Stephan Paternot Net Worth

What is Stephan Paternot's Net Worth?

Stephan Paternot is a Swiss-American entrepreneur, investor, and film producer who has a net worth of $10 million. Stephan Paternot rose to fame as the co-founder of the Internet's earliest social networking site, theGlobe.com. Launched in 1995 while he was still a student at Cornell, the site allowed users to create personal profiles, join communities, and chat online—essentially a precursor to Facebook and MySpace. Just three years later, at the height of dot-com mania, theGlobe.com went public in what became one of Wall Street's most infamous IPOs. Shares that were priced at $9 surged more than 600% on their first day, briefly valuing the company at $840 million and making its twenty-something founders paper multimillionaires. But the hype proved unsustainable. As the dot-com bubble burst, the stock collapsed to pennies, the company shut down, and Paternot became an enduring symbol of the era—dubbed "the CEO in plastic pants" after a notorious TV clip of him celebrating his sudden wealth in a nightclub.

Although his initial rise and fall were dramatic, Paternot went on to build a successful career across several industries. He launched Actarus Funds, an angel investment vehicle that backed early-stage tech companies, including LendingClub, Indiegogo, AngelList, and Fab.com. In 2004, he co-founded PalmStar Media, which went on to finance or produce more than 30 feature films, including titles such as "John Wick" and "Hereditary." Later, in 2012, he co-founded Slated, an online film financing and development marketplace where he served as CEO and then Executive Chairman. Beyond his startups, he has held advisory and board positions with organizations in both tech and film, including the Independent Filmmaker Project. Paternot also published a memoir, "A Very Public Offering," recounting his whirlwind dot-com experience, which was revisited in the 2019 National Geographic miniseries "Valley of the Boom."

Early Life and Education

SStephan Paternot was born on March 21, 1974, in San Francisco, California. He grew up in a family with deep ties to both European business and American culture. His great-grandfather was among the founders of Nestlé, the Swiss multinational food and beverage giant, and his father, Stéphane Paternot Sr., went on to become a private equity investor and longtime CEO of one of Europe's largest employment agencies. Growing up in an environment that combined entrepreneurial ambition with international perspective, Stephan was exposed early to the worlds of finance, business, and innovation.

After completing his primary and secondary education, Paternot enrolled at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. At Cornell, he pursued a bachelor's degree in computer science, while also exploring the university's vibrant tech and entrepreneurial communities. It was during his time on campus that he met fellow student Todd Krizelman, who shared his fascination with the early forms of online communication that were starting to flourish on college networks. Their shared enthusiasm for chatrooms and digital communities planted the seed that would later grow into theGlobe.com.

theGlobe.com

While studying at Cornell University in the early 1990s, Stephan Paternot and fellow student Todd Krizelman became captivated by the university's early chatrooms, which allowed students to interact in real time over the campus network. The pair saw enormous potential in building something larger out of this new form of digital communication. In late 1994, they raised about $15,000 from family and friends, purchased an Apple server, and founded a small programming company called WebGenesis. Over the next few months, they coded what would become theGlobe.com, one of the Internet's first true social networking platforms.

Launched on April 1, 1995, TheGlobe.com allowed users to create personal profiles, customize homepages, join interest-based communities, and chat online. Within a month, the site had attracted more than 40,000 visitors, a remarkable figure given how few people were online at the time. By the end of the year, the company had 17 employees, most of them Cornell graduates. The idea of a vast, user-driven online community was novel, and it made Paternot and Krizelman early pioneers in what would later become the defining model for social media.

As investor enthusiasm for the Internet heated up, TheGlobe.com became one of the hottest properties of the dot-com era. In 1997, the company secured a $20 million investment from Michael Egan's Dancing Bear Investments, giving the 23-year-old founders six-figure salaries and capital to expand into online gaming, e-commerce, and publishing. The real watershed moment came the following year when TheGlobe.com went public on November 13, 1998. Priced at $9 a share, the stock opened at $87 and soared as high as $97 before closing at $63.50. That 606% first-day gain set an IPO record that still stands and briefly valued the company at more than $800 million. Overnight, Paternot and Krizelman were each worth over $100 million on paper.

The rapid rise brought scrutiny as well as fame. In 1999, a CNN camera crew filmed Paternot dancing on a Manhattan nightclub table in shiny vinyl pants, proclaiming, "Got the girl. Got the money. Now I'm ready to live a disgusting, frivolous life." The clip went viral in the pre-viral era and earned him the derisive nickname "the CEO in plastic pants." For many, he became the face of dot-com excess just as market sentiment began to sour.

When the bubble burst in 2000, TheGlobe.com was one of its most dramatic casualties. The stock, once near $100, collapsed to pennies within two years, wiping out nearly all of its $840 million market value. The board pushed Paternot and Krizelman out of the company, and by 2001, the flagship site was shut down, and half the staff was laid off. Later efforts to pivot into online gaming magazines and a VoIP service called GloPhone faltered, and legal battles—including a damaging spam lawsuit tied to MySpace—finished the company off. By 2008, TheGlobe.com existed only as a corporate shell, remembered as one of the Internet's most spectacular boom-and-bust stories.

Todd Krizelman (left)  and Stephan Paternot (right) (via Getty)

PalmStar

Stephan Paternot expanded into the film industry in 2004 when he co-founded PalmStar Media, a financing and production company focused on bridging the gap between independent filmmakers and major studios. PalmStar became known for backing mid-budget and prestige projects that blended commercial appeal with artistic ambition. Over the years, the company helped finance or co-produce more than 30 films, including popular action titles such as "John Wick" (2014), star-driven dramas like "Collateral Beauty" (2016), and critically acclaimed horror hits such as "Hereditary" (2018).

Through PalmStar, Paternot established himself as a serious player in Hollywood's independent production ecosystem. He leveraged his technology background and investor network to create opportunities for projects that might otherwise have struggled to secure funding or distribution. By working across a wide range of genres, PalmStar demonstrated both financial discipline and creative reach, producing films that performed well at the box office while also earning critical recognition.

PalmStar's track record not only solidified Paternot's reputation beyond the dot-com era but also set the stage for his next venture, Slated. Both companies reflected his belief that technology and innovative financing structures could disrupt legacy industries, streamline inefficiencies, and empower creators.

Slated

In 2012, Stephan Paternot co-founded Slated, an online marketplace designed to modernize the way films are financed, packaged, and developed. Modeled in part after startup investment platforms like AngelList, Slated was built as a hub where filmmakers could connect directly with investors, distributors, and industry professionals. The platform uses data-driven analysis and peer review to evaluate film projects, providing investors with risk assessments and filmmakers with access to a broader pool of capital.

Under Paternot's leadership, Slated became a quiet but important disruptor in the film industry. Standardizing how projects are presented and vetted it gave independent films a structured path to funding that previously only large studios could access. Since launch, Slated has helped finance or package hundreds of projects, ranging from documentaries to feature films, while attracting participation from Hollywood executives, financiers, and creative talent. Paternot initially served as CEO and later shifted to the role of Executive Chairman, focusing on long-term growth and strategic direction. For him, Slated represented the culmination of lessons learned from the dot-com bubble: combining the reach of online networks with disciplined, data-backed decision-making to solve a real industry problem.

Valley of the Boom

In 2019, Paternot was one of the subjects of the six-episode limited television series "Valley of the Boom," about the dot-com boom and the eventual bubble burst. In the series, Paternot was portrayed by Dakota Shapiro, while his business partner Krizelman was portrayed by Oliver Cooper.

Personal Life

During the peak of his fame in the late 1990s, Paternot dated model Jennifer Medley.

Real Estate

In November 2013, Stephan paid $1.255 million for a home in Los Angeles. Today, this home is worth around $2.4 million.

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