I Spent 24 Hours With iOS Millionaires — Transcript

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1. 0:00This is Blake and this is Zach. And
2. 0:02together with two more of their friends,
3. 0:04they built one of the most successful
4. 0:06mobile apps of all time.
5. 0:07>> Cali Cali.
6. 0:09>> Cali.
7. 0:09>> Cali.
8. 0:10>> Cali.
9. 0:11>> Cali.
10. 0:11>> Cal AI. After millions of downloads,
11. 0:14they sold it for multiple millions of
12. 0:16dollars. But here's the thing. You might
13. 0:18think you know the Cal AI story, but
14. 0:21what I wanted to get is the real story.
15. 0:23What was it like for four [music]
16. 0:24friends to build something amazing? How
17. 0:27did they work together? and how did they
18. 0:28pull this whole thing off? But the most
19. 0:31important question, is there still an
20. 0:33opportunity to build successful apps in
21. 0:362026? Or is this trend over? So, I flew
22. 0:40out to New York City to meet up with
23. 0:41these guys and had them share
24. 0:43everything. And what they told me
25. 0:44changed how I [music] think about the
26. 0:46future of apps forever. Come join me as
27. 0:49I spend 24 hours with iOS millionaires.
28. 0:52I'm Pat Walls and this is Starter Story.
29. 0:56We are here in beautiful New York City
30. 0:58where apparently these 18-year-old kids
31. 1:01built an app that sold for millions and
32. 1:03millions of dollars. We're about to go
33. 1:05meet them right now. I think this is it.
34. 1:06Let's go check it out.
35. 1:13>> Hey, what's up? How are you
36. 1:15millionaires?
37. 1:16>> Yeah.
38. 1:17>> What's up, Pat?
39. 1:17>> What's up, Zach?
40. 1:18>> Good to see you. Okay, tell me who you
41. 1:20are and what roles you had in this
42. 1:23amazing Cal AI story and all the other
43. 1:26stuff that you've done.
44. 1:27>> My name is Blake Anderson, 25 years old
45. 1:30from Philadelphia. I was
46. 1:32co-founder/investor/advisor
47. 1:36at Cali. I went to school at Twolane
48. 1:39where I began building apps. The first
49. 1:41apps I built mostly failed and then I
50. 1:44started building AI apps. It was a
51. 1:46little bit after I built my first two
52. 1:47apps [music] that Zach and I got in
53. 1:49contact and began building Cali
54. 1:51together. I'm 19. I'm from New York
55. 1:54initially. My role at Cali was I was the
56. 1:57CEO. I started coding pretty young at 7.
57. 2:00Put my first app on the app store at 12.
58. 2:02My freshman year of high school, I
59. 2:03started my first company and I scaled
60. 2:05that to 5 million users over 2 years and
61. 2:08started making 60K a year, but sold that
62. 2:10when I was 16. And so after meeting
63. 2:12Blake and coming to the idea of Cali
64. 2:15together, we ultimately decided like
65. 2:17let's burn all the boats. Let's go all
66. 2:19in on this idea because now we have the
67. 2:20dream team to like come together and
68. 2:22really make it work.
69. 2:24>> Walk me through some of the numbers of
70. 2:26Cali. The first month we made 30K and
71. 2:29the second month we made like over a
72. 2:30hundred.
73. 2:31>> And then within 8 months we were at a
74. 2:34million dollars a month which is pretty
75. 2:36wild and then from there we have grown
76. 2:39to what are we on track for? 60 million
77. 2:42this year
78. 2:43>> probably like 50
79. 2:44>> 50 million this year.
80. 2:46>> I want to talk about the dream team. I
81. 2:48know that there's two other founders
82. 2:50that were deeply involved
83. 2:52>> in Calai. Who were those? And would you
84. 2:55potentially be able to like get them on
85. 2:57the line right now? We could just chat
86. 2:58with them real quick.
87. 3:00>> Yeah, of course.
88. 3:03>> Oh, there we go.
89. 3:04>> What's up, Jake?
90. 3:05>> What up, Jake?
91. 3:06>> What's up, guys?
92. 3:07>> This is Pat.
93. 3:08>> Starter story here. We're in the middle
94. 3:09of filming right now and just get who
95. 3:12you are, how old you are, what your role
96. 3:14was in Calai.
97. 3:16>> My name is Jake Castillo. I am 31 years
98. 3:18old and I was the CMO/COO
99. 3:22at Calai. So I handled our marketing
100. 3:24operations and the overall business
101. 3:27operations.
102. 3:28>> I'm Henry. I'm 18 years old and my role
103. 3:30at Cali was CTO. So I managed the tech
104. 3:33team, made the product as seamless as
105. 3:35possible to use.
106. 3:36>> What about all four of you guys worked
107. 3:39so well together?
108. 3:40>> This is something I've thought about a
109. 3:41lot and I think what it is is all of us
110. 3:44had our own domain of expertise and we
111. 3:47all had complete trust in each other to
112. 3:49go and like handle that one task. That's
113. 3:52why we didn't really have any fights. We
114. 3:54were just all like so focused on the one
115. 3:57thing that we became experts in.
116. 3:59>> At such a young age, did you have any
117. 4:01idea that Calai would get this big or
118. 4:03this would become as big as it did when
119. 4:05you first started it?
120. 4:06>> When you first started it, we were still
121. 4:09working for a salary on another app. And
122. 4:12it was hard to believe that this would
123. 4:14be the app that caused us to just go on
124. 4:17our own and become, I guess, like
125. 4:18self-employed. Well, thanks guys for
126. 4:21FaceTiming. I wish you could be here.
127. 4:23We're going [music] to be having fun
128. 4:24today filming, but thank you for coming
129. 4:26on and and sharing your story.
130. 4:28>> Of course. Have fun, guys.
131. 4:29>> Peace out, guys.
132. 4:30>> Peace.
133. 4:31>> Cool. All right. Well, we're going to
134. 4:32talk all about all your apps. You have
135. 4:33multiple apps. You're working on
136. 4:35something new. So, I'm excited to to
137. 4:37learn go see your offices. Go hang out
138. 4:39in New York City and learn about apps.
139. 4:41>> Let's do it.
140. 4:42>> All right.
141. 4:42>> Let's go.
142. 4:43>> Ready?
143. 4:43>> Yeah.
144. 4:44>> Let's do it.
145. 4:48>> Okay. So, we're here at Elizabeth Street
146. 4:50Garden. What I love about what you guys
147. 4:52did is that you built with your friends.
148. 4:53So, tell me, how did the first genesis
149. 4:57of Calai get started?
150. 4:58>> Henry and I initially met at a coding
151. 5:00camp when we were 10 years old. And that
152. 5:02turned into us gaming almost every day
153. 5:04together. And then eventually that
154. 5:06friendship led us and our shared passion
155. 5:08of programming to building a couple
156. 5:10projects. Around that same time was when
157. 5:13I initially sent a DM to Blake to meet
158. 5:15[music] him. And then after things
159. 5:17started ramping up with Cali, we were
160. 5:19looking for someone to come in as like a
161. 5:21COO role and I knew Jake was like doing
162. 5:24great work at StudyBody. So I offered
163. 5:27that he join us and thankfully he did.
164. 5:30He wanted to join and things just went
165. 5:33great from there. The whole partnership,
166. 5:35the whole team, like we had a great
167. 5:36dynamic. Can you give me an example of
168. 5:40when there was like a fork in the road
169. 5:42like a really big product decision or
170. 5:44there was like a major conflict and how
171. 5:47you guys settled that? The initial
172. 5:50acquisition offers end of 24 we were
173. 5:53receiving low 8 figure acquisition
174. 5:56offers and everyone on the team was
175. 5:58conflicted because on one hand this is
176. 6:01life-changing money for everybody
177. 6:02involved and on the other hand we have
178. 6:05this product which we deeply care about
179. 6:07and we feel like there's so much more
180. 6:09growth to be done and I think the way
181. 6:11that we resolved this [music] was we
182. 6:13kept super open communication we would
183. 6:16all call each other constantly during
184. 6:18this period and through this trust in
185. 6:21one another, we were able to reach a
186. 6:24[music] collective decision that like
187. 6:25no, we definitely should not sell. But I
188. 6:28think in a co-founder dynamic and
189. 6:30relationship where you don't have those
190. 6:32levels of trust, you're not going to
191. 6:33take your company to its true ceiling
192. 6:36and it true potential.
193. 6:38>> Cool guys. Well, trust is the number one
194. 6:40thing. So for anyone watching this who's
195. 6:42building alone, looking for other people
196. 6:43to build with, find people you can
197. 6:44trust. We're going to go to your office
198. 6:46and I want to talk more about the
199. 6:48opportunity of iOS and see if it's
200. 6:50something that you would recommend for
201. 6:52people to still who are watching this
202. 6:54right now to do next. So, let's do it.
203. 6:56>> Let's do it.
204. 6:57>> All right, guys. I'm just finishing up
205. 6:58the edit on this video right here. And
206. 7:01putting this video together, it got me
207. 7:03thinking about something. AI has made it
208. 7:05easier than ever to build, obviously.
209. 7:07But what I typically see founders
210. 7:09getting wrong is not working on the
211. 7:11right ideas. So, we worked together with
212. 7:13HubSpot to put together a free resource
213. 7:15for you to help you ship your iOS app in
214. 7:187 [music] days. We will show you how to
215. 7:20go from a simple idea to an app live in
216. 7:23the App Store. And you can even do it if
217. 7:25you've never written a line of code in
218. 7:26your life. So, if you're ready to build,
219. 7:28just click the link in the description
220. 7:30and grab it 100% for free. All right,
221. 7:32let's get back to the video.
222. 7:37[music]
223. 7:39>> All right, we are here at the 10X
224. 7:40office. I want to understand is what is
225. 7:42the size of the opportunity of building
226. 7:44apps in 2026. People think Cali was this
227. 7:48massive pie that we were eating from.
228. 7:50We'll say Cali 50 mil per year. But then
229. 7:54the app store as a whole, so the entire
230. 7:57pie is 100 billion. We're 12,000th of
231. 8:04the amount of total opportunity. I know
232. 8:06a lot of people they think the
233. 8:07opportunity looks like this. But if you
234. 8:11apply new technology, either AI or in
235. 8:14other forms, the real opportunity looks
236. 8:17like this. It's a hundred billion today.
237. 8:20It's growing over 10% year-over-year. I
238. 8:23think almost within the next 6 years,
239. 8:25it'll be over $200 billion spent just on
240. 8:30the iOS app store alone.
241. 8:32>> What do you think about copycats?
242. 8:35because that was kind of a thing. Like
243. 8:36you could copy an app a couple years
244. 8:38ago, just attach a sick distribution
245. 8:40strategy to it and it could kind of
246. 8:41work. But do you think that still works
247. 8:44today? It can work for getting to
248. 8:47$10,000 a month or even $100,000 a
249. 8:50month. But the reality is that I think
250. 8:53you see much greater potential in
251. 8:55outcomes when you are building something
252. 8:58new. And philosophically too, I find it
253. 9:01much more inspiring. If Zach's initial
254. 9:03DM to me had been like, "Hey, I created
255. 9:05a copycat [music]
256. 9:06of this, I wouldn't have responded and
257. 9:08we never would have worked together."
258. 9:09Yeah.
259. 9:10>> And I think that a lot of legit
260. 9:12professionals feel the same way.
261. 9:14>> Any final advice, Zach, to people
262. 9:17watching this who are looking for their
263. 9:19differentiated idea or marketing
264. 9:21strategy? I mean, this is like advice
265. 9:23that a lot of people give, but if you're
266. 9:26really solving your own problem, it
267. 9:28really makes everything fall into place
268. 9:30because you know exactly [music] what
269. 9:32you would want out of the product you're
270. 9:33building. So, it makes the app design
271. 9:35very intuitive. And with the marketing,
272. 9:37you know exactly who you're marketing to
273. 9:39cuz it's marketing [music] to yourself
274. 9:40and so you know exactly the pain points
275. 9:42that you hit on. It's a great way to
276. 9:44start. I would recommend like if you
277. 9:45don't know the idea to necessarily look
278. 9:48for, look for something that would
279. 9:49actually help you.
280. 9:51What I want to talk to you guys next is
281. 9:53what you're going to do next. But first,
282. 9:55could you give me a tour of this office?
283. 9:57I'd love to check it out. Let's do it.
284. 10:03This is the office. We got 10X Studio
285. 10:06works out of here. So, we have a number
286. 10:08of subsidiary companies and then we have
287. 10:11a bunch of friends that work out of here
288. 10:12as well. Jake, founder of Early. This is
289. 10:15Ethan, CEO of Eco.
290. 10:18>> How you doing, Pat?
291. 10:18>> What up, Fred?
292. 10:19>> Start right.
293. 10:20>> Yep. That's right.
294. 10:24You guys sold Calai for crazy amount of
295. 10:27money. I know you can't share the exact
296. 10:29amount, but it's just an amazing story.
297. 10:31What did that feel like to like build
298. 10:32something huge, sell it at such a young
299. 10:34age?
300. 10:35>> It didn't hit right away. Part of the
301. 10:37reason was because we were all
302. 10:38fragmented. We were all in different
303. 10:40states when it happened. So, there was
304. 10:41no like big celebration or anything to
305. 10:43tie it off. And then the next like 6
306. 10:45months after that, just a massive sense
307. 10:47of honestly relief. just like I just
308. 10:50[ __ ] up on everything for the rest of my
309. 10:52life and I will still be in a
310. 10:55comfortable position.
311. 10:56>> So tell me about that. I think a lot of
312. 10:58people watching this, they might see you
313. 10:59on X or YouTube or whatever. They're
314. 11:01going, "Okay, this guy's got millions in
315. 11:03the bank. Why is he even doing this?"
316. 11:05>> I played video games when I was growing
317. 11:07up. I was obsessed with video games.
318. 11:09It's all I did. [music] And I just look
319. 11:11at entrepreneurship as the greatest
320. 11:14video game in the world. I would be so
321. 11:16bored just like sitting around, maybe
322. 11:18going on boats, [music] just like living
323. 11:21life. I like playing this game and I
324. 11:23want to keep doing it.
325. 11:24>> An analogy I've been using with my
326. 11:26friends recently is if you were playing
327. 11:29GTA, would you ever go put your
328. 11:31character down and watch TV for 4 hours?
329. 11:35[ __ ] no. You would not do that ever. And
330. 11:37I think that for us, entrepreneurship is
331. 11:40that game.
332. 11:40>> Yeah. Obviously, you just had this sale
333. 11:42just a few months ago, but you're
334. 11:45already working on new stuff you were
335. 11:46telling me. So, could you just give us a
336. 11:47little details of that?
337. 11:48>> My primary project right now is called
338. 11:5110X App Builder. [music] 10X is Shopify
339. 11:55for apps. And so, beyond just writing
340. 11:58code for the individual, we're helping
341. 12:00with the process of ideiation. We're
342. 12:02going to be hosting user backends,
343. 12:04helping users design their Instagram
344. 12:07page in an aesthetic manner. like I
345. 12:09could not recommend it enough to anybody
346. 12:11who's new to building apps.
347. 12:13>> Right now my primary project is [music]
348. 12:15called Flow and it is a brand where we
349. 12:20will have a suite of [music] tools and
350. 12:22products that will power people's
351. 12:24productivity and also their health. And
352. 12:27I've been documenting the entire journey
353. 12:29of building this company on my YouTube
354. 12:30channel because I really want to show
355. 12:32other people how [music] being an
356. 12:35entrepreneur really looks to help people
357. 12:37like myself who when I was younger, I
358. 12:40always wanted to be one, but I never
359. 12:41knew exactly what went into it, what it
360. 12:43looked like.
361. 12:44>> Well, good luck guys. Thank you for
362. 12:46having me.
363. 12:47>> Thanks for having us
364. 12:48>> and uh I wish you the best.
365. 12:49Congratulations on the sale and you guys
366. 12:52are you guys are crushing it. Thanks.
367. 12:56>> Okay, we are here outside the office.
368. 12:58So, is this opportunity still available
369. 13:01when it's so easy to build now and the
370. 13:02app store is flooded with apps? Yes, but
371. 13:06take existing ideas and put your
372. 13:08differentiated spin on it. Whether it's
373. 13:10different features or a different
374. 13:11approach or it's different distribution.
375. 13:14So, there you go. That's your answer. I
376. 13:16think iOS apps are going to get bigger
377. 13:17and bigger every year. And if I were
378. 13:19starting right now, that's what I'd be
379. 13:20building. All right, guys. Hope you guys
380. 13:22enjoyed this episode. This is me [music]
381. 13:24spending 24 hours with app millionaires.
382. 13:26Hope you enjoyed. Let us know in the
383. 13:28comments. Peace.