Howard Lerman

Howard Lerman

Howard Lerman is a serial entrepreneur who has helped lead three previous ventures, all of which have had successful exits.

New York, New York, United States
Member since January 20, 2012
  • About
Education
2002 Duke , BA
I am a(n):

Entrepreneur

If you're an entrepreneur or corporate innovator, why?

I want to invent something cool.

My favorite startups:

Yext, Foursquare, LinkedIn, Yelp, FoundationDB

What's most frustrating and rewarding about entrepreneurship/innovation?

The most frustrating part about innovation is constantly re-explainging to everyone what you do as you iterate to make something great. I can generally see a few steps out ahead, but I'm wrong just as often as I'm right. I'm lucky to have a team that puts up with this.

What's the No. 1 mistake entrepreneurs/innovators make?

Unwillingness to change. To do something big requires a continuous refinement and reassessment. We wouldn't be anywhere at Yext today if we didn't re-evaluate everything we're doing all the time and focus in on the key use cases that really matter.

What are the top three lessons you've learned as an entrepreneur?

Three lessons:
(1) Build an amazing, resilient team
(2) Pick a huge market
(3) Have a serious sales and revenue strategy out of the gate

Full bio

Howard Lerman is co-founder and CEO of Yext. He founded Yext in 2006, with the vision of reinventing the way local businesses and consumers connect. Over the last four years, Yext has evolved to provide a range of products designed so that all local businesses can take advantage of the power of internet advertising. Yext takes a unique approach to helping local businesses advertise and market themselves online by using unmatched technology and with techniques that are carefully optimized for each vertical industry.

While earning his Bachelor of Arts degree at Duke University, Howard founded his first startup, JustaTip.com, and discovered his love and passion for innovating on how people use Web. He then co-founded Intwine, a technology consulting firm later selling to Datran Media and serving as COO.