New York teen's AI meal‑photo app reports $1.4 million in monthly revenue

An 18-year-old from New York who taught himself to code as a child now heads an artificial intelligence startup that the company says generates $1.4 million in revenue each month.

Zach Yadegari founded Cal AI in May 2024 from his parents’ home in Roslyn, Long Island. The app allows users to upload a photograph of a meal and, according to the company, estimates total calories with about 90% accuracy. Cal AI is available on Apple’s App Store and Google Play for $2.49 per month or $29.99 per year.

Yadegari told CNBC Make It that he began learning to code at age 7 after attending a software summer camp and playing online games. He and co‑founder Henry Langmack — a friend from coding camp — wrote the initial code for Cal AI. Two other early team members, Blake Anderson, 24, and Jake Castillo, 30, joined after meeting Yadegari on X, and the group spent a month living and working in a San Francisco "hacker house" in July 2024 while developing the product.

The company now employs about 30 people, Yadegari said. Cal AI’s reported monthly expenditures include nearly $770,000 on advertising; Yadegari said total expenses roughly match revenue, though he and his co‑founders take compensation from the business. Yadegari said he recently received a $100,000 payout. The founder is studying business at the University of Miami and told reporters he does not expect to remain in college longer than a year because of the app’s growth.

Cal AI’s stated goal is to become the dominant calorie‑tracking app and to overtake established competitors such as MyFitnessPal. The service automates a task that many calorie‑tracking products require users to perform manually: entering calorie amounts for meals.

Company claims about accuracy and financial performance were reported in interviews and coverage by CNBC Make It and other outlets. The 90% accuracy figure is provided by Cal AI and has not been independently verified in the reporting.

Image‑based dietary analysis is one of several consumer health applications that have emerged in recent years as computer vision and machine learning techniques have improved. Developers say such tools can reduce friction for users who track intake manually, while researchers and regulators have highlighted the need for transparency around training data, accuracy across diverse foods and cuisines, and how user images and related health data are stored and shared.

Yadegari and his co‑founders described a fast development cycle: several earlier apps created by Yadegari failed to gain traction, and the team focused on building a product that could go viral by reducing the time and effort required for food logging. He said his parents supported the venture, noting he maintained a 4.0 GPA at Roslyn High School while working on the app.

Cal AI’s pricing model and the company’s reported ad spending suggest the startup is relying on volume and subscription revenue to sustain growth. The company did not provide public, independently audited financial statements in the reporting.

As consumer apps increasingly incorporate AI features, Cal AI’s progress highlights both commercial opportunities and the questions that accompany automated health tools: claims of accuracy and the handling of sensitive user data will likely draw scrutiny as the user base grows and the company competes with longer‑established platforms.