Yonatan Stern

Over the past three decades, Yonatan has co-founded and led eight successful tech companies. That experience, combined with his unique perspective, led him to develop the SmartUp methodology as a practical guide for building independent, profitable companies.

Yonatan holds a B.Sc. and an M.Sc. in Computer Science from the Technion and has six registered patents. After completing his B.Sc., he served in the Unit 8200 of the IDF, rising to the rank of Major and receiving the Israeli Defense Prize.

After making mistakes as a founder and CEO, Yonatan developed the SmartUp methodology. His core vision is to help entrepreneurs execute their ideas and build profitable, lasting companies.

SmartUp is anything but trendy slogans. The program guides entrepreneurs step by step. From processing ideas and communicating with potential clients, to developing a product already in demand, generating revenue, and using those profits to scale up and improve.

Yonatan’s Timeline

2021

2020

2019

2017

2014

2006

2005

2000

1991

1985

SmartUp

In 2021, Yonatan launched an entrepreneurial internship program to teach founders how to build profitable, successful companies in a few years and on a modest investment.

ZoomInfo's IPO

In June 2020, ZoomInfo went public and is now one of Israel's largest publicly traded companies.

ZoomInfo

Yonatan stayed on as CEO and Chief Scientist of ZoomInfo until August 2018, when he stepped down to focus on his YLabs initiatives, remaining a shareholder and board member. Six months later, in February 2019, ZoomInfo was acquired by its biggest competitor, DiscoverOrg.

ZoomInfo Acquired

In 2017, private equity firm Great Hill Partners acquired ZoomInfo for $240M.

Bizo Acquired

In 2014, Bizo was acquired by LinkedIn for $175M.

CardScan Acquired by DYMO

CardScan raised less than $5M from Israeli VC funds and became profitable within just two years. In 2006, it was acquired by DYMO, the electronic office products subsidiary of Newell Rubbermaid.

Bizo

In 2005, ZoomInfo published its entire database online and attracted tremendous traffic, but the real value was in the data for advertisers. This led to the spinoff of a new company for shareholders called Bizo.

ZoomInfo

In 1999, Yonatan started a small research group inside CardScan to explore the possibility of crawling the internet and extracting information about people and companies from public data (company websites, news, press releases, and other sources). In 2000, with a small loan from CardScan, the group spun out and became ZoomInfo. Yonatan chose to focus his attention on scaling ZoomInfo and stepped down as CEO of CardScan.

CardScan

In 1993, Yonatan left Rosh to found CardScan, a software company built around a small scanner that could read business cards and automatically build a searchable digital address book. CardScan scaled up and eventually captured more than 80% of the market.

Rosh Intelligent Systems

Yonatan's entrepreneurial journey began when he and a group of friends from the military founded Rosh Intelligent Systems. Rosh developed innovative AI tools to help engineers diagnose, fix, and maintain complex technological equipment, counting Xerox, Applied Materials, Philips Medical, Siemens, and Olivetti among its customers. Rosh's operations were eventually transferred to the US while the R&D group remained in Israel. Net Manage acquired the R&D group, and Rosh Intelligent Systems went through a series of mergers and acquisitions before becoming part of Verint Systems (NASDAQ: VRNT).

"I want to improve the way companies work"

ZoomInfo $800M IPO at a $7B Valuation

Yonatan Stern $1B Exits

ZoomInfo Acquired for $240M

LinkedIn Acquires Bizo for $175M

Yonatan Stern