| Real Name | Benjamin Pasternak |
|---|---|
| Net Worth 2026 | $4 million USD |
| Birthday (Year-Month-Day) | 1999-9-6 |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Occupation | entrepreneur |
| Height | 1.85 m or 6 ft 1 inches |
| Weight | kg or 0 pounds |
| Marital Status | Single |
| Ethnicity | White/ Caucasian |
| Education | Reddam House, Moriah College |
| Kids | N/A |
| Kids Names |
Ben Pasternak | |
|---|---|
 Ben Pasternak at Heureka Conference in Berlin, June 2016 | |
| Born | 6 September 1999 Sydney, Australia |
| Education | Reddam House Moriah College |
| Occupation | Entrepreneur |
| Known for | Co-founder of Simulate |
| Parents |
|
Benjamin Pasternak (born September 6, 1999) is an Australian technology entrepreneur. He is best known as the co-founder of Simulate,[1] an American food technology company. Previously, Pasternak founded Monkey, a social networking app that enabled teenagers to video chat with like-minded people.[2]
Pasternak was named as one of the world's most influential teenagers by Time in 2016.[3] In 2021, he was included in the Forbes "30 Under 30" list.[4] He has also been associated with multiple cryptocurrency projects, which have been the subject of investor litigation.[5]
Early life and education
Pasternak was born in Sydney, Australia, to Anna Pasternak and Mark Pasternak. He has a younger brother, Jake, and a younger sister, Maya.[6] Pasternak was raised Jewish in Vaucluse in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs.[7] He was educated at Moriah College and Reddam House.[8]
Pasternak started developing software at the age of 13. He designed his first publicly launched mobile app, Impossible Rush, while bored in science class at school.[9] He showed the idea to his online friend Austin Valleskey, an iOS engineer from Chicago, 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.[10]
A few months after declining the offers, he dropped out of high school at the age of 15 and moved to New York City to accept venture capital funding for his first company.[11]
Career
In April 2015, Pasternak founded Flogg, a social networking app for young people to buy and sell.[12] His early work had caught the attention of venture capital firm Binary Capital, which agreed to lead a round of venture capital funding in Flogg before the app had launched. Binary were joined by other investors including Greylock Partners, John Maloney and Paul Bricault.[13]
In late 2016, Pasternak shut down Flogg and pivoted the company's focus towards building Monkey, an app that enabled teenagers to video chat with like-minded people.[14][15]
In early 2017, Monkey 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).[16]
In February 2018, social networking company Holla announced that it had acquired Monkey for an undisclosed sum.[17]
SIMULATE
In early 2018, Pasternak co-founded Simulate. The company's mission is to upgrade the world to a positive food system. Its first product, NUGGS, is a plant-based chicken nugget substitute.[18][19] SIMULATE's signature product, NUGGS, launched in July 2019.[20] In June 2021, Bloomberg reported that SIMULATE had raised over US$50 million in funding from investors including Alexis Ohanian's venture fund Seven Seven Six, Chris Sacca, McCain Foods, and Jay-Z at over a US$250 million valuation.[21]
CLOUT / BELIEVE
In January 2025, Pasternak presented his Web3 startup Clout, which focused on social media-related blockchain applications. The platform enabled the creation of cryptocurrency tokens associated with individual users who met certain follower thresholds on the app. Pasternak launched a token under the ticker $Pasternak.[22]
According to reports, the token reached a valuation of approximately $80 million shortly after its launch. Its value declined significantly within a week, falling to around $180,000.
In December 2025, allegations were made by Avi Patel, founder of Kled.ai, regarding Pasternak’s handling of the $Kled token, including claims of token sales following a prior fee arrangement.[23][24]
On December 25, 2025, Burwick Law announced preparations for a class action lawsuit against Pasternak and the Believe platform, alleging misleading promotion and related claims.[25]
On March 23, 2026, Burwick Law filed a class action lawsuit against Pasternak and the Believe platform in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.[26]
In April 2026, a class action lawsuit filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York alleged that Pasternak and his platform Believe conducted a coordinated campaign involving multiple tokens that resulted in significant investor losses.[5]
Personal life
Pasternak lives in the Soho neighborhood of New York City.[27]
References
- ^ "Ben Pasternak Biography | Booking Info for Speaking Engagements". www.allamericanspeakers.com. Retrieved 22 May 2023.
- ^ Bethea, Charles (9 January 2017). "Meet Monkey's Teen-Age Founders". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 6 October 2019.
- ^ "The 30 Most Influential Teens of 2016". Time. Archived from the original on 26 June 2019. Retrieved 29 May 2021.
- ^ "Ben Pasternak". Forbes. Retrieved 15 April 2026.
- ^ a b McGuire, Amelia (14 April 2026). "Sydney tech wunderkind goes from nuggets to crypto scandal". Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 15 April 2026.
- ^ Bogle, Ariel (14 April 2016). "What is it like to raise a 16-year-old startup CEO? In a word: stressful". Mashable. Retrieved 4 October 2019.
- ^ "Mark and Anna Pasternak sell Vaucluse home prior to auction - realestate.com.au". www.realestate.com.au. Retrieved 6 July 2022.
- ^ Francis, Hannah (8 October 2014). "Is this 15-year-old Australian the next Mark Zuckerberg?". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 4 October 2019.
- ^ Mosbergen, Dominique (9 October 2014). "This Teen Invented An App That Overtook Tinder, Twitter On The App Charts". HuffPost. Retrieved 4 October 2019.
- ^ Heber, Alex (9 October 2014). "These Two Teenagers Have Briefly Beaten Tinder And Vine In The App Store With An App They Coded While Bored At School". Business Insider Australia. Archived from the original on 6 October 2019. Retrieved 6 October 2019.
- ^ "Why this high school dropout is actually the most enviable teen in NYC". 14 April 2016.
- ^ "This 16-Year-Old Dropped Out of School to Run a Multi-Million Dollar Company". Teen Vogue. 12 May 2016. Retrieved 6 October 2019.
- ^ "How a 16-year-old Ben Pasternak became CEO of his own start-up". Stuff. 17 April 2016. Retrieved 6 October 2019.
- ^ "Sydney high school dropout sitting on million-dollar empire". news. Retrieved 1 June 2017.
- ^ "Monkey, tutti in videochat: il nuovo social dei teenager". la Repubblica (in Italian). 22 January 2017. Retrieved 1 June 2017.
- ^ Bogle, Ariel (19 January 2017). "Forget Facebook, forget Snapchat: Teens are doing it themselves". Mashable. Retrieved 1 June 2017.
- ^ Johnson, Khari (6 February 2018). "'Holla acquires Monkey to expand video chat for dating and friend discovery". Venture Beat. Retrieved 11 June 2023.
- ^ "NUGGS: About | LinkedIn". Retrieved 14 July 2019.
- ^ "Nuggs rebrands as Simulate with new cash, a new CTO and an expanded line of faux-meat foods". TechCrunch. Retrieved 17 January 2021.
- ^ Berenstein, Nadia. "Can This 19-Year-Old Tech Whiz Make Nuggets — And An Animal-Free Lifestyle — Go Viral With NUGGS?". Forbes. Retrieved 17 January 2021.
- ^ "Forbes 30 Under 30 2021: Consumer Technology". www.forbes.com. Retrieved 17 January 2021.
- ^ "LaunchCoin increased 200 times in one day. Why is Believe so powerful after its name change?". Panewslab. 14 May 2025. Retrieved 14 April 2026.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "Believe founder Ben Pasternak accused of secretly dumping KLED tokens". Protos. 16 December 2025. Retrieved 14 April 2026.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "Kled's founder accuses Believe's founder of continuously selling KLED tokens". Rootdata. 17 December 2025. Retrieved 14 April 2026.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "The American law firm Burwick Law is preparing to file a lawsuit against Believe and its founder Ben Pasternak, and has opened a registration website for the community". Rootdata. 25 December 2025. Retrieved 14 April 2026.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "Burwick Law's Class Action Against Believe Platform Covered by New York Law Journal". Burwick Law. 11 January 2026. Retrieved 14 April 2026.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Bethea, Charles (9 January 2017). "Meet Monkey's Teen-Age Founders". The New Yorker. Retrieved 29 May 2021.
Fact Sheet
- Wondering what Ben Pasternak's full name is? Ben Pasternak's full name is Benjamin Pasternak
- Wondering where Ben Pasternak is from? Ben Pasternak is from Australian!
- What does Ben Pasternak do? Ben Pasternak's job is being a(n) entrepreneur
- Ben Pasternak was born on 1999-9-6
- How old is Ben Pasternak? Ben Pasternak is 27 years old
- Ben Pasternak's relationship status is Single
- Which college/university did Ben Pasternak go to? Ben Pasternak went to Reddam House, Moriah College
- Ben Pasternak has N/A child/children
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