Google and Facebook go head-to-head to land 15-year-old App whizzkid

Facebook and Google are battling to woo a 15-year-old whizzkid who developed an app which has been downloaded 500,000 times. Sydney schoolboy Ben Pasternak created the simple game Impossible Rush which has soared up the App Store charts since its launch in October. It managed to overtake Vine, Google and Twitter thanks to its addictive gameplay. Now Facebook’s internship department has invited him for a tour of the company’s California HQ, while a Google vice president has asked him to come to its campus.

My biggest motivation is knowing that my apps make people’s lives just a little bit easier and simple. There is no better feeling than seeing people using your creations.

App creator Ben Pasternak

The Australian is one of 450 young entrepreneurs accepted on to a Google and MIT sponsored event called Hack Generation Y this weekend, in which high school students create a product in 36 hours. Michael Matias, the lead organiser of the event, said: “Pasternak is a young entrepreneur and clearly ambitious, he has shown the world that age is just a number.” Pasternak created the iPhone game with another teen based in Chicago called Austin Valleskey.

Technology Ben Pasternak