# Yonatan Stern

> Yonatan Stern is an Israeli-American entrepreneur and computer-science graduate of the Technion who co-founded companies including CardScan, ZoomInfo, Bizo and Opster. As founder and CEO of SmartUp Academy, he teaches company building through early customer engagement, branding, disciplined investment and profitability, with courses, company workshops and a co-founder residency.

- **Role:** Founder and CEO at SmartUp Academy
- **Organizations:** SmartUp Academy, ZoomInfo, CardScan / Corex Technologies, Bizo, Opster, Rosh Intelligent Systems, Israeli High-Tech Association
- **From:** Jerusalem, Israel
- **Nationality:** Israeli-American
- **Education:** B.Sc. in Computer Science, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, M.Sc. in Computer Science, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
- **Known for:** Co-founded ZoomInfo, acquired by Great Hill Partners for $240 million in 2017., Founded CardScan, acquired by DYMO in 2006., Co-founded Bizo, acquired by LinkedIn for $175 million in 2014.

## Career timeline

- **1985** — Co-founded Rosh Intelligent Systems, as recalled in his March 2024 foundations lecture.
- **1993** — Founded Corex Technologies, later known as CardScan, to digitize business cards.
- **2000** — The research effort begun inside CardScan became a separate company, later known as ZoomInfo.
- **2006** — CardScan was acquired by DYMO.
- **2008** — Co-founded Bizo, a ZoomInfo spin-off.
- **2014** — LinkedIn acquired Bizo for $175 million.
- **2017** — Great Hill Partners acquired ZoomInfo for $240 million.
- **2018** — Stepped down as ZoomInfo CEO and chief scientist; remained a shareholder and board member.
- **2019** — SmartUp Academy was founded, according to its current About page.
- **2021** — Launched the entrepreneurial internship program described in his SmartUp biography.
- **2023** — Elastic completed its acquisition of Opster on November 30; JAL Ventures lists Stern among Opster’s founders.
- **2025** — Spoke at TEDxTechnion on November 11 about building a thriving high-tech company.
- **2026** — Promoted a free six-session SmartUp Foundations Course scheduled to start October 11 in Ra’anana.

## Achievements

- Co-founded ZoomInfo, acquired by Great Hill Partners for $240 million in 2017.
- Founded CardScan, acquired by DYMO in 2006.
- Co-founded Bizo, acquired by LinkedIn for $175 million in 2014.
- Listed as an Opster co-founder by investor JAL Ventures; Elastic completed its acquisition in November 2023.
- Holds six registered patents, according to his SmartUp biography.
- Received the Israel Defense Prize.
- Created SmartUp Academy’s entrepreneurship teaching methodology.

## Latest updates

- **2026-10** — SmartUp lists a free, six-session Foundations Course taught by Stern, scheduled to begin October 11 in Ra’anana, subject to admission review.
- **2026-03** — SmartUp published a Branding Strategies lecture page dated March 14, with Stern’s lecture, takeaways and slides.
- **2026-02** — TEDx Talks published Stern’s TEDxTechnion talk on February 13; the event itself took place November 11, 2025.

## Links

- Website: https://www.smartupacademy.org/yonatan-stern-smartup/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yonatan-stern-3b37392b/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/yonatan-stern
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-21