Ben Pasternak

Ben Pasternak
Ben Pasternak at Heureka Conference
Born Benjamin Pasternak
(1999-09-06) 6 September 1999
Sydney, New South Wales, AU.
Residence New York, New York, U.S.
Education Reddam House, Moriah College
Occupation Entrepreneur
Known for Co-founder of Monkey Inc.

Benjamin Pasternak (born 6 September 1999) is an Australian entrepreneur. He is the co-founder of the American technology and social media company Monkey, which was acquired by Holla Inc. in December 2017.[1] He began his career while still in high school in Sydney creating two viral iOS games, Impossible Rush and Impossible Dial.[2] Ben is recognised as the youngest person to receive a round of venture capital in technology, at just 15 years of age.[3]

Fortune Magazine described Pasternak as a young innovator who is changing the world.[4] Pasternak was included in Crain's New York Business Magazine '20 Under 20' list as a teen who cares about the world and wants to make his mark on it. He was also named one of TIME Magazine's Most Influential Teens.[5]

Early life and education

Ben was born in Sydney, to Anna Pasternak and Mark Pasternak.[6] Pasternak grew up in Vaucluse, New South Wales. He was raised Jewish. He was educated at Moriah College and Reddam House in Bondi, New South Wales. He dropped out of high school in tenth grade.[7]

Pasternak completed his first app, Impossible Rush while bored in science class at school. Impossible Rush and his second app Impossible Dial went on to get millions of downloads and were both the No. 1 trending app in multiple countries.[8]

Career

Impossible Rush (2014)

When Ben was 14 years old he designed Impossible Rush, while bored in science class at school. He showed the idea to his online friend Austin Valleskey, an iOS engineer from Chicago. They completed building the game in a matter of hours and later sold it to Carlos Fajardo who launched the game for them. The game went on to be downloaded millions of times and peaked at No. 16 on the US App Store (iOS). The game overtook Tinder and Twitter on the App Store (iOS) top charts.[9]

Impossible Dial (2015)

Ben released the game Impossible Dial as a follow up to his original game Impossible Rush. The game was made in collaboration with Tamir Triguboff and later sold for $85,000.[10] The game peaked at No. 31 on the US App Store (iOS).[11]

Flogg (2015–2016)

Ben's early success caught the attention of venture capital firm Binary Capital. Binary Capital agreed to lead a round of venture capital funding in Flogg, they were joined by other investors including Greylock Partners, John Maloney and Paul Bricault. After Pasternak received venture capital funding at 15 years of age, he dropped out of high school and relocated to Manhattan.[12][13]

Flogg is a social networking app for young people to buy and sell. The app launched on 13 April 2016 and was temporarily the No. 1 trending app in The United States, (Germany) and Australia.[14]

Monkey (2016–2018)

Ben co-founded Monkey, which was launched on 29 November 2016. Monkey is a video chat based app for teenagers to meet new people.[15][16] The app has been used to make over 2,000,000,000 calls and has over 5,000,000 users. The app peaked at No. 1 on the US App Store (iOS).[17][18] On 1 December 2017 Holla Inc. announced that it was acquiring Monkey.[10]

References

  1. ↑ Bethea, Charles (9 January 2017). "Meet Monkey's Teen-Age Founders". The New Yorker.
  2. ↑ Mosbergen, Dominique (9 October 2014). "This Teen Invented An App That Overtook Tinder, Twitter on the App Charts". Huff Post.
  3. ↑ "Meet the 16-Year-Old CEO of Mobile App 'Flogg'". The Wall Street Journal.
  4. ↑ "18 Under 18: Meet the Young Innovators Who Are Changing the World".
  5. ↑ "The 30 Most Influential Teens of 2016". Time.
  6. ↑ Laneri, Raquel (14 April 2016). "Why this high school dropout is actually the most enviable teen in NYC". New York Post. Retrieved 1 June 2017.
  7. ↑ "Why this high school dropout is actually the most enviable teen in NYC". 14 April 2016.
  8. ↑ Ryall, Jenni. "Teen whiz kid eyes Google, Facebook after creating addictive game".
  9. ↑ Francis, Hannah (8 October 2014). "Is this 15-year-old Australian the next Mark Zuckerberg?". The Sydney Morning Herald.
  10. 1 2 Grubb, Ben (18 December 2017). "'My parents haven't given me a single cent': great-nephew of Australia's second richest person out to prove himself". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 21 January 2018.
  11. ↑ Dzikowski, Jennifer (14 April 2016). "Ben Pasternak: The Teen CEO Behind Flogg".
  12. ↑ Francis, Hannah (15 April 2016). "How Aussie 16-year-old Ben Pasternak became CEO of his own start-up Flogg Inc". The Sydney Morning Herald.
  13. ↑ Verma, Adarsh (12 December 2016). "Ben Pasternak – 16-year-old Game Developer And CEO of A$2 Million Company". Fossbytes. Retrieved 1 June 2017.
  14. ↑ https://twitter.com/NathanSchafer99/status/721244759692423168%5Bnon-primary+source+needed%5D
  15. ↑ "Sydney high school dropout sitting on million-dollar empire". news. Retrieved 1 June 2017.
  16. ↑ "Monkey, tutti in videochat: il nuovo social dei teenager". la Repubblica (in Italian). 22 January 2017. Retrieved 1 June 2017.
  17. ↑ "High school dropout, 17, making millions from teen-focused apps". Daily Mail. Retrieved 1 June 2017.
  18. ↑ Bogle, Ariel. "Forget Facebook, forget Snapchat: Teens are doing it themselves". Mashable. Retrieved 1 June 2017.
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