Walking into Zinch’s offices in downtown Provo, it’s easy to feel like you’re in a college dorm. Graffiti is painted on the walls and employees walk around in flip-flops, shorts and sweatshirts. The workspace has the collegiate essentials: Xbox, Guitar Hero and a big screen TV (bought for the NCAA’s March Madness).

Zinch launched in 2007 as an online community to help high school students get into the school of their dreams. It’s like Facebook, only for college admissions. Students can create profiles revealing much more information than a standardized test score. They can also send “shout outs” to colleges that they’re interested in, and in return colleges can send students “the love” with information about their school.

“We’re young and that helps us reach our demographic,” says President Mick Hagen, 24, a student at Princeton currently on leave of absence to build up Zinch. Hagen got the idea for Zinch based on his own experience applying for college. “I didn’t have the best test scores, but I was a computer wiz, captain of the varsity basketball team and editor of our high school newspaper. I had a lot of things that couldn’t be summed up into one test score. I wanted to help high school students be seen for who they are,” he says.

Hagen’s older brother Brad Hagen, 28, CEO of Zinch, is studying advertising at BYU. Sid Krommenhoek, 28, chief evangelist, graduated in business from the University of Utah. The three co-founders have quickly capitalized on their youth and love of Web 2.0. In just nine months, more than 522 colleges partnered with Zinch to recruit students, and more than 300,000 high school students from all 50 states and more than 160 countries posted profiles.

Michael Levinthal, a venture capitalist formerly with California-based Mayfield Fund, began working with Zinch in January. “I instantly felt connected with their company vision,” Levinthal says. “They hit on an interesting opportunity with incredible traction and visibility. Plus, they understand the bootstrap mentality. When you think of everything they’ve done with nothing, it’s very impressive.”

Mick Hagen, president
“My senior year of high school I started a teen magazine/online community for high school kids in Utah County.”

Sid Krommenhoek, chief evangelist
“When I was about 6, I bought candy bars wholesale and sold them in my driveway. Great profit margins for a kid (if you don’t factor in the candy I ate).”

Brad Hagen, CEO
“When I was about 10, I would go door-to-door with my brothers on Saturdays and ask college students if we could take out their trash for 25 cents.”

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