Zach Yadegari: Selling Cal Ai for millions at 18-years-old

So, a year and a half ago, you were on

this podcast. You were making a million

dollars per month at 17 years old. Now,

a year and a half later, where are you

at?

>> As an 18-year-old, I sold my company,

Cali, to My Fitness Pal.

>> What was your revenue when you guys

sold?

>> We had just finished 2025, having done

$30 million in that year.

>> $30 million a year. So, how much did you

guys sell for?

>> I can't reveal that.

>> Okay. Okay. But people can do the math.

Uh, if you're in the software world, $30

million ARR.

>> That That's what we did in 2025. That

was the revenue for the year. You you

guys probably touched close to 50

recently. Yeah.

>> In January we did 5.7 million in

revenue.

>> So the run rate was over 50. Wow.

>> Yeah. The ARR currently is about 50

million.

>> People can probably do the math on what

the multiple might be there for the

company. But didn't So My Fitness Pal

was probably your biggest competitor.

>> Yeah.

>> And they decided to acquire Did they

reach out to you guys or why did you

guys decide to sell?

>> It was a little bit of a back and forth

actually. We were talking to them for a

while just because we're so close in the

space and we built up the relationship

over time and then decided it just made

sense to that combining the companies

and resources would help us make the

biggest impact because we are really

mission driven as a company. We want to

help the greatest number of people as

possible and we thought that that was

the best way to do so on both sides. It

made sense.

>> Okay. So you guys are like joining

forces. Are you still going to work

together on like are you still going to

be working on Cali or have you decided

to leave? What's your plan?

>> So Cali and my fitness pal are going to

remain separate apps

>> and I am currently helping the company.

I want this to be a really smooth

transition. I'm still working at Cali

and I want to make sure that it's going

to endure and the brand is going to

really last very long

>> even past me being there. But I

definitely am always, you know, I'm

always coming up with tons of new ideas.

So I I am definitely gonna start

something new in in time.

>> So you have a transition period

basically.

>> Yeah.

>> Can you talk about was it a cash deal,

stock deal, anything like that or no?

>> Yeah, I don't think we could reveal I

don't think I could reveal.

>> Okay. Okay, it's fair.

>> I will say they bought 100% of the

company.

>> Okay. So they bought 100% of the

company.

>> They own it now.

>> Okay. Great. So it's not like a

partnership joint venture. They own

100%.

>> They own Cali.

>> Okay. Wow. That is so cool, dude. Are

you gonna stay in school?

>> I'm definitely gonna drop out, honestly.

Like, not even because of the

acquisition. Yeah, I think I was going

to drop out after the first year anyway,

>> but yeah, I'm definitely feeling it.

Like, I want to I really want to just

swing big in the world. And I think

college is limiting me a little bit.

>> I mean, you were making a million

dollars per month, then you decided to

still go to college.

>> I mean, when I went to college, it was

we were making $3 million a month at

that point.

>> That's crazy. Why did you go to college

in the first place?

>> Dude, honestly, just for the social

life. Like that was really the main

thing. And I think it's like it was

good. I don't regret it at all because

it was either go to college, make

friends, hang out with them, have a cool

social life, or I didn't really know

what I would do. I would either still

live with my parents or maybe move to a

big city by myself, not know that many

people, maybe a couple entrepreneurs

there, but not really have a social

circle outside of that. What I've done

now, if I leave school, I'm going to

still have a good group of friends to

hang out with and other entrepreneurs

that I've met in Miami over the time.

So, I'll have a good group. So, you feel

like you did get like a social circle

out of college? Like that was definitely

a benefit?

>> Yeah, definitely a few like honestly not

like a big one like not a full friend

group, but there are a few key people

that I really enjoy spending time with

and I'm going to continue to.

>> It's a I mean it's a really crucial time

like most people are open-minded. I

think when you get past 25 closer to 30

people are much more like they're less

relationship based and they're more like

who they've been with for a long time.

So, you're building a tribe really early

and that's when people are really

openminded. So, I do think that makes a

lot of sense to go to college for that

reason. Yeah. And you met a few smart

people that you could probably do

business with for the rest of your life.

>> I definitely met some smart people.

Honestly,

>> I don't know. I haven't really thought

about it from the business perspective,

but I guess there are like a couple that

I could see in the future once they're

like out of college. But right now, no

one's too entrepreneurial, I would say.

>> Okay. So, everyone's just more just like

friends for fun. Yeah. Okay.

>> But like good friends. Like I know long

term like they're all going to do great

things.

>> I think that was the right move. You got

in, had fun, met your people, but now on

to bigger and better things, I suppose.

>> Okay. So, I am very curious because you

guys were only doing maybe like right at

a million a month when we were first

talking.

>> Yeah.

>> Now you're doing you were doing way over

$3 million a month a year later. Yeah.

>> I would love to know what the difference

was between what got you to a million

dollar a month and then what you've done

in that time to grow past that cuz I

know it was all about UGC. That was like

all you guys were doing.

>> Um, and that was very very popular, but

I know you guys have expanded into a few

other distribution channels. So, what

were you how were you able to grow Cali?

two or three million dollars per month.

>> That's a great question. So, initially

when we spoke, yeah, it was all

influencers that were just posting and

that was driving all of the growth. That

got us pretty consistently to like 2

million a month, I would say.

>> And then by that point,

all of the influencers in the fitness

space, all the big ones at least, we

pretty much worked with. And a lot of

these fitness influencers share the same

audiences. So, it was a smaller bang for

the buck working with more fitness

influencers. So, we decided to broaden

the horizon a little bit. We started

working with influencers that weren't

necessarily fitness related and that

worked pretty well. But then more than

that, actually the channel that was a

huge unlock for us was really just

running performance ads, performance

marketing, Tik Tok ads, Instagram ads,

Facebook ads.

>> That's just unlocked a whole new channel

of growth that has taken us to in

January we did $5.7 million of revenue.

paid ads is so important to like track