19-year-old Zach Yadegari from Long Island is once again in the spotlight. After 15 of 18 universities, including Harvard, Yale and Stanford, rejected his application, he raised $10 million for a new AI project, Persona.
With a GPA of 4.0 and an ACT score of 34, Yadegari in April 2025 spoke on social media about a string of rejections. In the end, he enrolled at the University of Miami. By that time he already had a successful business: the Cal AI app for counting calories from photos, which he founded in 2024.
Cal AI quickly racked up millions of downloads and millions of dollars in revenue. In March 2026 it was acquired by MyFitnessPal. Yadegari left the company in June and immediately took on Persona — a personal AI assistant.
The new startup is developing a $179 wearable device that is activated by a button or a flick of the wrist. The launch is planned for December. There are already preorders worth a five-figure sum and thousands of beta users via iMessage.
The $10 million round was led by Vine Ventures, with participation from Z Fellows founder Cory Levy and Collective Global. This was reported by TechCrunch on 8 October 2026. Yadegari started programming at the age of seven, and in 16 he sold his first project — the gaming website Totally Science — for a six-figure sum.
So what lies ahead for the young entrepreneur who has already sold two businesses and keeps launching new ones?
