At 19, most people are figuring out university, internships or what they want to do with their lives.
Zach Yadegari has already built an app that generated more than $30 million in revenue.
And one of his biggest business strategies involved something many of us spend hours watching every day: influencers.
Yadegari is the co-founder of Cal AI, an artificial intelligence app that helps users estimate calories and track their meals through photographs.
Instead of manually entering every ingredient, users can take a picture of their food and let AI do the calculations.
The concept sounds simple, but turning it into a successful business required something more than technology.
Speaking at TechCrunch Disrupt on October 15, Yadegari explained how influencer marketing became central to the app’s growth.
Rather than relying exclusively on traditional advertising, the company worked with numerous creators who introduced Cal AI to their audiences through social media.
The strategy worked.
According to Yadegari, one early influencer campaign brought approximately 1,000 new users to the app in only two days.
As more creators began promoting the platform, Cal AI expanded rapidly, generating more than $30 million in revenue over two years.
In March 2026, MyFitnessPal acquired the business for an undisclosed amount.
And Yadegari didn’t stop there. He has since launched another AI startup called Persona, which recently raised $10 million in funding.
His story highlights how dramatically the startup world has changed.
A product no longer needs a massive advertising campaign or a famous company behind it to reach millions of people.
Sometimes, the difference between an app nobody knows and a multimillion-dollar business is a creator with the right audience.
A reminder that the people posting TikToks aren’t always wasting their time.
