graduated cum laude from the Technion,[5] with a bachelors (1976) and masters (1980) in computer science, working with Professor Shimon Even. He served in the Israeli Army, rising to the rank of Major in the Israeli Intelligence Corps.[2]

Career[edit]

After leaving the army in 1981, Stern went on to co-found his first company - Rosh Intelligent Systems, where he was CEO. The company provided software maintenance and artificial intelligence diagnostic solutions, and was one of the first venture backed companies in Israel.[1][6] Stern moved to Boston in 1989 to manage the Rosh headquarters there. Rosh (later renamed ServiceSoft) was sold to Broadbase Software in 2002.[7]

Stern left Rosh in 1993 to found Corex Technologies Inc (later renamed to CardScan). He served as its CEO until 2006.[8] The company sold business card scanners, and was, according to the NPD group, the best-selling card scanning solution in the early 2000s.[9]

In 2004, Stern returned to Israel after 15 years with his wife and three daughters, but continued to manage his companies in Boston through frequent travel.[10]

In 2000, he created a new company called Eliyon Technologies. It received investment from Venrock,[11] and later the company changed its name to Zoom Information Inc.[12] ZoomInfo is a go-to-market solution provider, selling business intelligence data on millions of businesses and business contacts. Stern was the founder, CEO and Chief Scientist at ZoomInfo, and has six patents issued in his name. He developed most of the core technology that still runs the company.[13][14][15][16][17][18] In 2017 the company was sold to Great Hill Partners, a private equity firm for $240 million dollars, with Stern staying on as CEO until July 2018, and remained on the company's board.[19] Six months after leaving the CEO position, the company was sold to DiscoverOrg for $785 million dollars,[20][21] who later adopted the ZoomInfo name and brand for the combined company.[22]

In 2008 Stern was a co-founder of Bizo which was a spin-off from ZoomInfo. The company provided business demographic data for online publishers.[23] Bizo was acquired by LinkedIn in 2014 for $175M dollars.[24]

In 2019 Stern co-founded two companies - AltNext and Opster. AltNext is a live-streaming marketing platform for the Esports industry. Opster is an ElasticSearch monitoring and performance enhancement tool set.[25]

Awards and recognition[edit]

In 1980 Stern was awarded the Israel Defense Prize.[2][6]

Stern was nominated for the Ernst & Young's Young Entrepreneur of the Year award three times, in 1998, 1999 and 2001.[6]

External links[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b "הישראלי שמכר שלושה סטארט־אפים ביותר ממיליארד דולר מסתער על חברה חדשה - ומגשים חלום". TheMarker. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
  2. ^ a b c Leichman, Abigail Klein (2017-10-15). "12 Israelis making a mark on Boston's tech scene". Israel21c. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
  3. ^ "Bak | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
  4. ^ "Pezionk". www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
  5. ^ "3 חברות, אדם 1 - אקזיט של מיליארד דולר". Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. Retrieved 2022-06-30.
  6. ^ a b c "JONATHAN STERN - ELIYON TECHNOLOGIES". The Wall Street Transcript. 2004-08-12. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
  7. ^ "Broadbase to acquire Servicesoft". CNET. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
  8. ^ "How ZoomInfo's CEO sold three companies for $431M over 24 years". www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
  9. ^ "Corex Technologies changes identity to CardScan Inc". www.bizjournals.com. 2005-01-03. Retrieved 2022-06-30.
  10. ^ "ZoomInfo CEO: Long-distance leadership brings surprising insights". SmartBrief. 2016-05-26. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
  11. ^ "ZoomInfo". Venrock. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
  12. ^ "Eliyon Technologies Corp changes name to Zoom Information Inc". www.onrec.com. 2005-03-22. Retrieved 2022-06-30.
  13. ^ 7356761, Karadimitriou, Kosmas; Stern, Jonathan & Decary, Michel et al., "Computer method and apparatus for determining content types of web pages", issued 2008-04-08 
  14. ^ 7065483, Decary, Michel; Stern, Jonathan & Karadimitriou, Kosmas et al., "Computer method and apparatus for extracting data from web pages", issued 2006-06-20 
  15. ^ 7054886, Stern, Jonathan; Rothman-shore, Jeremy W. & Karadimitriou, Kosmas et al., "Method for maintaining people and organization information", issued 2006-05-30 
  16. ^ 6983282, Stern, Jonathan; Karadimitriou, Kosmas & Rothman-shore, Jeremy W. et al., "Computer method and apparatus for collecting people and organization information from Web sites", issued 2006-01-03 
  17. ^ 6778986, Stern, Jonathan; Karadimitriou, Kosmas & Decary, Michel et al., "Computer method and apparatus for determining site type of a web site", issued 2004-08-17 
  18. ^ 6618717, Karadimitriou, Kosmas; Stern, Jonathan & Decary, Michel et al., "Computer method and apparatus for determining content owner of a website", issued 2003-09-09 
  19. ^ "B2B data platform ZoomInfo was acquired by private equity firm Great Hill Partners for $240 million". VentureBeat. 2017-08-17. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
  20. ^ "קרן גריט היל מוכרת את זום-אינפו הישראלית ב-800 מיליון דולר". TheMarker. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
  21. ^ "חברת ZoomInfo שייסד הישראלי יונתן שטרן מגייסת 800 מיליון דולר בנאסד"ק". calcalist. Retrieved 2022-06-30.
  22. ^ "DiscoverOrg Rebrands As ZoomInfo, Offers New B2B Data Platform". www.mediapost.com. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
  23. ^ "Bizo". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved 2022-06-30.
  24. ^ "LinkedIn Will Acquire Business Marketing Company Bizo For $175M". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
  25. ^ "opster website". opster.com. Retrieved 2022-06-30.
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