A Very Public Offering

In the volatile world of internet start-ups, it can take just a nanosecond to lose it all.

A decade before Facebook, Stephan Paternot and Todd Krizelman created the first social network in their college dorm room. After a meteoric rise, theglobe.com became world-famous for its billion-dollar IPO, only to quickly plummet toward the depths. This very personal history details what it was like to witness the chaotic birth of the internet industry.

One of the poster boys of the dot-com era, Stephan rode the wild high of seeing his digital dreams come true, only to confront the sometimes-ugly reality of being the youngest-ever CEO of a public company. As Stephan navigated a fledgling and cutthroat industry, he struggled to keep his company afloat.

Chronicling a surreal, upside-down period in American corporate history, A Very Public Offering tells the dramatic personal story of a young man's rocket toward success, and what happens when it all falls apart.

Reissued to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of theglobe.com's IPO and adding powerful and practical lessons for a new generation of start-up founders, this edition expands upon Stephan's story featured in the National Geographic TV series Valley of the Boom.

ABOUT STEPHAN PATERNOT:
Stephan Paternot is co-founder & CEO of Slated, the world’s first online film finance marketplace. Powered by machine-learning analytics, over 1,200 listed films have received over $1.25 billion in investor introductions as of 2018. Over half of 2018’s Sundance Film Festival selections and Oscar nominated films were made by Slated members in producing, directing, and writing roles. In 2004, Stephan co-founded PalmStar, a film production and financing company that has produced and financed over 30 films including Hereditary (2018), Collateral Beauty (2016), Sing Street (2016) and John Wick (2014). Stephan is also the founder and general partner of the Actarus Funds. Founded in 2002, these angel funds have backed such companies as LendingClub, SecondMarket, Indiegogo, AngelList, Digital Currency Group, and many more.
Prior to these ventures, Paternot is best known for co-founding one of the first Internet community sites, theglobe.com, in 1994. The company set stock market history when it went public in 1998 with a record-setting IPO, pushing the company valuation to over $1 billion. Over a six-year span, the company grew to over 300 employees, and the website became one of the top thirty most trafficked sites in the world. In 1999 Stephan won the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award and in 2001 published his memoir, A Very Public Offering, detailing his experience at theglobe.com. A Very Public Offering was updated and reissued in 2018 in conjunction with the worldwide release of the National Geographic Television series Valley of the Boom, in which Paternot is featured as a character.