Zach Yadegari, 18, isn’t new to being a tech entrepreneur. Instead of making money from lemonade stands growing up—he made it from apps.
In his teens, he started building apps he deemed as “small projects.” One of them isn’t so small anymore, as Cal AI has taken off to become a $30 million empire. The app allows users to track calories by taking a picture of their food, inspired by Yadegari’s own fitness journey. (Fortune reviewed financial records showing the app brings in several million dollars of revenue per month.)
Yadegari told Fortune about the wild ride of the last two years, from bringing in a mix of friends (all older than him) as co-founders, to being widely rejected by Ivy League schools despite a 4.0 GPA, a 34 ACT and entrepreneurial success, to why he’s decided to go to college anyway.
“I look at it as I’m paying $100,000 a year for a vacation,” he said.
Bulking up and scaling up
