18-year-old CEO learned to code at age 7—now he has a $1.4 million-a-month AI app

Like millions of fellow 18-year-olds across the U.S., Zach Yadegari spent his summer preparing for college. Unlike most other freshmen, Yadegari doubts he’ll linger in academia for very long. He’s the co-founder and CEO of Cal AI, a calorie-tracking mobile app he launched from his parents’ home in Roslyn, New York, in May 2024 — and the app’s success to date makes him think he’ll take it full-time well before his class’ graduation date, he says. Cal AI’s users upload a photo of their food, and the app’s artificial intelligence-based software gives them an estimate of the total calories. The...