"Roy Lee is the co-founder and CEO of Cluely, an AI meeting assistant that offers real-time insights and turns conversations into searchable and shareable reports. Hundreds of companies are pitching similar products, so why do we care about Cluely? What really sets Lee apart is his mastery of attention. In an era when most startups fight to be noticed, Lee has made rage-baiting social media content his business model."
"Lee originally went viral as a Columbia University student who got in trouble for cheating on Big Tech interviews with an AI assistant he built, a sage he documented on social media. Lee then dropped out and launched Cluely, which was initially pitched as the 'cheat on everything startup.' It was a tagline designed to ruffle feathers and spur engagement - a strategy that Cluely has become famous for, and others have tried to copy."
"Say what you will about Lee's marketing efforts, but Cluely routinely breaks through the noise of social media and press releases, earning the startup visibility that companies ten times its size struggle to buy. Lee operates Cluely on the principle that most companies are playing it too safe, and that attention is all you need to win the consumer market."
Cluely is an AI meeting assistant that delivers real-time insights and converts conversations into searchable, shareable reports. The product competes in a crowded market of similar tools, but the company differentiates through attention-focused marketing. Roy Lee leveraged viral notoriety from a documented cheating episode at Columbia to cultivate controversy and engagement, then positioned Cluely with a deliberately provocative tagline to attract attention. The startup emphasizes visibility over caution, arguing that attention can trump conventional approaches. Cluely raised $15 million in Series A from Andreessen Horowitz and allocated funding to bold marketing, creator teams, and an expansive San Francisco presence.
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