Ask Siri when a store closes, and the answer has to come from somewhere. In 2017 Yext wanted that somewhere to be the business itself. Its software let companies keep their addresses, hours, menus and other facts in one place. Yext then pushed those facts to more than 100 services, including Apple Maps, Bing, Facebook, Google, Instagram, Siri and Yelp. Search was moving to phones and voice assistants.

From Leads to Listings

Howard Lerman, Brian Distelburger and Brent Metz founded Yext in New York in 2006 as a local advertising business. It earned $20 million in 2009 by charging businesses for each customer lead. In 2012 it sold its pay-per-call business to IAC's CityGrid Media to focus on listings. Its direct data links to more than 100 apps and maps formed what it called the PowerListings Network. Yext called its platform a knowledge engine and sold it by subscription.

From Maps to AI Answers

Yext sold 10.5 million shares at $11 in April 2017 and listed on the New York Stock Exchange as YEXT. Lerman stepped down as chief executive in March 2022, and chairman Michael Walrath took over. Yext cut staff in 2023 and 2024 and bought Hearsay Systems. Its newer tools track how brands appear in AI-driven search. Yext is still public, worth about $930 million at the end of January 2026.

Cover: No. 68 (sic; actually 69): Crossroad at Kusatsu (Kusatsu oiwake), from the series "Sixty-nine Stations of the Kisokaido (Kisokaido rokujukyu tsugi no uchi)", Utagawa Hiroshige. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a crossroads with a signpost (pointing people to the right place).