{"id":11844,"date":"2025-01-15T10:13:28","date_gmt":"2025-01-15T10:13:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metaschool.so\/articles\/?p=11844"},"modified":"2025-01-15T10:14:17","modified_gmt":"2025-01-15T10:14:17","slug":"how-zach-used-chatgpt-to-make-1m-mo-calai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metaschool.so\/articles\/how-zach-used-chatgpt-to-make-1m-mo-calai\/","title":{"rendered":"How 17-Year-Old Zach Used ChatGPT to Make Cal AI That Makes $1M\/mo?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_56_1 ez-toc-wrap-left counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title \" >Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/metaschool.so\/articles\/how-zach-used-chatgpt-to-make-1m-mo-calai\/#Steps_to_Build_an_AI_App\" title=\"Steps to Build an AI App?\">Steps to Build an AI App?<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-2'><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/metaschool.so\/articles\/how-zach-used-chatgpt-to-make-1m-mo-calai\/#Step_1_Explore_100_GPT_Ideas\" title=\"Step 1: Explore 100+ GPT Ideas\">Step 1: Explore 100+ GPT Ideas<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/metaschool.so\/articles\/how-zach-used-chatgpt-to-make-1m-mo-calai\/#Step_2_Copy_the_prompt_template\" title=\"Step 2: Copy the prompt template\">Step 2: Copy the prompt template<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/metaschool.so\/articles\/how-zach-used-chatgpt-to-make-1m-mo-calai\/#Step_3_Get_ready_to_deploy_the_AI_Template\" title=\"Step 3: Get ready to deploy the AI Template\">Step 3: Get ready to deploy the AI Template<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/metaschool.so\/articles\/how-zach-used-chatgpt-to-make-1m-mo-calai\/#Step_4_Launch_and_start_making_money_online_with_AI\" title=\"Step 4: Launch and start making money online with AI\">Step 4: Launch and start making money online with AI<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/metaschool.so\/articles\/how-zach-used-chatgpt-to-make-1m-mo-calai\/#How_did_Cal_AI_Become_a_Success\" title=\"How did Cal AI Become a Success?\">How did Cal AI Become a Success?<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-2'><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-7\" href=\"https:\/\/metaschool.so\/articles\/how-zach-used-chatgpt-to-make-1m-mo-calai\/#Viral_Marketing_Worked_for_Cal_AI\" title=\"Viral Marketing Worked for Cal AI\">Viral Marketing Worked for Cal AI<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-8\" href=\"https:\/\/metaschool.so\/articles\/how-zach-used-chatgpt-to-make-1m-mo-calai\/#Scaling_the_Business\" title=\"Scaling the Business\">Scaling the Business<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-9\" href=\"https:\/\/metaschool.so\/articles\/how-zach-used-chatgpt-to-make-1m-mo-calai\/#A_Young_Entrepreneurs_Journey\" title=\"A Young Entrepreneur&#8217;s Journey\">A Young Entrepreneur&#8217;s Journey<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-10\" href=\"https:\/\/metaschool.so\/articles\/how-zach-used-chatgpt-to-make-1m-mo-calai\/#Conclusion\" title=\"Conclusion\">Conclusion<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n\n<p>17-year-old Zach Lowy and his co-founders are making $1.12 million per month with their Calorie tracker app available on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. With AI, you can also create similar apps within a few hours (without programming knowledge), launch them on the Internet, and start making money online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this short guide, learn how to build your own AI application and <a href=\"https:\/\/metaschool.so\/articles\/how-to-make-money-using-ai\">start making money online with AI<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"460\" src=\"https:\/\/metaschool.so\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-2025-01-15-at-5.06.43\u202fPM-1024x460.png\" alt=\"Cal AI - Calorie Tracker\" class=\"wp-image-11864\" style=\"width:739px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/metaschool.so\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-2025-01-15-at-5.06.43\u202fPM-1024x460.png 1024w, https:\/\/metaschool.so\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-2025-01-15-at-5.06.43\u202fPM-300x135.png 300w, https:\/\/metaschool.so\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-2025-01-15-at-5.06.43\u202fPM-768x345.png 768w, https:\/\/metaschool.so\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-2025-01-15-at-5.06.43\u202fPM-1536x690.png 1536w, https:\/\/metaschool.so\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-2025-01-15-at-5.06.43\u202fPM.png 1670w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The idea of CAL AI came when a realization hit them that existing calorie-tracking apps were out-of-date and cumbersome to use. Lowy and his team realized that using AI at its core to make calorie tracking super simple. How does the Cal AI calorie tracker work? The users can click a picture of their food items on the app and will show the calorie content and nutritional information of that food. This complex-sounding idea can be executed using AI very quickly and launched online. Here&#8217;s a step-by-step <a href=\"https:\/\/metaschool.so\/articles\/how-to-create-ai-apps\">guide on how to create AI Apps<\/a>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Steps_to_Build_an_AI_App\"><\/span>Steps to <strong>Build an <\/strong>AI App?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p>Here&#8217;s a simple guide to building custom GPTs or AI Chat Apps. Once you are good at building these apps, the same skills can be used with a little added complexity to launch apps that do more than AI Chat. The added features in most AI apps are built using the APIs provided by <a href=\"https:\/\/metaschool.so\/models\">AI models<\/a> like OpenAI, Gemini, Anthropic, LLAMA, etc. But this is a great starting point for you to build AI Apps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Step_1_Explore_100_GPT_Ideas\"><\/span>Step 1: Explore 100+ GPT Ideas<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Visit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.buildthatidea.com\/100ideas\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">BuildThatIdea<\/a> and browse through 100+ custom GPT ideas that you can use to build your own AI App. You can browse through different categories like Career, business, Technology, etc., and choose the idea that resonates the most with the AI app idea that you have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"721\" src=\"https:\/\/metaschool.so\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-2025-01-15-at-5.40.28\u202fPM-1024x721.png\" alt=\"100 GPT Ideas -- AI Apps Ideas Directory\" class=\"wp-image-11869\" style=\"width:1027px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/metaschool.so\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-2025-01-15-at-5.40.28\u202fPM-1024x721.png 1024w, https:\/\/metaschool.so\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-2025-01-15-at-5.40.28\u202fPM-300x211.png 300w, https:\/\/metaschool.so\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-2025-01-15-at-5.40.28\u202fPM-768x541.png 768w, https:\/\/metaschool.so\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-2025-01-15-at-5.40.28\u202fPM-1536x1081.png 1536w, https:\/\/metaschool.so\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-2025-01-15-at-5.40.28\u202fPM-2048x1441.png 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Step_2_Copy_the_prompt_template\"><\/span>Step 2: Copy the prompt template<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The website will ask you to enter your email address to copy the prompt template. Here you&#8217;ll find a highly customized Prompt template that can be used as it is in the next step to build your own Custom GPT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"665\" src=\"https:\/\/metaschool.so\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-2025-01-15-at-5.44.36\u202fPM-1024x665.png\" alt=\"Get detailed custom GPT Prompt template.\" class=\"wp-image-11871\" style=\"width:657px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/metaschool.so\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-2025-01-15-at-5.44.36\u202fPM-1024x665.png 1024w, https:\/\/metaschool.so\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-2025-01-15-at-5.44.36\u202fPM-300x195.png 300w, https:\/\/metaschool.so\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-2025-01-15-at-5.44.36\u202fPM-768x499.png 768w, https:\/\/metaschool.so\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-2025-01-15-at-5.44.36\u202fPM-1536x998.png 1536w, https:\/\/metaschool.so\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-2025-01-15-at-5.44.36\u202fPM.png 1570w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Step_3_Get_ready_to_deploy_the_AI_Template\"><\/span>Step 3: Get ready to deploy the AI Template<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Now that you have a detailed custom Prompt ready, you need to include that in a custom-designed and developed chat interface so that you can launch it as an App. There are 2 ways to do it, you can either write code to create a chat interface, make it responsive, add payment systems, and add ChatGPT APIs to make it live. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Or, you can purchase a ready-to-deploy template that comes with a complete code template, is pre-integrated with OpenAI, has a responsive design, and supports some additional features that would otherwise take you many weeks to build.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Once you get the AI Code Template, you can deploy and make your AI App go live instantly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"621\" src=\"https:\/\/metaschool.so\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-2025-01-15-at-5.45.21\u202fPM-1024x621.png\" alt=\"Purchase ready to deploy AI Templates from Buildthatidea.com\" class=\"wp-image-11872\" style=\"width:820px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/metaschool.so\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-2025-01-15-at-5.45.21\u202fPM-1024x621.png 1024w, https:\/\/metaschool.so\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-2025-01-15-at-5.45.21\u202fPM-300x182.png 300w, https:\/\/metaschool.so\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-2025-01-15-at-5.45.21\u202fPM-768x466.png 768w, https:\/\/metaschool.so\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-2025-01-15-at-5.45.21\u202fPM-1536x931.png 1536w, https:\/\/metaschool.so\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-2025-01-15-at-5.45.21\u202fPM.png 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Step_4_Launch_and_start_making_money_online_with_AI\"><\/span>Step 4: Launch and start making money online with AI<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Congratulations! Your own AI App is now live. You can now start promoting and making money online with your AI App.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"How_did_Cal_AI_Become_a_Success\"><\/span>How did Cal AI Become a Success?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Viral_Marketing_Worked_for_Cal_AI\"><\/span><strong>Viral Marketing Worked for Cal AI<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The key behind the explosive growth of <a href=\"https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/apps\/details?id=com.viraldevelopment.calai&amp;hl=en_SG\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Cal AI<\/a> is its innovative way of marketing. Instead, the company opted out of traditional advertising and focused on influencer marketing through TikTok and Instagram. The company currently works with about 150 influencers who create content featuring the app regularly. Lowy&#8217;s strategy is to carefully curate the right influencers based on their engagement rates and negotiate deals that guarantee profitability. It means the team has a metric in place, RPM, to tell them how much they can pay an influencer and still maintain healthy margins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Scaling_the_Business\"><\/span><strong>Scaling the Business<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>As Cal AI grew, so did the team&#8217;s marketing. Today, they&#8217;re spending roughly $7,000 per day on paid advertising across platforms including Meta, formerly Facebook and Instagram, and TikTok. Even with the added spend on marketing, the app continues to break even every day. The company also developed in-house tools to track influencer relations and performance. It has proven so effective that it is going to launch these tools as a standalone platform, called Viral.te, for other businesses to leverage influencer marketing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"A_Young_Entrepreneurs_Journey\"><\/span><strong>A Young Entrepreneur&#8217;s Journey<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Long before Cal AI, Lowy had started his entrepreneurial journey. At 12, he launched his first game on the App Store. By 13, he created an unblocked gaming website for students that would go on to gross $ 660,000 a year. The business was sold when he was 16 to a buyer who paid him $100,000. Despite the high net worth, Lowy is pretty distilled. He has just finished high school and intends to take a gap year to work on his businesses. He sees Cal AI as a stepping stone to even bigger ambitions, aspiring to create products that will have a massive global impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Conclusion\"><\/span>Conclusion<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p>With the help of readily available templates on the Internet, making and launching AI Apps has become super easy. If you are a developer, you can quickly build AI apps using <a href=\"https:\/\/metaschool.so\/templates\">Open-Source AI Templates<\/a> otherwise you can use platforms like <a href=\"http:\/\/buildthatidea.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">BuildThatIdea<\/a> to go from an app idea to a live product within a few minutes and start making money online.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":11877,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[344],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/metaschool.so\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/metaschool.so\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/metaschool.so\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metaschool.so\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metaschool.so\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11844"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/metaschool.so\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11882,"href":"https:\/\/metaschool.so\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11844\/revisions\/11882"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metaschool.so\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/metaschool.so\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metaschool.so\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metaschool.so\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}