Eighteen-year-old Zach Yadegari, with his mother Anni as escort, prepares to face the rigors of college. At the same time, he artfully balances his golden goose AI success Cal AI. Since being launched in the beginning of May 2024, the app has gained a lot of attention, reaching 8.3 million downloads in July. On a gross level, Yadegari’s operation brings in $1.4 million a month! He continues to artfully balance his rigorous academic work at Roslyn High School while meeting the pressures of his booming tech startup, A-Frame.
Over the summer of 2024, as was the case with most of his classmates, Yadegari spent time preparing for college. He spent around 40 hours a week on top of that for Cal AI. In the meantime, he continued writing code and working with designers and developers to conceptualize possible new features. His drive and vision for both his studies and business ventures epitomizes the cool intersection of tech entrepreneurship and youthful ambition.
Yadegari started Cal AI last fall with friends Henry Langmack, Blake Anderson, and Jake Castillo. Together, they made the strategic decision to spend July in a San Francisco “hacker house,” where they conducted interviews and began hiring employees to support their burgeoning business. This iterative, in-the-field process helped them hone the details of their product and helped build goodwill through collaboration.
Cal AI distinguishes itself by analyzing food photos to simplify calorie tracking for users, aiming to “do all of the work for you.” The app boasts an impressive accuracy rate of 90%, making it a strong competitor in the health and fitness space. It’s available for free on both the Apple and Google Play app stores—just search for Cal AI! To gain access, it’s only $2.49 per month or $29.99 for an annual subscription.
However difficult the road to entrepreneurship may be for someone so young, Yadegari says he is hopeful about what lies ahead. So, his intention is to keep Cal AI running for another two years. From there, he’ll either sell the app or transfer the company’s leadership to a new CEO. In addition to his immediate goal, his long-term goal centers on developing a profession in serial entrepreneurship after college.
“We funded Cal AI’s operating and marketing costs for six months using our own money,” Yadegari explained. The team has since invested heavily in advertising, spending nearly $770,000 per month to boost visibility and attract users. Needless to say, Yadegari has lofty aspirations. He hopes to grow Cal AI to be the biggest calorie tracking app in the world – even beating out MyFitnessPal, which has over 270 million registered users as of 2021.
My parents are really happy with everything with Cal AI, especially my mom. She actually uses the app,” Yadegari shared, highlighting the personal connection he has with his product. His journey as an entrepreneur is a testament to his hard work and adventurous spirit to experiment in a highly competitive market.
“I think that entrepreneurship is really cool because at the end of the day, age doesn’t really matter much,” he said, underscoring his belief that success is determined by skill and market demand rather than age. “You’re either good or not good at what you do, and then the market will decide the results.”
This has been an extremely transformative experience for young entrepreneur Yadegari. I can no longer take three months off from fulfilling my duties,” he said. This further indicates that he has found a greater sense of purpose in his new position.
Rising user expectations that aren’t grounded in reality are a dime-a-dozen. Even so, Yadegari admitted that many users come with X-ray vision already built in. This requirement isn’t just because we (and you) like it when the app can identify images of food products. If you have your camera on a bowl full of food and you might touch things that are down near the bottom of the bowl, that’s not going to work out. It won’t.
Yadegari’s insight into user expectations highlights the challenges of developing an app that meets diverse needs while maintaining realistic functionality. “Since everybody’s got a computer in their pocket,” he says, he thinks the potential for economic development in this space is enormous.
His entrepreneurial journey is about something much more personal than the bottom line. “Ideally, it really shapes the future and is part of my legacy,” he expressed, showcasing a depth of thought regarding his impact on future generations.