San Francisco — Cal AI Founder Details Influencer Strategy Behind App's Rise

Zach Yadegari, founder of the calorie-tracking app Cal AI, told an audience at TechCrunch Disrupt that paying a large number of influencers to post about his product — rather than relying on traditional advertising — was the engine behind the app's rapid growth, according to TechCrunch.

Yadegari, who is 19 and recently graduated from high school, founded Cal AI in 2024. The company generated more than $30 million in revenue over two years and was acquired by MyFitnessPal in March for an undisclosed sum, TechCrunch reported.

What is Cal AI and who built it?

Cal AI uses artificial intelligence to help users track calories, and it became one of the more visible consumer AI apps of the past two years. Yadegari, a Forbes 30 Under 30 alumnus, said his father was in the audience during his Disrupt appearance and credited his family with giving him room to pursue the business instead of a conventional academic path.

How did the influencer strategy actually work?

Yadegari said the first signal that influencer marketing could work came when a single post generated roughly a thousand new users within two days. "From there, we figured out, okay, this can actually work for us, and so we started recruiting influencers as fast as we could — paying as many people as possible to start posting for us," he said, according to TechCrunch. He described the results as "pretty linear," meaning each post reliably converted a predictable share of viewers into users.

The company negotiated flat-rate deals tied to reach, Yadegari said, rather than open-ended sponsorships. "You just ask them, okay, we'll pay you this, but we need to get us at least this amount of use and keep posting until you get there," he said. He added that many influencers were "broke college kids" who "just want cash," and that the most effective partners were those with tightly bound follower communities rather than the largest raw audiences.

How much did the company make before the MyFitnessPal deal?

TechCrunch reported Cal AI's revenue topped $30 million across its first two years, culminating in the March acquisition by MyFitnessPal. The purchase price was not disclosed.

What is Yadegari doing next?

Earlier this month, Yadegari launched Persona, an AI agent startup that has already raised $10 million, TechCrunch reported. He described the company's mission as making "computing seamless with human life," with a personal AI assistant designed to operate across iMessage, apps, email and phone calls. He said Persona also plans to build a hardware ecosystem around the assistant.

What to watch

• Whether Persona's $10 million raise translates into a public product launch and on what timeline.
• How MyFitnessPal integrates Cal AI's technology and user base following the March acquisition.
• Whether Yadegari's influencer-recruitment playbook gets adopted by other consumer AI startups chasing fast user growth.

Glossary

• Influencer marketing: Paying individuals with established social media followings to promote a product directly to their audience.
• AI agent: Software designed to act on a user's behalf across tasks or platforms, such as messaging, scheduling or email, often with limited human prompting.