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Although Roy Li, the founder of Cluely, believes that startups should take virality on social media more seriously, he also acknowledges: brand recognition alone will not guarantee sustained growth.
“I can’t say whether this is a mistake, but perhaps we launched too early,” Roy Li said on the TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 stage last week. “The whole idea was to launch something that barely works, and if we can attract enough early users, they will reveal use cases for us.”
Cluely burst onto the tech scene in April with aggressive marketing that stoked interest with provocative claims that the product would help users “outsmart everything.” Li became known after he was expelled from Columbia University for using the tool during interviews for technical positions. He used that reputation to promote Cluely, a startup that claimed it helped “outsmart everything” by presenting information in unconventional ways during online conversations.
In late June, Cluely unveiled its enterprise product, pitched as a multi-use solution for sales calls, customer support, and remote training.
However earlier this week the company pivoted and focused on a new concept, launching a site titled “AI Meeting Assistant.” According to Li, the goal is to make Cluely the best AI-powered note-taking assistant, starting with users and continuing after meetings to send follow-up emails.
“I would say we are doing better than expected, but this is not the fastest-growing company of all time,” Li said.
The attention helped Cluely secure a $15 million Series A round from Andreessen Horowitz in June. In that month, a16z partner Bryan Kim noted on the firm’s podcast that he supported Cluely because Li knew how to turn attention into paying customers.
After the product reveal in the summer, Li boasted that the startup’s ARR had risen from $3 million to $7 million in just a week. “Every person who has a meeting or an interview tests this,” he said at the conference at the time.
“Every person who has a meeting or an interview tests this.”
Yet four months later Li no longer rushes to boast about financial metrics. “What I have learned is that you should never publicly disclose revenue numbers,” he said.
“If you do well, no one talks about how well you do, but if things go poorly, then everyone will only talk about how badly you are performing.”
Despite the peak interest in artificial intelligence, many founders of fast-growing AI startups are not shy about publicly disclosing their ARR figures, a practice that has become common amid the AI boom.
Cluely’s experience to date shows that social media attention has limited impact if the product fails to deliver enough value and a smooth user experience to retain customers after the initial interest.
Takeaways for startups
The lesson from Cluely’s story is simple: success requires a balance between attention and real product value. Virality can help you rise, but lasting growth depends on how well the product solves real user needs and how effectively it can be monetized.
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