How a teenage CEO built a fast-growing calorie-tracking app
Like millions of children throughout the United States, Zach Yadegari spent his writing for university.
Unlike other first year students, Yadegari doubts that he will distract at his academy for a very long time. In May 2024, Roslyn, the founding partner and CEO of Cal Ai, a calorie monitoring mobile application initiated by his parents in New York, and the CEO of the CEO, and the success of the application to date will take it full -time.
Cal Ai’s users upload a photo of their food, and the artificial intelligence -based software of the application gives them an estimation of total calories. The application, which Yadegari says that it has a 90% accuracy rate initiated in May 2024, is free to download in Apple and Google Play App stores and subscription is $ 2.49 per month or $ 29.99 per year.
According to the documents examined by CNBC Make It IT, Cal Ai has 30 employees, and Apple and Google Play app stores bring about $ 1.4 million per month after receiving their own deductions. This includes a profit measurement before calculating approximately 274,000 dollars, taxes and interest in monthly net operating income.
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Yadegari started his undergraduate classes at Miami University Operation School in August, but does not plan to stay for more than a year. On social media, a generous start CEO is experiencing his lifestyle: “All my friends” in a campus mansion he shares “almost every night” parties, he said. An Instagram video Published on August 23rd.
In the video, an ad for a mobile application development course launched by Yadeguari together claims to a Lamborghini-Sunnina with a “Cal Ai” plate. The rest of the video is a man who floats in a pool, the other drinks push -up and a third cigar, and says, “Society lies to you and money is buying happiness.”
After the university, Yadegari dreams a career in serial entrepreneurship. Technically, it has already reached the island: As a high school first -year student, students have established a game website called Bilim, which helps students play online games on WiFi networks and jumps internet blocking protocols. The documents sold its website about $ 100,000 to the game company Freeze Nova in February 2024.
“I think entrepreneurship is really great because the age is not important at the end of the day,” Yadeguari says. “You are not good or good in what you do, and then the market will decide [the] Results. “
From 7 -year -old coding to building a viral application in high school
Inspired by his love for online games like Minecraft, Yadegari’s mother sent him to a summer camp to learn about the software coding at the age of 7. From there, Yadeguari “different program types coding, other encoders and content creators directly for teaching about messaging to ask for clues to ask for tips online began to direct other encoders and content creators.
After completely started science, he tried to create a viral mobile application, “because everyone has a phone in his pocket.” His ideas continued to swim until he focused on a personal problem: “to impress the girls in my school” began to work, and every calorie monitoring application he downloaded was manually entered all his food.
His friend Henry Langmack, whom he has known since the coding camp, and his social media platform X – 24 -year -old Blake Anderson and two friends he met at 30, 30. The group decided to create an AI model that can analyze food photographs and says, “Do all things for you, Y Yadeguari says.
Yadeguari and Langmack coded the application and the group spent $ 2,000 in a social media marketing test, Yadegari says. For Yadeguari and Anderson, a series of entrepreneurs on his own, he was positive enough for Cal Ai to finance Cal Ai’s business and marketing costs and application stores for six months until the application stores captured delayed payment programs.
Cal Ai brought more than $ 28,000 for the first month and then brought $ 115,000 for next month. The founding partners began to hire employees, Yadegari and Langmack interviewed San Francisco “Hacker House” for July 2024.
When the summer ends, he worked 40 hours a week in Yadegari practice – while he manages his school work at Roslyn High School, Potential new features with Cal Ai’s designers and developers make brainstorming and potential new features. He says that his parents support their efforts and continue 4.0 GPA.
“My family Cal Ai, especially with my mother, is really satisfied with everything that is. In fact, it uses the application.” “In general, they are really proud.”
Balancing CEO business by being a university student
A mobile application may seem like a relatively low business idea, but Cal Ai’s expenses almost match its income.
The company spends about $ 770,000 per month only for advertising and marketing, for example. Other costs include payroll, software costs and legal and accounting services. The founding partners pay some dividends from the revenues of the application, including a payment of $ 100,000 to Yadeguari.
The company should also have a good reputation in Apple and Google Play app stores. Cal Ai can save users for a while than their traditional colleagues, but this is not magic. Customer examinations show numerous complaints about the accuracy of the application: users need to manually enter any information that the application still cannot detect, and correct anything wrong.
Some customers say, “Cal Ai and AI have misunderstanding about what they can do,” Yadeguari says, “Some of our users expect the X-ray vision to have the vision of the X-ray.
Yadeguari hopes to make Cal Ai as a “largest calorie monitoring application”, which is probably industrial leader MyfitnessPal Self -reported more than 270 million users. According to a spokesman, according to a spokesman, there is 8.3 million downloads at the beginning, and Cal Ai plans to close the gap with more recruitment, marketing expenditure and launch of new features.
For the first time, a company with adult employees whose families rely on salary checks is the CEO of the CEO. “I can’t go for a few months and I can’t neglect things like I can be in previous projects,” he says.
Nevertheless, for all its long -term goals, Yadegari plans to run Cal Ai for just two years: after that, to sell it to establish a new company or to deliver the reins to another CEO. He hopes to call “most of the rest of my life” – but “not exactly sure” what the next attempt will require beyond artificial intelligence.
“Ideally, it really shapes the future and is part of my inheritance,” Yadeguari says.
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