This essay, presented in an as-told-to format, originates from an extensive conversation with Daniel Min, the Chief Marketing Officer at Cluely. Min, who earned his degree from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in 2025, shared his unconventional professional journey with candor and specificity. The following narrative, revised for clarity and concision, captures the essence of his path and the lessons he discovered along the way.
During the summer before his final year, Min experienced a demoralizing series of setbacks: he faced rejection from every internship he pursued, whether in consulting, finance, technology, or entertainment. Each carefully written application ended in disappointment. Eventually, near the end of the recruitment season, Min accepted a position as a social media intern for a small, relatively unknown startup called RecruitU. At first, the role felt modest—perhaps even like a consolation prize—but it ultimately became a transformative experience.
While working at RecruitU, Min channeled his creativity and persistence into building both the company’s and his own social media presence. Through relentless experimentation and self-teaching, he expanded RecruitU’s Instagram following from an initial count of zero to an impressive 100,000. At the same time, his personal account grew to 50,000 followers. Beyond social media metrics, his efforts directly fueled the company’s growth: its user base multiplied by 400%. Given RecruitU’s limited size, Min realized he was effectively the sole point of distribution and outreach—the driving force behind its visibility.
His approach to content creation was born not from formal instruction but from intuition and constant trial and error. Min openly acknowledges that for nearly four years, he produced content that failed to gain traction—videos that attracted little attention or success. Yet, those repeated failures served as invaluable education in what did not work. Then, one summer, a single video finally resonated with viewers, and that success became the catalyst for a chain reaction. Once that first breakthrough occurred, subsequent pieces of content began to flourish with far greater ease.
It was around this time that Roy, the founder of Cluely, discovered Min’s work. Intrigued by the creativity and precision behind his online presence, Roy reached out to express admiration and initiate contact. His message was casual yet promising: “Would you ever consider joining Cluely?” Min accepted an invitation to collaborate on a YouTube project and flew out primarily with the intention of filming and connecting, not of joining the company. However, during their meeting, Roy shared a compelling vision for Cluely’s future—one that captured Min’s imagination. What began as a simple visit evolved into a meaningful professional alignment, setting Min on a trajectory he hadn’t anticipated.
Remarkably, Min entered Cluely with no technical background. He confesses that lines of code were almost indecipherable to him. Yet, he recognized that his advantage lay elsewhere—in distribution, communication, and the ability to generate attention. In the rapidly evolving digital landscape, he asserts, success can be manufactured through strategic self-direction: “You can create your own luck in the social media world.”
Life at Cluely proved to be both exhilarating and demanding. The startup’s culture was characterized by extremely high expectations and relentless energy. Employees, including Min, often worked deep into the night—until four or five in the morning—only to resume their efforts the moment they woke. Although the pace was unsustainable in the long term, Min viewed this phase as a rare opportunity to live wholly immersed in his work—to, as he phrased it, “sleep, eat, and breathe this office.” The experience offered a type of professional intensity that is rarely possible later in life.
One of the great advantages of working at a startup, according to Min, is the speed and depth of learning it demands. Whereas in large corporate settings employees can sometimes blend into structured hierarchies and perform only what is expected, startups strip away bureaucracy. There is no room to hide behind process or title; every team member must either know what they are doing or be willing to learn at extraordinary speed. Min believes that students who spend even a few summers immersed in such environments will develop an unparalleled capacity for rapid adaptation. While he acknowledges that corporate experience might have helped him understand large-scale operations, he has spent his college years exclusively in startups—a decision that shaped his professional identity.
In reflecting on his education, Min places little emphasis on grades. To him, traditional academic metrics were far less valuable than entrepreneurship, initiative, and community building. Founding the Social Media Club at Penn proved to be one of his most significant accomplishments because it created a space for like-minded individuals in a business school dominated by finance and consulting ambitions. It was through sharing his club’s story on LinkedIn that Min discovered his internship opportunity the previous summer—an early example of how strategic visibility could open doors.
Still, Min admits to one regret: he wishes he had devoted himself to content creation earlier with greater focus and conviction. For a long time, he pursued unrelated industries—consulting, cryptocurrency, miscellaneous business ventures—believing those fields were safer or more respectable options. In hindsight, he recognizes that fully investing in his creative strengths from the beginning could have produced exponential, “power-law” growth. Nevertheless, Min maintains an optimistic outlook, emphasizing that even if one starts late, the critical thing is simply to start. As he puts it, “The best time to start was yesterday; the next best time is today.”
For current college students, Min’s advice is pragmatic and direct: develop a skill that makes you irreplaceable and practice it in an environment that tests it, such as a startup. Demonstrating value in a small company while still in school can be the most effective route to securing opportunities after graduation.
Interestingly, Min challenges the conventional idea of risk. To outsiders, joining Cluely might appear like a gamble—a leap into the uncertain world of an emerging AI-driven company. Yet Min insists the opposite: by building his personal brand and cultivating demand for his expertise, he has actually decreased his career risk. He created a market for himself, ensuring continual offers and options. In his view, mastering digital distribution—currently one of the most sought-after skills—renders his career path far more stable than traditional roles in consulting, where layoffs and redundancy are common.
For Min, the contemporary economy prizes those who understand perception and narrative. The success of businesses, particularly in marketing and technology, often depends less on raw technical innovation than on who can most effectively shape public awareness and brand identity. In that sense, he sees the mastery of social media, storytelling, and marketing not as optional accessories to professional success, but as essential instruments of modern self-determination.
Sourse: https://www.businessinsider.com/viral-ai-cheating-startup-cluely-daniel-min-college-2025-8
