# Roman Stanek

> Roman Stanek is the Czech technology entrepreneur and founder and CEO of GoodData.AI, based in the San Francisco Bay Area. He helped commercialize NetBeans before its 1999 acquisition by Sun Microsystems, founded Systinet before its $105 million acquisition by Mercury Interactive in 2006, and founded GoodData in 2007. His current work centers on governed analytics and infrastructure for enterprise AI agents.

- **Role:** Founder and CEO at GoodData.AI
- **Organizations:** GoodData.AI, NetBeans, Systinet, Sun Microsystems
- **Nationality:** Czech
- **Education:** Czech Technical University in Prague
- **Known for:** Helped turn Xelfi into the commercial NetBeans business acquired by Sun Microsystems in 1999., Founded Systinet, acquired by Mercury Interactive for $105 million in 2006., Founded GoodData in 2007 and remains founder and CEO of GoodData.AI.

## Career timeline

- **1997** — Established the NetBeans business around the Xelfi student Java development project.
- **1999** — Sun Microsystems acquired NetBeans; Stanek subsequently worked at Sun.
- **2000** — Founded Systinet, initially known as Idoox, to develop web-services infrastructure.
- **2006** — Mercury Interactive agreed to acquire Systinet for $105 million in cash; Hewlett-Packard acquired Mercury later that year.
- **2007** — Founded GoodData.
- **2013** — Received Business Intelligence Group’s Entrepreneur of the Year award.
- **2020** — GoodData announced a strategic investment and partnership with Visa on May 20.
- **2025** — GoodData acquired Understand Labs on September 9.
- **2026** — GoodData rebranded as GoodData.AI on April 30; announced AI Observability on September 23 and the Agentic Serving Plane on October 6.

## Achievements

- Helped turn Xelfi into the commercial NetBeans business acquired by Sun Microsystems in 1999.
- Founded Systinet, acquired by Mercury Interactive for $105 million in 2006.
- Founded GoodData in 2007 and remains founder and CEO of GoodData.AI.
- Named 2013 Entrepreneur of the Year by Business Intelligence Group.
- Led GoodData through its 2020 Visa strategic partnership and investment.

## Latest updates

- **2026-10** — On October 6, GoodData.AI announced the Agentic Serving Plane; Stanek published Built for When the Agent Asks Next to explain its strategy.
- **2026-09** — On September 23, GoodData.AI launched AI Observability for usage, cost, quality and interaction tracing.
- **2026-04** — GoodData announced the GoodData.AI rebrand on April 30.
- **2026-01** — In a January 26 banking interview, emphasized ownership of business definitions and governed context for enterprise AI.
- **2025-09** — GoodData announced its acquisition of Understand Labs on September 9.

## Links

- Website: https://www.gooddata.ai/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stanekroman
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/RomanStanek

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/roman-stanek
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-25