Hack Club at 16
Latta founded Hack Club in 2014. The idea was structural rather than technical: instead of teaching teenagers to code through a curriculum written by adults, give high-school students the materials and the network to run coding clubs themselves, school by school.
He graduated early from El Segundo High School in California and had worked at Yo, the messaging app company, before the club network became his full-time job. By the time the press found him he was not a student with a side project; he was running an organisation.
The Forbes list, at 18
In January 2016 Forbes named him in the education category of its 30 Under 30 list, and Business Insider wrote him up under a headline built on the contrast: an 18-year-old skipping college to start a club for hackers. The 30 Under 30 lists are annual and heavily contested; being on one at 18 means being picked against people up to a decade older with funded companies behind them.
The decision not to go to university was the hook of the coverage, and it was a decision, not an outcome. The reporting describes a choice to work on Hack Club instead.
Thiel Fellow
Wikipedia's article on Hack Club records Latta as a 2015 Thiel Fellow. The fellowship, created by the investor Peter Thiel, pays young people to leave or skip formal education and work on their own projects for two years, and it is the standard financial route for the path Latta took.
That detail is worth flagging as second-hand: it comes from an encyclopedia entry about the organisation rather than from the two news reports that anchor the rest of this page. The distinction matters for anyone checking the record.
Where Zach Latta is now
The sources gathered here stop in 2016, when Latta was 18. They do not record what happened to him or to Hack Club after that, and this page does not guess. Hack Club exists as an organisation with its own public record; the person is documented here only up to the Forbes listing.
What the file does support is the shape of the early career: school finished early, a job at a startup, an organisation founded at 16, national recognition at 18, and no university.
What is documented and what is not
Documented: the founding of Hack Club at 16 in 2014, early graduation from El Segundo High School, the job at Yo, the Forbes 30 Under 30 education listing in January 2016 at 18, the decision to skip college, and the Thiel Fellowship as recorded by Wikipedia's Hack Club article.
Not documented here: his date of birth, his family, any funding figures for Hack Club, membership numbers, and anything after 2016. The birth year of about 1997 on this page is an estimate from his reported age at the time of the Forbes list.
| Person | Country | Milestone | Age / Stat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sawsan Ahmed | United States | Broward College's youngest graduate, at 12, in December 2021 | Age 12 |
| Arvind Mahankali | United States | Won the 2013 Scripps National Spelling Bee at 13 | Age 13 |
| Kerry Close | United States | Won the 2006 Scripps National Spelling Bee at 13 | Age 13 |
| Shania Muhammad | United States | Langston University's youngest graduate, at 15 | Age 15 |
| Zach Latta | United States | Founding the high-school coding network Hack Club at 16 | Age 16 |
What is documented — and what is not
✓ Documented
- Founded Hack Club in 2014 at the age of 16
- Named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 education list in January 2016 at 18
- Graduated early from El Segundo High School and worked at the app company Yo
- Skipped college to run Hack Club, as reported by Business Insider
? Unverified, disputed or wrong
- Exact date of birth is not published; the birth year here is an estimate
- The 2015 Thiel Fellowship comes from Wikipedia's Hack Club article, not from the news reports
- No documented activity after 2016 in this record
Questions people ask about Zach Latta
Who founded Hack Club?
Zach Latta, who started the high-school coding club network in 2014 at the age of 16.
How old is Zach Latta?
He was reported as 18 in January 2016, which puts his birth year at about 1997. No date of birth appears in these sources.
Did Zach Latta go to college?
No. The 2016 coverage describes him skipping college to work on Hack Club full time.
What is a Thiel Fellowship?
A programme that pays young people to skip or leave formal education and work on their own projects. Wikipedia's Hack Club article records Latta as a 2015 fellow.
What is Hack Club?
A network of coding clubs run by high-school students themselves, rather than a curriculum designed by adults.
Is Zach Latta on Wikipedia?
He has no article of his own in this record; he appears in Wikipedia's article about Hack Club.
Where is Zach Latta now?
The sources used here end in 2016 and record nothing later.
Quick quiz: how well do you know Zach’s story?
What did Zach Latta found at 16?
Which Forbes list did he make at 18?
What did he do instead of going to college?
Sources
- Meet the 18-year-old who's skipping college to start a club for 'hackers' — Business Insider, 2016-01-15
- 30 Under 30 2016: Education — Forbes, 2016-01-05
- Hack Club — Wikipedia
Checked by the Geniuses.club editorial team. Ages are given as of September 2026.
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