Two high schoolers built a 'photo your food' calorie app to $30M a year.
The idea: AI photo calorie counter
Cal AI was co-founded by Zach Yadegari at 17 and his high school friend Henry Langmack. MyFitnessPal told TechCrunch the app passed 15 million downloads and $30 million in annual revenue in under two years before MyFitnessPal bought it. CNBC reported about $1.4M a month in gross profit based on documents it reviewed.
Startup cost (est.)$500–$2,000
DifficultyMedium
Time to first dollar (est.)1–2 months
No-code friendlyPartly
The receipts
Cal AI: Over 15 million downloads and over $30 million in annual revenue in under two years, per MyFitnessPal.
Source: TechCrunch · checked 2026-10-15
Cal AI: Roughly $1.4 million in monthly gross profit, according to documents reviewed by CNBC.
Source: CNBC Make It · checked 2026-10-15
Payment-verified figures come from TrustMRR, which reads revenue from the business's payment provider. Founder and press figures are claims we found on the linked page and haven't audited. How we check.
Who pays
People trying to lose weight or build muscle.
How it makes money
App subscription.
How to start your own
- Don't copy Cal AI. Pick a niche angle (GLP-1 users, a cuisine, a language market).
- Distribution is everything: they grew with influencer marketing.
- Iterate obsessively on onboarding and the paywall.
The catch
Now an extremely crowded category with a well-funded leader.