This month marks the 20th anniversary of one of the world’s first social networking sites, theglobe.com‘s record breaking IPO with a valuation of over $1 billion on November 13, 1998. Theglobe.com was created ten years before Facebook, and Stephan Paternot was the visionary who co-founded the company with partner Todd Krizelman at Cornell University in their college dorm room.

As one of the most famous stories during the dot-com boom era, Theglobe.com became one of most trafficked sites in the world with nearly 10% of all internet monthly unique visitors. As an industry pioneer out to change the way the world used the new technology of the internet, Paternot is frequently noted as the precursor to Mark Zuckerberg.

Paternot will now be immortalized in Valley of the Boom, National Geographic’s upcoming six-part limited series about the ’90s tech bubble from director, Matthew Carnahan (House of Lies) and executive producer, Arianna Huffington. Paternot’s vision to create the first online community site at theglobe.com, during the roller coaster ride of Silicon Valley’s unprecedented tech boom and subsequent bust in the 1990s, is one of the three central stories in the series. In Valley of the Boom, he is positioned alongside notable tech titans such as Mark Cuban, Marc Andreessen, and Arianna Huffington to talk about the dot-com era.

“I used to resent being compared to Mark Zuckerberg. Eventually I became flattered. With regard to Valley of the Boom, at first I was nervous, but now I’m humbled and honored. I hope the real me does justice to the “Steph” they portray,” said Paternot about the new show, which airs in January 2019.

Today, he is improving the way films get made and financed in Hollywood, as Co-Founder/CEO of Slated, an online film finance marketplace. With Slated, Paternot combines his vast expertise in technology, finance, and entertainment, to create an online platform that evolves the film development and finance process. As of 2018, over half of this year’s Sundance Film Festival selections and Oscar-nominated films were made by Slated members in producing, directing, and writing roles. 

“Slated is the future of film financing. Powered by machine-learning analytics, over 1,200 listed films have received over $1.25 billion in investor introductions, and over half of this year’s Sundance selections and Oscar nominated films were made by Slated members in producing, directing, and writing roles. In early 2019 we are releasing our most game-changing upgrade in company history that will make the process of discovering, packaging, financing and distributing high quality films easier than ever before.”

Paternot’s updated book “A Very Public Offering” recounting his days as founder of theglobe.com is available now on Amazon.