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#855March 5, 202669:51

I built a $50M AI app in high school (and just sold it for...)

Acquisition strategyInfluencer marketingPerformance adsAI app development

About This Episode

19-year-old entrepreneur Zach Yadegari discusses the recent sale of his AI-powered calorie-tracking app, Cal AI, to MyFitnessPal after scaling it to $30 million in annual revenue. The episode explores his journey from high school coding to navigating a major acquisition, his 'douchebag' marketing arc, and his frameworks for decision-making and marketing.

Episode Description

Free course: Build a profitable AI side hustle in 7 days https://clickhubspot.com/dki Episode 802: Sam Parr ( https://x.com/theSamParr ) and Shaan Puri ( https://x.com/ShaanVP ) talk to 19-year-old Zach Yadegari ( https://x.com/zach_yadegari ) about selling his $50M/yr app to MyFitnessPal.

Show Notes

  • 0:00How much?
  • 1:57getting rejected from Stanford
  • 5:4560-second origin story
  • 7:27"your biggest skill is your audacity"
  • 12:50the truth about selling a company
  • 23:24dos and don'ts
  • 27:04Zach's douchebag arc
  • 29:44first dumb purchase
  • 33:08decisions that made the app worth $100M
  • 43:51Idea 1: Semantic search on IG
  • 45:10Idea: apps
  • 48:00filter for good ideas
  • 54:27Dinner w/ Steve Cohen
  • 1:03:39Where Zach is putting his money
  • 1:05:58What Zach sucks at

Check Out Shaan's Stuff

  • Shaan's weekly email
  • Visit
  • Mercury - Need a bank for your company? Go check out Mercury (mercury.com). Shaan uses it for all of his companies!
  • Mercury is a financial technology company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group, Column, N.A., and Evolve Bank & Trust, Members FDIC
  • I run all my newsletters on Beehiiv and you should too + we're giving away $10k to our favorite newsletter, check it out:
  • beehiiv.com/mfm-challenge

Key Takeaways

1

Leverage 'skill stacking' by combining basic technical proficiency with strong marketing and leadership rather than trying to be a world-class expert in a single field.

2

During acquisition negotiations, maintain leverage by projecting that the company is a 'cash-flowing business forever' and that you do not need the sale to succeed.

3

Use the Expected Value (EV) framework to make objective decisions about selling versus continuing to build by weighing the probability of growth against the risk of failure.

Business Ideas Mentioned

Semantic Search for Social Media Followers

SaaS

View all ideas

Featuring

ZY

Zach Yadegari

2 episodes

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Quick Stats

Duration69:51
Guests1
Ideas Discussed1
Topics4

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