{"id":226684,"date":"2026-03-05T22:38:26","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T22:38:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/05\/cluely-ceo-roy-lee-admits-to-publicly-lying-about-revenue-numbers-last-year-techcrunch\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T22:38:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T22:38:26","slug":"cluely-ceo-roy-lee-admits-to-publicly-lying-about-revenue-numbers-last-year-techcrunch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/05\/cluely-ceo-roy-lee-admits-to-publicly-lying-about-revenue-numbers-last-year-techcrunch\/","title":{"rendered":"Cluely CEO Roy Lee admits to publicly lying about revenue numbers last year | TechCrunch"},"content":{"rendered":"


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The $7 million in annual recurring revenue<\/a> that Cluely co-founder and CEO Roy Lee shared with TechCrunch last summer was a lie, Lee admitted<\/a> on Thursday on X. Wrote Lee, this \u201cis the only blatantly dishonest thing i\u2019ve said publicly online, so this is my formal retraction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet his post on X also misrepresents the backstory of how and why he told TechCrunch his ARR in the first place. <\/p>\n

Lee says in that same post that he \u201cgot a random cold call from some woman asking about numbers and told her some bs, did not expect an article about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

But that call occurred because Cluely\u2019s public relations representative emailed TechCrunch and offered to make Lee available for a story. On Friday, Jun 27, 2025 at 8:38\u202fa.m., Cluely\u2019s PR person sent an email to TechCrunch reporter Marina Temkin that said, \u201cI\u2019d love to arrange an interview with Roy. Whether for a deeper dive into Cluely\u2019s next phase or a fresh angle on his vision, we\u2019d be happy to make it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Temkin agreed. The PR representative shared Lee\u2019s number and confirmed that he was expecting the call. After a few attempts to reach him, Lee answered the call and gave the interview, as had been arranged.<\/p>\n

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eh kinda, here’s our stripes from june 2025<\/p>\n

got a random cold call from some woman asking about numbers and told her some bs, did not expect an article about it<\/p>\n

here’s what we were doing at the time:
> consumer arr 2.7m, run rate 3.8m
> enterprise arr 2.5m, run rate 2.5m
>\u2026 https:\/\/t.co\/CzAoPRru2R<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/C5bXuz8HqW<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Roy (@im_roy_lee) March 5, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

TechCrunch was interested in talking to Cluely because in the summer of 2025, Cluely was the \u201ccheat-on-everything\u201d phenomenon \u2014 a viral startup that let users secretly look up answers during video calls without being detected. The company was founded after Lee\u00a0published<\/a> a viral post on X saying he had been suspended by Columbia University after he and his co-founder developed a tool to cheat on job interviews for software engineers.<\/p>\n

The co-founders raised $5.3 million in seed funding from Abstract Ventures and Susa Ventures for Cluely, intending to commercialize the tool that got them suspended. It was positioned as allowing online interviewees (or anyone) to secretly look up answers to questions without detection. For a while, it seemed like Cluely would become so successful that it would spawn a counter-industry of detection tools<\/a> designed to catch people using it.<\/p>\n

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Techcrunch event<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco, CA<\/span>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t|<\/span>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 13-15, 2026<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

In June, Cluely raised a $15 million Series A from Andreessen Horowitz. By then, the company had mastered the art of creating provocative content designed to go viral using stunts to keep Cluely in the headlines and attract new users. The strategy was the talk of the town. Lee even discussed how successful rage-bait marketing tactics were for gaining early customers at TechCrunch\u2019s 2025 Disrupt<\/a> event in October.<\/p>\n

He declined to share updated revenue numbers at that time, but he did indicate that marketing alone, when a product is still in flux, isn\u2019t enough to build a sustainable business. \u201cWhat I\u2019ve learned is you should never share revenue numbers,\u201d he told the Disrupt audience.<\/p>\n

Cluely has since rebranded itself as an AI-powered meeting note-taker. But in admitting the lie on Thursday and posting numbers from his Stripe account, Lee appears to have forgotten his own advice.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n