Cluely CEO Roy Lee admits to lying publicly about last year’s financial figures

The $7 million in annual recurring revenue that Cluely co-founder and CEO Roy Lee shared with TechCrunch last summer was a lie, Lee he agreed Thursday on X. Wrote Lee, “it’s the only dishonest thing I’ve said publicly on the Internet, so this is my takedown.”

However, his post on X also misrepresents how he told TechCrunch his ARR in the first place.

Lee says in the same letter that he “received a call from a woman asking about numbers and telling her bs, she didn’t expect news.”

But that call came about because a Cluely public representative emailed TechCrunch and offered to get Lee on the news. On Friday, Jun 27, 2025 at 8:38 am, Cluely’s PR person emailed TechCrunch reporter Marina Temkin saying, “I’d love to set up an interview with Roy. Whether it’s a deep dive into the next part of Cluely or new ideas about his vision, we’d be happy to do it.”

Temkin agreed. A PR representative shared Lee’s number and confirmed that he was expecting a call. After several attempts to reach him, Lee answered the phone and answered questions, as planned.

TechCrunch was interested in talking to Cluely because in the summer of 2025, Cluely was a “cheat-for-everything” – a viral startup that allowed users to secretly look for answers in hidden videos. The company was founded after Lee printed viral image on X claims he has been suspended from Columbia University after he and his co-founder created a tool to cheat job applications for software engineers.

The co-founders raised $5.3 million in seed funding from Abstract Ventures and Susa Ventures for Cluely, looking to sell the tool that stopped them. It was designed to allow online respondents (or anyone) to privately view answers to anonymous questions. For a while, it looked like Cluely would be so successful that it would spawn anti-detection equipment company it is designed to catch people using it.

In June, Cluely raised a $15 million Series A from Andreessen Horowitz. By then, the company had mastered the art of creating engaging content designed to be confusing and offensive to keep Cluely in the headlines and attract new users. The route was the talk of the town. Lee also discussed how aggressive marketing strategies were to get early customers TechCrunch’s 2025 Disrupt event in October.

He declined to share updated figures at the time, but pointed out that advertising alone, while a product is still available, is not enough to create a sustainable business. “What I’ve learned is don’t share revenue numbers,” he told the Disrupt audience.

Cluely has also made a name for itself as an AI-driven puzzle author. But by admitting the lie and sending the numbers from his Stripe account, Lee seems to have forgotten his advice.