Congratulations to Zach Allia! A longtime 30 Boxes user and avid community participant, Zach was finishing up at Northeastern last summer when he decided to hack together an application for Facebook.

Challenging Facebook head on, he took a chance with a virtual gift application that became an instant hit. As his users climbed from tens of thousands to millions in a matter of weeks, Zach began a roller coaster ride that has landed him in Palo Alto working for Social Gaming Network.

As his user base took off, we were able to bring Zach's app into 83 Degrees so that we could help him with scaling and hosting. Free Gifts also became a major publisher for fbExchange and an instant hit with big marketers looking to crack into the world of social networks.

Zach was approached many times by folks looking to acquire Free Gifts and to hire him. He took his time, said "no" many times, until he finally found a company and location he felt excited about. We are very excited for him and applaud his long term approach toward the brand he created -- Free Gifts is one of the rare Facebook apps that does not engage in any spammy or aggressive recruitment. It is naturally viral and we hope that his vision stays intact with its new home.