this is a great

@zauey

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Selling · SaaS › AI Tool

Cal AIseen in 2 videos →

Why it worked

The video leverages a compelling success story of young entrepreneurs achieving significant financial success with a bootstrapped AI product, inspiring viewers with the message that now is a prime time to build and innovate.

Summary

This video highlights the success of two teenagers who built and sold an AI calorie-counting app called Cal AI for $40 million in under two years. The app uses AI to estimate calories from food photos, and its acquisition by MyFitnessPal demonstrates a significant market opportunity for innovative, bootstrapped products.

Structure

1Introduction to Cal AI's success
2App functionality and pricing
3Financial success and acquisition by MyFitnessPal
4Founder's background and dedication
5Valuation and potential earnings
6Concluding message about building opportunities

Product placement

Cal AI: ACTS - an AI calorie counting app built by two high school students that estimates nutritional content by taking a photo of food. Removing it would change the video. MyFitnessPal: ACTS - a calorie counting app that acquired Cal AI. Removing it would change the video.

Original caption

In 18 months: 15M downloads, $40M in revenue, acquired by MyFitnessPal #Tech #founder #entrepreneur #TikTokLearningCampaign

More from @zauey

Their other posts in the index, biggest breakout first.

On-screen text

this is a great example of why now is the time to build the thing thinking about so these two teenagers built and sold a $40 million revenue app in under two years without vc money or a college degree super simple you open it of your food ai estimates the calories and you don't have to do any sort database searches or measuring $2.49 a month their system was able 90% accuracy using computer vision and depth sensors to estimate portion sizes 18 months in 15 million downloads $40 million in annual revenue and are currently on pace for $50 million in ARR throughout all of this yadegari the ceo and founder was a senior in high school maintaining a 4.0 gpa running their team stand up on sunday nights class the next morning their acquirer myfitnesspal has been around for twenty years and even though they of 20 million foods and 68,000 brands they quietly saw cali ai starting to climb the app store rankings neck and neck so after almost a year of conversations they finally acquired them the terms are undisclosed but if you do some back of the napkin math and you assume a 3-4x multiple on ARR you're probably looking at anywhere from 75M to a 150M total and it's probably structured like 60M plus up front in cash and another 30-40M in earnouts tied to certain milestones which means that these assuming 85% combined ownership across 2 founders 15% for team two 19 year olds potentially walked away with $25-40 million each on a two year project completely bootstrapped which is just another reminder massive window of opportunity right now to just build something people actually want before incumbents figure out they should have built it

Transcript

this is a great example of why now is the time to build the thing that you've been thinking about. So these two teenagers built and sold a $40 million revenue app in under two years without VC money or a college degree. The app was super simple. You open it, take a photo of your food, AI estimates of calories and you don't have to do any sort of typing, database searches or measuring. They charged $2.49 a month and their system was able to hit a 90% accuracy using computer vision and depth sensors to estimate portions sizes. 18 months in they 15 million downloads, $40 million in annual revenue and are currently on pace for $50 million in ARR. Throughout all of this, Yadagari, the CEO and founder was a senior in high school maintaining a 4.0 GPA and they were even running their team stand up on Sunday nights because they had class next morning. Their acquirer, MyFitnessPal has been around for 20 years. And even though they have a database of 20 million foods and 68,000 brands. They quietly saw Caliye starting to climb the app store rankings until they were neck and neck. So, after almost a year of conversations, they finally acquired them. The terms are undisclosed, but if you do some back-of-the-napkin math and you assume a 3-4x multiple on ARR. You're probably looking at anywhere from 75 million to 150 million total. And it's probably structured like 60 million plus upfront in cash and another 30 to 40 million in earnouts tied to certain milestones. Which means that these two 19-year-olds potentially walked away with $25 to $40 million each. on a two-year project completely bootstrapped. Which is just another reminder that there is a massive window of opportunity right now to just build something people actually want and get there before incumbents figure out they should have built it.