Welcome to Money Making Story,

Today, we’re thrilled to share the story of Zach, a self-taught programmer who started at seven and now leads a business earning $1M/month at 17.

In this discussion, we’ll discuss his:

• Top Advice

• The Birth of an Entrepreneur

• The Genesis of Cal AI

• The Secret Sauce

• 20 Passive Income Ideas Using AI

• Scaling Up Through Paid Ads

• Building a Sustainable Future

• Lessons Learned

• What’s Next?

• Lessons for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

• Transform your Life

Top Advice:

"Age doesn’t define success—it’s action, strategy, and persistence that do."

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At just 17 years old, Zach Yadgari is making headlines for earning $1.14 million every month through his innovative app, Cal AI. Designed to simplify calorie tracking, Cal AI has disrupted the fitness app industry with a simple yet highly effective concept: take a picture of your food, and the app calculates the calories and macronutrients instantly.

The Birth of an Entrepreneur

Zachary’s entrepreneurial journey began early, with his first coding class at age 7. Inspired by his passion for video games, he spent hours learning from YouTube tutorials and soon launched his own creations. Fueled by a love for video games, he launched his first game on the App Store by the time he was 12. By age 13, he built an unblocked gaming website for high school students, cleverly bypassing school restrictions. The site, aptly named Totally Science, generated $660,000 annually before Zach sold it for $100,000 at 16 years old.

Reflecting on this early success, Zach notes the importance of identifying unmet needs in his environment and quickly acting to address them.

The Genesis of Cal AI

Zachary’s current success, Calorie AI, is a mobile app that uses AI technology to calculate the nutritional content of food from a picture.

After selling Totally Science, Zach teamed up with high school friend Henry and two co-founders, Blake Anderson (23) and Jake (28), to create a more targeted app. The idea for Cal AI emerged from frustration with complex calorie-tracking apps like MyFitnessPal, which Zach abandoned after three days of use.

Cal AI leverages the power of AI technology to eliminate the hassle of manual tracking. The app’s standout feature? A seamless photo-based calorie tracker that provides essential information such as calories, protein, fats, and carbs in seconds.

The Secret Sauce: Influencer Marketing

Zachary credits much of Calorie AI’s success to strategic influencer marketing. From outreach to deal negotiation, he developed a repeatable system:

1. Finding Influencers:

   • Zach created a TikTok account tailored to his target audience. By engaging only with health and fitness content, he curated a feed of influencers to reach out to.

   • Initially, he DMed influencers manually. Today, virtual assistants manage this process at scale.

2. Negotiating Deals:

   • Influencers are approached with tailored deals based on their engagement metrics and audience size.

   • Zach uses strategies like monthly retainers and multi-video bundles to lower costs.

3. Content Guidelines:

   • Influencers are provided with clear content examples but are given flexibility to make the integration seamless.

   • No hard sales tactics: Influencers naturally showcase the app in what I eat in a day videos, letting the product speak for itself.

4. Tracking Results:

   • Internal tools analyze how influencer campaigns correlate with app downloads and revenue.

20 Passive Income Ideas Using AI

Scaling Up Through Paid Ads

While influencer marketing was pivotal in achieving rapid growth, Zach has recently expanded into paid advertising with platforms like Meta Ads and TikTok Ads, spending $7,000 daily. With the app boasting 50% profit margins, this approach has also proven profitable.

Additionally, Zach uses Apple Search Ads to rank Cal AI against competitors like MyFitnessPal. By targeting competitor search terms, Cal AI can validate its superior product-market fit when users download Cal AI instead.

Building a Sustainable Future

Zach’s vision extends beyond Cal AI. With his team of 12 employees, he is building an app studio focused on health and fitness. By leveraging their influencer marketing expertise, the team plans to launch complementary apps that can cross-promote within the existing ecosystem.

The team also plans to launch Viral.Tech, a platform to help startups manage influencer marketing campaigns. Viral.Tech will offer tools for finding influencers, managing campaigns, and tracking analytics, enabling others to replicate Zach’s success.

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Lessons Learned

1. Influencer Marketing is a Numbers Game:

   • Persistence is key. Zach highlights how most people give up after 100 DMs—but success often requires thousands of outreaches.

2. Simplify the User Experience:

   • Users expect effortless functionality. When early feedback revealed misunderstandings about the app’s capabilities, Zach added an onboarding guide to educate users.

3. Hard Paywalls Work:

   • Unlike free apps, Zach chose a premium-only model, resulting in higher revenues despite fewer downloads.

4. Ask the Right Onboarding Questions:

   • By prompting users to reflect on their goals, Calorie AI’s onboarding flow creates an emotional connection, increasing conversion rates.

What’s Next?

While Calorie AI is thriving, Zach has broader ambitions:

1. Scaling Calorie AI to Rival MyFitnessPal:

   • With its stagnant growth and outdated features, Zach believes Calorie AI can surpass MyFitnessPal’s $100 million annual revenue.

2. Expanding with an App Studio:

   • Leveraging his influencer network, Zach plans to launch additional health and fitness apps.

1. Launching Viral.Tech:

   • A new platform designed to help others replicate Zach’s influencer marketing strategies.

Lessons for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

Zach credits his success to three main principles:

1. Start Early: Age is not a limitation. Zach began coding at seven and launched his first app at 12.

2. Solve Real Problems: Identify inefficiencies in existing products and build simple, focused solutions.

3. Be Relentless: Zach emphasizes persistence in outreach and negotiation, advising others to DM thousands of influencers if necessary.

Learn More About Zachary Yadegari

Zachary Yadgari’s journey from high school student to building a million-dollar app business is proof that ambition and execution matter more than experience or age.

Transform your Life

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