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Fortune
Fortune
Jessica Coacci

This Ivy League reject taught himself to code at 7, built a $30m app by 18 and is treating college like a $100k vacation: ‘not gaining much from the classes’

Zach Yadegari (Credit: Carmit Rozenzvig)

Zach Yadegari, 18, isn’t new to being a tech entrepreneur. Instead of making money from lemonade stands growing up—he made it from apps.

In his teens, he started building apps he deemed as “small projects.” One of them isn’t so small anymore, as Cal AI has taken off to become a $30 million empire. The app allows users to track calories by taking a picture of their food, inspired by Yadegari’s own fitness journey. (Fortune reviewed financial records showing the app brings in several million dollars of revenue per month.)

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