The key facts

  • Cal AI, founded in 2024, earned more than $30 million in two years and was acquired by MyFitnessPal in March for an undisclosed amount.
  • The growth strategy was paying many influencers a fixed fee for reach; the first post brought roughly a thousand new users in two days.
  • Yadegari also launched the AI startup Persona, which raised $10 million.

Viral Growth Through Influencers

Cal AI calorie-tracking app founder Zach Yadegari, who is 19 years old, spoke at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference on Thursday, October 15, and described the company's path to fame. Cal AI, founded in 2024, earned more than $30 million in revenue over two years, and in March it was acquired by MyFitnessPal for an undisclosed amount. Yadegari named the strategy of recruiting a 'small army' of influencers to promote the brand as the key growth factor.

An 'Understandable Formula'

According to Yadegari, an early signal of success was an influencer post that brought roughly a thousand new users in two days. 'From that moment we realized: okay, this really can work for us, and we started recruiting influencers as fast as we could — paying as many people as possible to post,' he said. He described the result as an 'understandable formula': growth was linear but extremely fast — each post brought a certain number of views that converted into users.

How the Deals Were Structured

Yadegari, who made the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, said the company negotiated payments with influencers for a certain scale of reach. According to him, many influencers are 'broke students' who 'just need money': 'You just tell them: okay, we'll pay this much, but we need to get at least this many uses, and keep posting until you hit it.' Another important element, he said, was finding influencers with 'very tight-knit communities' whose reach could be measured.

On Education and Family

Yadegari, whose father was in the audience, thanked his family for the freedom to pursue his ambitions. He paid less attention to higher education: 'I think the only real reason to go to college is if you want to have fun with your peers,' he said to laughter from the audience.

New Startup Persona

In early October, Yadegari launched a new startup, Persona — an AI agent that has already raised $10 million. According to him, Persona's 'overall mission' is to 'make computing seamless in a person's life.' The personal AI assistant will 'live anywhere with an internet connection,' including iMessage, an app, email, and phone calls. Yadegari added that one of the distinctive features of the company's plans is building a 'hardware ecosystem' around the app.