Cluely’s charismatic founder Roy Lee has a clear and uncompromising message for the startup community: if you are building a young company in today’s hyperconnected era, you must devote serious intellectual effort to understanding the mechanics of virality. Speaking before an energized audience at Disrupt 2025, Lee urged entrepreneurs to think not merely about product or technology, but about how their ideas can travel rapidly through digital networks. In his view, especially for startups not rooted in deeply technical innovations, distribution strategy—the art of getting your product seen, shared, and discussed at scale—must be treated as a critical discipline, deserving the same level of focus as coding or design.
Lee didn’t sugarcoat his message. He acknowledged that viral marketing is not an endeavor for everyone, warning that some founders will naturally struggle with the kind of performative creativity and emotional resonance that the internet rewards. With blunt humor, he explained that strong engineers, celebrated for their analytical precision, often lack the instinctive wit or extroverted flair that fuels viral content creation. His assessment was unsparing: while technical talent may produce excellence in software architecture, it rarely translates into the charisma or humor required to dominate online attention—and, as a result, most technically gifted individuals will never achieve virality.
The irony, perhaps, lies in Cluely’s own ascent to notoriety. The company’s AI assistant suddenly became an internet phenomenon in April when a provocative claim spread across social platforms, suggesting that its signature “undetectable windows” could allegedly be used to cheat on virtually any task. The assertion attracted massive attention—but was quickly debunked after proctoring platforms demonstrated they could, in fact, detect the system’s usage. Nonetheless, the controversy proved potent marketing fuel. Within just a few months of intense public debate and digital scrutiny, Cluely secured an impressive $15 million investment round from Andreessen Horowitz, placing the company firmly among the most talked-about players in an increasingly crowded AI assistant market.
Lee attributes this trajectory to what he calls his innate ability to go viral—a skill forged from a willingness to provoke strong emotional reactions, even anger. Onstage, he admitted that much of his visibility stems from deliberately courting controversy. He portrays his communication style as inherently polarizing, explaining that he habitually presents his contrarian ideas through his distinctive personal voice, one that often irritates or infuriates large segments of the online public. Yet for Lee, this backlash is not an unfortunate side effect but rather a predictable component of modern digital theater—a process where visibility itself has become the ultimate reward.
This conviction ties into what Lee describes as a larger philosophy about social media’s evolving dynamics. In his worldview, attention has effectively replaced reputation as the dominant currency of influence. Elaborating before a live crowd at the TechCrunch event in San Francisco, he argued that clinging to the traditional ideal of preserving an impeccable corporate image is increasingly futile. As he pointed out, even respected figures in technology discourse have embraced the chaotic, personality-driven nature of online timelines: one can see prominent industry leaders like Sam Altman casually discussing trivial or humorous topics, while Elon Musk often incites intense public reactions with his unpredictable remarks. In such an environment, Lee suggested, the conventional notion of maintaining a pristine reputation—akin to that of The New York Times—has become nearly obsolete.
For today’s entrepreneurs, he argued, success requires adapting to a reality where extremity, authenticity, and personhood matter more than polished public relations. To resonate with an audience, one must dare to be strikingly bold, unapologetically real, and unmistakably human. The age of corporate anonymity, in Lee’s view, is giving way to a social era defined by distinct personalities who can capture fleeting attention through compelling narratives.
Still, even as Lee champions his attention-centric philosophy, questions remain about its tangible business outcomes. When pressed for specific data on Cluely’s financial performance—figures such as revenue totals or active user counts—he declined to provide details. Lee justified his reticence with pragmatic reasoning: publicizing performance numbers, he argued, is a no-win scenario. If the metrics are strong, the story is soon forgotten; if they are weak, critics will magnify every flaw. Rather than feeding that cycle, he prefers to let curiosity build over time. With a half-smile, he concluded simply that Cluely is performing better than he personally anticipated, even if it is far from being the fastest-growing company in history.
Taken together, Roy Lee’s perspective reflects a modern startup ethos: success in the attention economy depends not only on innovation but on mastering how ideas capture emotion and spread. Virality, in his telling, is not accidental fortune—it is a deliberate, if sometimes divisive, craft.
Sourse: https://techcrunch.com/2025/10/29/cluelys-roy-lee-on-the-ragebait-strategy-for-startup-marketing/
