Benjamin Pasternak (born September 6, 1999) is an

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Au ...

technology entrepreneur. He is the co-founder and CEO of

SIMULATE A simulation is the imitation of the operation of a real-world process or system over time. Simulations require the use of Conceptual model, models; the model represents the key characteristics or behaviors of the selected system or proc ...

, an American

nutrition Nutrition is the biochemical and physiological process by which an organism uses food to support its life. It provides organisms with nutrients, which can be metabolized to create energy and chemical structures. Failure to obtain sufficient n ...

technology Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in medicine, science, ...

company.

's signature product, NUGGS, launched in July of 2019. It is a plant-based alternative to

chicken nuggets A chicken nugget is a food product consisting of a small piece of deboned chicken meat that is breaded or battered, then deep-fried or baked. Invented in the 1950s, chicken nuggets have become a very popular fast food restaurant item, as we ...

. Previously, Pasternak founded Monkey, a

social networking A social network is a social structure made up of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), sets of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of methods for an ...

app that enabled

teenagers Adolescence () is a transitional stage of physical and psychological development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to adulthood (typically corresponding to the age of majority). Adolescence is usually associated with the te ...

video chat Videotelephony, also known as videoconferencing and video teleconferencing, is the two-way or multipoint reception and transmission of audio and video signals by people in different locations for real time communication.McGraw-Hill Concise Ency ...

with like-minded people. Pasternak was named as one of the world's most influential teenagers by

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

in 2016. In 2021, Pasternak was included in the

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...

30 Under 30 List.

Early life and education

Pasternak was born in

Sydney, Australia Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and List of cities in Oceania by population, Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metro ...

, to Anna Pasternak and Mark Pasternak. He has a younger brother, Jake, and a younger sister, Maya. Pasternak was raised Jewish in

Vaucluse Vaucluse (; oc, Vauclusa, label= Provençal or ) is a department in the southeastern French region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. It had a population of 561,469 as of 2019.Moriah College The Moriah War Memorial College (or more commonly, Moriah College) is an independent Modern Orthodox Jewish co-educational early learning, primary and secondary day school, located in Queens Park, an eastern suburb of Sydney, New South Wal ...

and

Reddam House Reddam House is an independent, co-educational, non-denominational, day school, located in Woollahra (pre-school to Year 9) and North Bondi (Years 10 to 12), both Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Reddam House was acquired ...

. Pasternak started developing

software Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. At the lowest programming level, executable code consists ...

at the age of 13. He designed his first publicly launched

mobile app A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a phone, tablet, or watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop applications which are designed to run on d ...

, Impossible Rush, while bored in science class at school. He showed the idea to his online friend Austin Valleskey, an

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

from

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, and the pair created the game in a matter of hours. The game went on to be downloaded millions of times and peaked at No. 16 on the US App Store (iOS) top charts. In January 2015,

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

and

Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...

offered Pasternak internship opportunities. A few months after declining the offers, Pasternak dropped out of high school at the age of 15 and moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

to accept

venture capital Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which ha ...

funding for his first company, Flogg. Ben was recognized as one of the youngest people ever to receive a round of

in technology, at the age of 15.

Career

Flogg

In April 2015, Pasternak founded Flogg, a

app for young people to buy and sell. Pasternak's early success had caught the attention of

firm

Binary Capital Binary Capital is an early stage venture capital firm based in San Francisco. The firm focuses on early-stage consumer technology companies. The founders' previous investment experience included roles at General Catalyst Partners, Benchmark Capita ...

Binary Binary may refer to: Science and technology Mathematics * Binary number, a representation of numbers using only two digits (0 and 1) * Binary function, a function that takes two arguments * Binary operation, a mathematical operation that t ...

agreed to lead a round of

funding in Flogg before the app had launched.

were joined by other investors including

Greylock Partners Greylock Partners is one of the oldest venture capital firms, founded in 1965, with committed capital of over $3.5 billion under management. The firm focuses on early-stage companies in the consumer, enterprise software and infrastructure as wel ...

, John Maloney and Paul Bricault. Flogg launched in April 2016 and was temporarily the No. 1 trending app on the Australian App Store (iOS). In late 2016, Flogg shut down due to lack of profitability.

Monkey

In November 2016, Ben co-founded Monkey, an app that enabled teenagers to

with like-minded people. Monkey had raised US$2 million in funding. By January 2020, the app had over 20 million users and had enabled over 20 billion calls. The app peaked at No. 1 on the US

App Store (iOS) The App Store is an app store platform, developed and maintained by Apple Inc., for mobile apps on its iOS and iPadOS operating systems. The store allows users to browse and download approved apps developed within Apple's iOS Software Deve ...

. On the first of December, 2017,

company Holla announced that it had acquired Monkey for an undisclosed sum.

SIMULATE

In early 2018, Ben co-founded

's mission is to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable nutrition. Its first product, NUGGS, is a

chicken nugget A chicken nugget is a food product consisting of a small piece of deboned chicken meat that is breaded or battered, then deep-fried or baked. Invented in the 1950s, chicken nuggets have become a very popular fast food restaurant item, as we ...

substitute made out of plant inputs. In June 2021,

Bloomberg Bloomberg may refer to: People * Daniel J. Bloomberg (1905–1984), audio engineer * Georgina Bloomberg (born 1983), professional equestrian * Michael Bloomberg (born 1942), American businessman and founder of Bloomberg L.P.; politician and ma ...

reported that

had raised over US$ in funding from investors including

Alexis Ohanian Alexis Kerry Ohanian ( hy, Ալեքսիս Քերի Օհանյան; born April 24, 1983) is an American internet entrepreneur and investor. He is best known as the co-founder and executive chairman of the social media site Reddit along with Stev ...

's venture fund Seven Seven Six,

Chris Sacca Christopher Sacca (born May 12, 1975) is an American venture investor, company advisor, entrepreneur, and lawyer. He is the proprietor of Lowercase Capital, a venture capital fund in the United States that has invested in seed and early-stage te ...

McCain Foods McCain may refer to: * McCain (surname), a surname (includes a list of persons and characters) Companies * McCain Foods Limited, a producer of frozen foods * McCain, Inc., privately held American manufacturing company headquartered in Vista, ...

, and

Jay-Z Shawn Corey Carter (born December 4, 1969), known professionally as Jay-Z, is an American rapper, record producer, entrepreneur, and founder of Manhattan-based conglomerate talent and entertainment agency Roc Nation. He is regarded as one of ...

at over a US$ valuation.

Personal life

Pasternak lives in the

Soho Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century. The area was develop ...

neighborhood of

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pasternak, Benjamin 1999 births Living people Businesspeople from Sydney Australian expatriates in the United States People educated at Moriah College