CEO responds to crisis with a joke, AI entrepreneurs secretly learn Crypto's marketing tactics

Original | Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)

Author | Dingdang (@XiaMiPP)

In most startups, if someone exposes “inflated revenue,” they’ll likely face a PR crisis—issuing statements, explaining misunderstandings, adjusting data definitions, apologizing, and then steering the conversation back to product or business growth.

But Cluely’s CEO Roy Lee clearly didn’t plan to do that.

A company born from “cheating tools”

Cluely was founded in 2025, with its initial product developed by Roy Lee and his college roommate Neel. The project was Interview Coder, a tool that uses AI to help users cheat during LeetCode interviews. Because of this project, both were eventually expelled from Columbia University.

If it were an ordinary person, being expelled would be a black mark to hide. But Roy Lee turned this into a marketing opportunity, even a “life turning point.”

Cluely’s original product slogan was: “Cheat on Everything.” It wasn’t until November 2025 that Cluely gradually shifted its narrative from “cheating tools” to AI note-taking assistants—such as automatically organizing meeting content, optimizing collaboration efficiency, and even modifying participants’ expressions to mask distraction. But no matter how the product evolved, the company—or rather, its CEO—never shed a very obvious trait: it almost grew through controversy.

And the subsequent storm also continued along this path.

An absurd performance triggered by “inflated revenue”

The incident started when someone uncovered a report published by TechCrunch in July 2025. The article mentioned that Cluely’s annual recurring revenue doubled within a week, reaching $7 million, which was suspected to be fabricated.

Faced with the doubt, Cluely CEO Roy Lee was quite candid. He quickly posted a confession, saying that when he received a call from the reporter, he casually quoted that number without expecting it to be included in the official report. To prove it wasn’t an exaggeration, he also shared Cluely’s actual data from June 2025: consumer business annual revenue of $2.7 million, enterprise business annual revenue of $2.5 million, totaling $5.2 million.

There was nothing sensational here, and the explanation seemed reasonable.

But on the same day, TechCrunch journalist Julie Bort rebutted Roy’s statement. She said the interview was arranged proactively by Cluely’s PR team, with records—this wasn’t a casual chat.

Roy Lee didn’t continue to explain in writing but chose a more theatrical response. He posted a video with the caption, Breaking News: Cluely CEO Officially Responds to TechCrunch.

In the video, he wears sunglasses, a suit, sits in front of the camera with a microphone on the table, looking like he’s about to make a serious statement. But the environment isn’t an office; it looks more like a living room, with an old desktop computer beside him, screen playing Subway Surfers—a classic distraction game. Roy’s tone is far from formal, more like a self-deprecating performance, mixing self-mockery and bravado, like a rapper freestyling.

Even more absurd, at the end of the video, he stands up from behind the desk—this seemingly serious CEO, without pants…

Thus, a crisis about “inflated revenue” was turned into a self-deprecating spectacle designed to attract attention.

a16z bets on the attention economy

The capital market doesn’t seem to mind this performative personality. In June 2025, Cluely announced a $15 million Series A funding round, with notable investors including Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). Partner Bryan Kim mentioned on a podcast that: In the AI era, the traditional “craftsman product + slow growth” model is no longer enough; viral spread itself is part of the product.

He believes the “new AI startup template” is that, as model capabilities become commoditized, attention itself becomes a key resource. Whoever can capture user attention first may establish a new moat.

From the “cheating controversy” of Interview Coder, to the expulsion story from Columbia, and now this absurd “response video,” Roy Lee’s entire personal brand has been built along this path: controversy itself is content. This also helps explain why a16z chose to invest in Cluely and Roy Lee.

When controversy becomes a growth strategy

In traditional startup narratives, growth usually comes from product capabilities, technological barriers, and business models. But in today’s internet environment, another resource is becoming increasingly important—attention.

This logic has already been validated in the crypto industry. Many crypto projects generate buzz, controversy, or even dramatic events to seize user attention, then convert that traffic into product growth or commercial value. Especially with the rise of memes, where pure dissemination without traditional products is common.

To some extent, Roy Lee’s response video exemplifies this logic: when faced with negative news, instead of suppressing controversy, it’s better to repackage it as content for dissemination.

In today’s internet environment, attention often outweighs the importance of explaining the truth.