Ben Pasternak

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, that has raised US$57M in investment to date. SIMULATE's signature product, NUGGS, launched in July 2019. It is a plant-based alternative to chicken nuggets.^[2] Previously, Pasternak founded Monkey, a social networking app that enabled teenagers to video chat with like-minded people.^[3]

Ben Pasternak
Ben Pasternak at Heureka Conference in Berlin, June 2016
Born	(1999-09-06) 6 September 1999 (age 25) Sydney, Australia
Nationality	Australian
Education	Reddam House, Moriah College
Occupation	Entrepreneur
Known for	Co-founder of Simulate
Parents	Mark Pasternak (father) Anna Pasternak (mother)

Pasternak was named as one of the world's most influential teenagers by Time in 2016.^[4] In 2021, he was included in the Forbes "30 Under 30" list.^[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, eastern Sydney.^[7][8] He was educated at Moriah College and Reddam House.^[9]

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.^[10] 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.^[11]

In January 2015, Facebook and Google offered Pasternak internship opportunities.^[12] 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.^[13] Pasternak was recognized at the time as one of the youngest people ever to receive a round of venture capital in technology, at the age of 15.^[14]

Career

In April 2015, Pasternak founded Flogg, a social networking app for young people to buy and sell.^[15] His early success 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.^[16] Flogg launched in April 2016 and was temporarily the No. 1 trending app on the US App Store (iOS).^{[17][non-primary source needed]}

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.^[18][19]

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).^[20]

In February 2018, social networking company Holla announced that it had acquired Monkey for an undisclosed sum.^[21]

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.^[22][23] 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.^[24]

Personal life

Pasternak lives in the Soho neighborhood of New York City.^[25]