Get A Room Already

Michael Markarian was an undergrad  at Babson College in 2007, sitting around with friends in his dorm room, when the idea for a social networking site called Zaang came to him.  Zaang, as defined by urbandictionary.com, is “something that is both awesome and amazing (which is why there are two a’s).” Yesterday Zaang went live with its new web platform, one that allows people to network socially around common interests. Users become part of ongoing conversations organized around “worlds”—which is an idea, subject, passion, hobby—any topic of interest that people want to communicate about.

At the time Markarian came up with the idea,  Facebook had become enormously popular on college campuses, but he found it lacking, in that it wasn’t organized around common interests—just common friends.  Markarian and his friend and cofounder, Alexander Kravets, wanted to create a social networking site where college students could get their questions answered by peers—whether it was the best Indian restaurant or the worst physics professor. And a place where like-minded people could come together and talk, virtually. They started a beta version of Zaang focused on the Boston area, where they are based. About 1,000 students at 13 area colleges were a part of the advice network.

After Markarian graduated last spring, he said he had a “greater vision” for the network, beyond college students. “I wanted to connect people in a way that hadn’t been done before, having conversations with another who share something in common with you. Could be a hobby, something work-related, even a disease. The idea is that you know hundreds of people, but there are billions in the world. Just because you don’t know someone personally doesn’t mean you can’t  connect and meet them, forge friendships, all based on common interests,” he says.

Kravets and Markarian are a young pair of entrepreneurs—21 and 23 respectively; Kravets won’t even have his BA degree  until this spring. But they’ve managed to interest some super angels who’ve invested in the company.

Kravets says a good example of how he might use the site relates to his interest in fishing on Cape Cod. “I only know a few members of my family and a few friends who I can connect with about this. But it would be great if I was able to connect and converse with other fisherman on Cape Cod.” And of course, the revenue possibilities come from ads on the site, and from users actually using the site as a marketplace. Got a fishing rod for sale? Let your World know.

Kravets and Markarian say Zaang is definitely not a dating site. Sure, you could meet someone that becomes the love of your life and also shares your passion for knitting, but more likely, they say, you’ll find friends. Yet as we stare down oh-so-hyped Valentine’s Day, and look at a dating landscape that has become so virtual–and largely driven by sexy profile photos–meeting someone you really like because you both share an interest in, say, old cookbooks or existential philosophers or competitive swimming sounds downright old fashioned to me. And it might be a more meaningful way to meet someone, than the knee-jerk judging that often happens on other social networking sites (including Facebook).