The world’s largest social dating community, Zoosk, was co-founded by Green Card Lottery winner Alex Mehr, Inc reported. He applied for the Green Card Lottery and won in 2006. After his friend, Shayan Zadeh, received his Green Card, they both quit their jobs to start Zoosk.

Mehr and Zadeh were able to raise more than $40 million in venture capital for Zoosk. The company employs more than 110 employees and has 50 million registered users (also known as Zooskers) from more than 60 countries around the world.

Mehr is a native of Iran. Before coming to the United States, Mehr had to hitchhike through Turkey to receive a student visa to pursue a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering at the University of Maryland.

The Green Card Lottery’s official name is Diversity Visa or DV, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service reported. It is an official U.S. government program that grants 50,000 Green Cards each year. It is one of the very few Green Cards that do not require family or employer sponsorship. Eligibility to the program is based upon being from a qualifying country as well having a high school education or 2 years of work experience. From DV 2007-2013, over 2.3 million Iranians applied for the Green Card Lottery.

Because the results are random, anyone has a fair chance of winning and those that do win, change the course of their lives forever like Alex Mehr.