Cal AI grew its online presence through a strategy built around paid influencers, founder Zach Yadegari said at TechCrunch Disrupt. The calorie-tracking app, founded in 2024, generated over $30 million in revenue in two years and was acquired by MyFitness for an undisclosed amount in March.
A first sign that influencer promotion could work
Yadegari said an early influencer post brought the company approximately a thousand new users over the course of two days. That response suggested the approach could deliver users, so the team began recruiting creators quickly and paying them to post about the app.
He described the results as a clear, fast-moving formula: each post attracted viewers, and some of those viewers became users. The account points to a direct connection between creator reach and customer growth, though the article does not describe how the company measured conversions or whether every campaign performed equally well.
Paying for reach and community
Cal AI negotiated rates with influencers and tied payouts to a certain scale of reach, Yadegari said. Creators were asked to keep posting until they met an agreed target. The arrangement gave the company a way to set expectations around promotion and gave influencers a clear payment offer.
The founder also emphasized the value of creators with “very tight communities.” In practical terms, a close-knit audience can make an influencer’s reach easier to quantify, which mattered to Cal AI as it sought people whose posts could bring in users.
Together, those details describe a campaign organized around two considerations: how many people a creator could reach and whether that audience was cohesive enough to track. The strategy was not presented as a single viral moment, but as repeated posts from a broad group of influencers.
Founder ambition beyond the app
Yadegari, who is 19, also credited his family with giving him the freedom to pursue his ambitions. When asked about college, he said he saw its main value as the social experience of spending time with other people.
His next company is Persona, an AI agent startup he launched earlier this month. It has already raised $10 million. Yadegari described its overarching mission as making computing seamless with human life.
He said Persona’s personal AI assistant will be available wherever there is an internet connection, naming iMessage, an app, email and phone calls. He also said the company plans to build a hardware ecosystem around the app, suggesting ambitions that extend beyond a standalone assistant.
What Cal AI’s growth story shows
Yadegari’s account presents influencer marketing as a measurable acquisition channel for Cal AI: negotiate with creators, set reach expectations and focus on communities the company can assess. The early influx of users gave the team a reason to expand the approach, while continued posting helped turn individual promotions into a broader campaign.
The story also links that growth to a founder willing to pursue opportunities outside a conventional path. Yadegari’s remarks about family support, college and Persona offer context about his ambitions, while Cal AI’s reported revenue and acquisition mark the scale the company reached.