Like 18-year-olds of millions of fellow peers across the United States, Zach Yodegali spent the summer preparing for college.
Unlike most other freshmen, Yadegari suspects he will remain in the academia for a very long time. He is co-founder and CEO of Cal AI, a calorie tracking mobile app that was launched from his parents’ home in Roslyn, New York in May 2024, and he says the success of the app so far will think he will take it full-time before the class’s graduation day.
Cal AI users upload photos of their food, and the app’s artificial intelligence-based software provides an estimate of total calories. According to Yadegari, which was launched in May 2024, the app says it can be downloaded for free on the Apple and Google Play app stores, with subscriptions of $2.49 a month or $29.99 a year.
CAL AI has 30 employees, and will deliver a gross profit of around $1.4 million a month after Apple and Google Play app stores make their own cuts, according to CNBC Make IT reviewed documents. This includes measuring profits before taxes and interest accounting for almost $274,000 in monthly net operating income.
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Yadegari began undergraduate classes at the University of Miami Business School in August, but has no plans to stay for more than a year. On social media he touts as living the CEO lifestyle of a gorgeous startup. He advertises that he “shares with all his friends” and “almost every night.”
In the video, the ad for the online course of mobile app development co-launched by Yadegari, he is said to be taking his class in a Lamborghini with a “Cal AI” license plate. In the remaining videos, one man floating in the pool, another man does push-ups, smokes a cigar, and promises, “Society will lie to you, and money will buy happiness.”
After graduating from university, Yodegali dreams of a serial entrepreneurial career, he says. Technically, he has already achieved Monica. As a freshman in high school, he built a gaming website called Complete Science, which helps students play online games on the school’s WiFi network and bypass internet blocking protocols. He sold the website to gaming company Freeze Nova in February 2024 for around $100,000, documents show.
“At the end of the day, age doesn’t really matter so I think entrepreneurship is really cool,” says Yadegari. “You’re good at what you’re doing or not, and the market decides (the outcome).”
From coding at a 7 year old to building a viral app in high school
Yadegari’s mother, inspired by her love for online games like Minecraft, sent her to summer camp at the age of seven to learn software coding. From there, Yadegari began watching YouTube for “tutorials on coding different types of programs.”
After fully starting science, Yadegari tried to create a viral mobile app “since everyone has a phone in their pocket.” His ideas continued to flop until he focused on personal issues. He had started his job “to impress girls at my school.”
He spoke about it with his friend Henry Langmack, whom he knew since coding the camp, and two friends he met on social media platform X, Blake Anderson, 24, and Jake Castillo, 30.
Yadegari and Langmack coded the app, and the group spent $2,000 running social media marketing tests, Yadegari says. This response was positive enough for his own serial entrepreneurs, Yadegari and Anderson, to fund CAL AI’s operating and marketing costs for six months, until the app’s postponed payment schedules emerged.
Cal AI generated more than $28,000 in revenue in the first month and $115,000 the following month. The co-founder began hiring employees, and Yadegari and Langmack interviewed them in July 2024 while staying at the San Francisco Hacker House.
As summer ended, Yadegari wrote potential new features with Cal AI designers and developers, writing brainstorming code, writing brainstorming code, and brainstorming while managing her studies at Rosslyn High School. His parents support his efforts and he maintains a 4.0 GPA, he says.
“My parents are really happy with everything, especially my mother, especially my mother. She actually uses the app,” says Yadegari. “Overall, they’re really proud.”
Balancing CEO work with being a college student
While mobile apps may seem like a relatively elevated business idea, Cal AI costs are pretty much in line with revenue.
For example, the company spends around $770,000 a month on advertising and marketing alone. Other costs include payroll, software costs, legal and accounting services. The co-founder will pay dividends from the app’s revenue, including a recent $100,000 payment to Yadegari.
The company also needs to maintain a good reputation in the Apple and Google Play app stores. Cal AI can save users time compared to their more traditional counterparts, but it’s not magic. Customer reviews show many complaints about the accuracy of the app. Users must manually enter information that the app cannot detect and fix the wrong one.
Yadegari adds, “We have a misunderstanding about what Cal AI and what AI can do” and “we have a misunderstanding about what Cal AI and what AI can do.”
Yadegari wants to make Cal Ai “the biggest calorie tracking app.” According to a spokesman, the startup app had 8.3 million downloads as of July, and Cal AI plans to close the gap with more jobs, marketing spending and rolling out new features, Yadegari said.
He is the first CEO of a company with adult employees whose families rely on pay. “I can’t leave for a few months and ignore things.
However, for all of his long-term goals, Yadegari plans to run Cal AI for another two years. He then says he can sell it or hand the reins to another CEO and start a new company. He added that he “is not entirely entirely certain” what his next venture will entail beyond involving AI, but that he hopes to “dedicate a large part of my life” to it.
“Ideally, it really shapes the future and is part of my legacy,” says Yadegari.
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