Zeros

The Boy Who Kept the Change Ben Pasternak built a platform to fund the next generation of startups. The fees were real. The tokens were not. And somehow, the hobbyist economy may be the quiet winner. Before there were rug pulls , there were chicken nuggets. Ben Pasternak, the Sydney-born serial entrepreneur who dropped out of high school at fifteen to accept venture capital funding in New York, first made the tech world take notice with Simulate — a plant-based food company that sold vegan chicken nuggets under the brand NUGGS , and reportedly raised over $50 million at a quarter-billion-dollar valuation before being acquired in late 2024. The pivot from fake meat to digital assets is, in hindsight, a study in consistent branding . In January 2025, Pasternak launched a Solana -based token platform initially called Clout , later rebranded as Believe . The pitch was almost poetic in its simplicity : anyone could launch a token by replying to a post on X . No wallet required...