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 . "Like a modern-day Dickens, Stephan Paternot witnessed the best and worst of times." - Los Angeles Times "Stephan Paternot, former CEO of theglobe.com and world-famous instant millionaire, offers up an engaging memoir that documents the dramatic rise and precipitous fall of the online company he founded. Although Paternot generously shares his personal experiences and struggles, his book also serves as a capsule history of a particular moment in American culture, a moment in which Wall Street's mania for Internet ventures allowed capital to be invested with a seeming disregard for con- sequences or common sense . . . The next chapter in Stephan Paternot's life is bound to be interesting, and probably successful as well." - Barnes & Noble Review "Part morality tale, part fairy tale, and part college diary. . . The book is hard not to like. Mr. Paternot ably captures one of life's rare moments, when the spotlight is shining on you and you haven't figured out yet that it will soon go dark." - Wall Street Journal "It's a first-person account by somebody who lived through the roller coaster." - Entertainment Weekly "In this giddy, fast-moving memoir, [Paternot] wisely focuses on the day-to-day mania of the mid and late 90s Internet Revolution, vividly showing what it felt like to run a brand-new company racing headlong across unknown terrain." - Publishers Weekly "It was the greatest Cinderella story in Silicon Alley history." - New York Post