Ben Pasternak, 15, tops app charts, now for a start-up

FIFTEEN-year-old Ben Pasternak designed an iPhone game that peaked at No 16 on the US app charts and No 18 on Australia’s.

15-year-old Ben Pasternak has invented a world best selling app and is already working on his next project. Picture: David Moir

“I WANT to be the CEO of a successful start-up.”

Fifteen-year-old Ben Pasternak sits before his Mac computer, intermittently checking updates on his iPhone. Behind him there is a biography of his idol, Steve Jobs.

At the age of 14 the hopeful Sydney entrepreneur designed an iPhone game that last week peaked at No 16 on the US app charts and No 18 on Australia’s.

Ben created the game Impossible Rush with teenage American tech head Austin Vallesky, who he met through a Facebook group called Highschool Hackers. Another contact offered $35,000 to market it. Ben says he has now been offered more than $80,000 for the game.

Ben is now working on an app he hopes will reach No 1 globally. Titled One, the app streamlines Facebook, Instagram and Twitter into one place, making it easier for people to check updates across different social media platforms.

Ben has clocked 1.8 million views on his YouTube channel and has 200,000 Instagram followers. At the age of 11, he began gathering YouTube followers as Apple addicts across the world logged on to watch what his mum calls “tech porn”; the “unboxing” of a new Apple device.

He was first in line at his local Apple store to get the iPad mini, iPad Air and iPhone 4s when they were released. While he was still in primary school, tech companies were mailing him free products to review on his YouTube channel.

His entrepreneurial spirit might not come as a surprise to those familiar with his family tree. His grandfather is merchant banker turned toy retailer turned property developer Bob Magid, who is estimated to be worth $380 million. Bob’s father, Russian immigrant Isador Magid, imported a machine on which he produced what would become the iconic snack Twisties.

However, Ben says he isn’t in it for the money. He wants to make apps that are well designed and aesthetically pleasing like the Apple products he has long ­admired.

“We went to America and we drove past the Apple headquarters and I was really inspired that it all started in a garage,” he says. “And in the car I started making my next app straight away.”