From being born in virtually subtropical Johannesburg, South Africa, Steve Stern spent his formative years in the temperate climate of Israel and then suddenly uprooted to sub-freezing Wisconsin just after the Yom Kippur War. After that, he landed a suburban life in Great Neck, New York. His NYC inflection is a dead giveaway of where Steven Stern is from, and it guides his direction in life, that entrepreneurial spark that comes from being from New York.