Ben Pasternak
Birth date6 September 1999 (age 26)
Birth placeSydney, Australia
Known for
  • Co-founder of Simulate;
  • Founder of Believe
EducationReddam House
Moriah College
OccupationEntrepreneur
Parents
  • Mark Pasternak (father)
  • Anna Pasternak (mother)

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] He also founded the cryptocurrency project Believe, which has been the subject of investor litigation.[3]

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 in the consumer technology category.[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 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.[citation needed] 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 subsequently developed the game. 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.[12]

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.[13][14]

In February 2018, social networking company Holla announced that it had acquired Monkey for an undisclosed sum.[15]

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.[16][17] Simulate's Nuggs launched in July 2019.[18]

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.[19]

In May 2025 Pasternak rebranded Clout to Believe.The company switched its focus to launching tokens for memecoins and startups similar to their own token, newly renamed from $Pasternak to $Launchcoin.[20]

On October 15, 2025, Pasternak announced another renaming of his token from $Launchcoin to $Believe. The migration, where holders had to "upgrade" their tokens on the Believe website, was forced as the remaining $Launchcoin were made near worthless afterwards. This sparked a dispute as the $Believe token had 33% more supply than the $Launchcoin token. The extra supply was given to Pasternak and the Believe team, seemingly with no lock. This resulted in 33% loss for all holders of the old token, who were not able to dispute or speak up against the decision.[21][22][23]

In December 2025, allegations were made by Avi Patel, founder of Kled.ai, regarding Pasternak’s handling of his supply of the $Kled company token, including claims of token sales following a prior fee arrangement.[24][25] The valuation of $Believe dropped, from the migration date in October to December 17, the publication date of the mentioned accusations, by 90% in total.[21]

On December 25, 2025, Burwick Law announced preparations for a class action lawsuit against Pasternak and the Believe platform.[26] The lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York on March 23, 2026.[27] It alleged that Pasternak and his platform Believe conducted a coordinated campaign involving multiple tokens that resulted in significant investor losses.[3] Mr. Burwick described the system as a cycle following the system of generating hype with promotional activity, followed by rapid price appreciation and a catastrophic decline.[28]

Personal life

Pasternak lives in the Soho neighborhood of New York City.[29]

In April 2026, Pasternak was charged in New York with one count of strangulation and two counts of assault with intent to cause physical injury following an alleged incident on March 31; he pleaded not guilty.[30][31]

The matter was scheduled to be heard before a New York criminal court on June 11, 2026. Pasternak will be represented by his lawyer Joshua Kirschner.[32][33]

References

  1. ^ "Ben Pasternak Biography | Booking Info for Speaking Engagements". www.allamericanspeakers.com. Retrieved 2023-05-22.
  2. ^ Bethea, Charles (9 January 2017). "Meet Monkey's Teen-Age Founders". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 6 October 2019.
  3. ^ McGuire, Amelia (April 14, 2026). "Sydney tech wunderkind goes from nuggets to crypto scandal". Australian Financial Review. Retrieved April 15, 2026.
  4. ^ "The 30 Most Influential Teens of 2016". Time. Archived from the original on 26 June 2019. Retrieved 2021-05-29.
  5. ^ "Ben Pasternak". Forbes. Retrieved 2026-04-15.
  6. ^ 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.
  7. ^ "Mark and Anna Pasternak sell Vaucluse home prior to auction - realestate.com.au". www.realestate.com.au. Retrieved 2022-07-06.
  8. ^ Francis, Hannah (8 October 2014). "Is this 15-year-old Australian the next Mark Zuckerberg?". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  9. ^ Mosbergen, Dominique (9 October 2014). "This Teen Invented An App That Overtook Tinder, Twitter On The App Charts". HuffPost. Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  10. ^ 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.
  11. ^ "Why this high school dropout is actually the most enviable teen in NYC". 14 April 2016.
  12. ^ "This 16-Year-Old Dropped Out of School to Run a Multi-Million Dollar Company". Teen Vogue. 12 May 2016. Retrieved 6 October 2019.
  13. ^ "Sydney high school dropout sitting on million-dollar empire". news. Retrieved 1 June 2017.
  14. ^ "Monkey, tutti in videochat: il nuovo social dei teenager" (in Italian). la Repubblica. 22 January 2017. Retrieved 1 June 2017.
  15. ^ Johnson, Khari (6 February 2018). "'Holla acquires Monkey to expand video chat for dating and friend discovery". Venture Beat. Retrieved 11 June 2023.
  16. ^ "NUGGS: About | LinkedIn". Retrieved 14 July 2019.
  17. ^ "Nuggs rebrands as Simulate with new cash, a new CTO and an expanded line of faux-meat foods". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2021-01-17.
  18. ^ Berenstein, Nadia. "Can This 19-Year-Old Tech Whiz Make Nuggets — And An Animal-Free Lifestyle — Go Viral With NUGGS?". Forbes. Retrieved 2021-01-17.
  19. ^ "LaunchCoin increased 200 times in one day. Why is Believe so powerful after its name change?". Panewslab. 14 May 2025. Retrieved 14 April 2026.
  20. ^ Loke, Choon Khei (26 May 2025). "What Is Believe? Launching Memecoins via X Replies". Coingecko. Lim, Vera (ed.). Retrieved 23 April 2026.
  21. ^ Miller, Finn (17 December 2025). "Kled Founder’s Tirade Against Ben Pasternak Hammers Final Nail into Believe's Coffin". SolanaFloor. Retrieved 24 April 2026.
  22. ^ Stephanie, Olivia (23 April 2026). "Believe founder arrest adds fresh pressure to token case". crypto.news. Retrieved 23 April 2026.
  23. ^ "Ben Pasternak Lawsuit: What Crypto Investors Need to Know About the Believe Token Collapse". Phemex. 15 April 2026. Retrieved 23 April 2026.
  24. ^ "Believe founder Ben Pasternak accused of secretly dumping KLED tokens". Protos. 16 December 2025. Retrieved 14 April 2026.
  25. ^ "Kled's founder accuses Believe's founder of continuously selling KLED tokens". Rootdata. 17 December 2025. Retrieved 14 April 2026.
  26. ^ "In January 2026, crypto influencer Scooter explored a defamation claim against Burwick Law.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.
  27. ^ "Burwick Law's Class Action Against Believe Platform Covered by New York Law Journal". Burwick Law. 11 January 2026. Retrieved 14 April 2026.
  28. ^ Park, Danny (22 April 2026). "SocialFi app Believe founder arrested on strangulation charges following rug pull lawsuit". The Block. Retrieved 23 April 2026.
  29. ^ Bethea, Charles (9 January 2017). "Meet Monkey's Teen-Age Founders". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2021-05-29.
  30. ^ Rockson, Gabrielle (23 April 2026). "Influencer Evelyn Ha’s Ex-Boyfriend Charged with Assault and Strangulation on the Same Night of Their Alleged Breakup". People. Retrieved 24 April 2026.
  31. ^ McGuire, Amelia (23 April 2026). "Serial start-up founder Ben Pasternak charged with assault in New York". The Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 23 April 2026.
  32. ^ Devlin, Peter (23 April 2026). "Young Sydney entrepreneur Ben Pasternak arrested in New York charged with assault". News.com. Retrieved 23 April 2026.
  33. ^ McGuire, Amelia (23 April 2026). "Serial start-up founder Ben Pasternak charged with assault in New York". The Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 23 April 2026.