Original | Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)

Author | Dingdang (@XiaMiPP)

In most startups, if someone reveals "inflated revenue," they would likely face a public relations crisis—issuing statements, explaining misunderstandings, correcting data, apologizing, and trying to refocus attention on product or business growth.

However, Cluely's CEO Roy Lee clearly had no intention of doing that.

A Company That Started from "Cheating Tools"

Cluely was founded in 2025, with its initial product coming from a project called Interview Coder, developed by Roy Lee and his university roommate Neel. This was a tool that used AI to help users cheat in LeetCode interviews. As a result of this project, both were eventually expelled from Columbia University.

If it were an ordinary person, they would try to cover up being expelled from school as a part of their dark past. But Roy Lee turned this incident into a marketing opportunity, even calling it a "turning point" in his life.

Cluely's initial product slogan was: "Cheat on Everything." It wasn't until November 2025 that Cluely began to gradually shift its product narrative from "cheating tools" to AI note-taking assistants, such as using AI to automatically organize meeting content, optimize collaboration efficiency, and even modify participants' expressions to hide distractions. But no matter how the product was adjusted, this company, or rather, its CEO, has not shaken off a very obvious trait: it has almost grown up through controversy.

The following events continued this trajectory in a certain way.

An Absurd Performance Triggered by "Inflated Revenue"

The event began when someone dug up a TechCrunch report published in July 2025. The article mentioned that Cluely's annual recurring revenue doubled within a week, reaching 7 million dollars. This data was questioned for being falsified.

Faced with skepticism, Cluely CEO Roy Lee was quite candid. He quickly posted, admitting that when he received a call from the reporter he casually quoted that number and did not expect it to be included in a formal report. To seemingly prove he did not deliberately exaggerate, he also shared Cluely's real data from June 2025: consumer business annual revenue of 2.7 million dollars, enterprise business annual revenue of 2.5 million dollars, totaling 5.2 million dollars.

At this point, there was no real spectacle; the explanation seemed reasonable enough.

However, on the same day, TechCrunch reporter Julie Bort published an article rebutting Roy's claims. She stated that the interview was proactively arranged by Cluely's PR team, with records, and was not casual chatting.

Roy Lee did not continue to explain in writing; instead, he chose a more dramatic way to respond. He released a video, captioned, Breaking News: Cluely CEO Officially Responds to TechCrunch.

In the video, he sat in front of the camera wearing sunglasses and a suit, with a microphone on the table, looking ready to make a serious statement. However, the setting was more like a living room than an office, with an old desktop computer next to him, and on the screen, Subway Surfers—a classic distraction tool—was playing. Roy's response was entirely informal, resembling a self-deprecating performance, mixed with self-mockery and bragging, with a tone like a rapper in freestyle.

More absurdly, at the end of the video, he stood up from behind the desk; this serious CEO was not wearing pants...

Thus, a crisis originally about "inflated revenue" was turned into a traffic-catching self-mocking performance.

a16z's Bet is Actually on Attention Economy

The capital markets do not mind founders with such performative personalities. In June 2025, Cluely announced the completion of 15 million dollars in Series A funding, with notable venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) among the investors. Its partner Bryan Kim mentioned in a podcast: In the AI era, the traditional "artisan products + slow growth" model is no longer sufficient; viral spread itself is part of the product.

He believes that the "new AI startup template" is that in an age where model capabilities are becoming commoditized, attention itself is beginning to become a key resource. Whoever can seize users' attention first may establish a new moat.

From the "cheating controversy" of Interview Coder, to the expulsion story from Columbia University, and then to this absurd "response video," Roy Lee's entire personal brand has been built along this path: controversy itself is a means of spreading content. This may also explain why a16z chose to invest in Cluely and Roy Lee.

When Controversy Becomes a Growth Strategy

In past startup narratives, growth typically came from product capabilities, technological barriers, and business models. But in today’s internet environment, another resource has become increasingly important—attention.

This logic has actually been validated in the crypto industry long ago. Many crypto projects capture user attention by creating topics, controversies, or even dramatic events, and then convert that traffic into product growth or commercial value, especially with the rise of memes, which are pure dissemination with no (in the traditional sense) product.

To some extent, Roy Lee's response video is a typical case of this logic: when negative news arises, instead of trying to suppress the controversy, it's better to repackage the controversy itself as content for dissemination.

It is evident that, in today’s internet environment, attention is often more valuable than explaining the truth.

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