Cluely is trying to turn controversy into a business case. Founder Roy Lee told TechCrunch that the startup has reached about $7 million in ARR after launching its new enterprise product a week ago, a sharp jump from the more than $3 million in ARR he had recently been discussing.
The company’s pitch is simple: use AI during online conversations to surface notes, context, and possible questions while the conversation is still happening. That timing is central to Cluely’s appeal, and it is also where new rivals are beginning to gather.
What Cluely Says It Does
Cluely builds products that analyze online conversations and show useful information on the user’s screen. According to the source article, that information can include real-time notes, background context, and suggested questions.
The product’s defining feature is discretion. The guidance appears on the user’s own screen and is invisible to the other people in the online conversation. That design is part of why the product has attracted both attention and criticism.
Lee described broad testing by people who spend time in meetings or interviews, telling TechCrunch, “Every single person who has a meeting or an interview is testing this out.” He said the growing interest is coming from both consumers and businesses.
For companies, Cluely’s enterprise version resembles the consumer product but adds team management and additional security settings. Lee pointed to business use cases including sales calls, customer support, and remote tutoring.
Why The ARR Claim Matters
Before the enterprise product reveal, Lee had been saying Cluely’s ARR was above $3 million and that the startup was profitable. Now he says ARR has climbed to about $7 million since the enterprise product launched a week ago.
ARR, or annual recurring revenue, is a common way subscription businesses describe the yearly value of recurring contracts. The figure does not explain every detail of a company’s finances, but it can show how quickly customers are committing to a product.
In Cluely’s case, the claim matters because the company is moving from viral attention into business sales. Lee told TechCrunch that Cluely has signed a public company that doubled its annual contract with Cluely to $2.5 million this week. He declined to name that company.
That unnamed contract is important to the story because it suggests at least some businesses are willing to engage with Cluely despite the controversy around its origins and marketing. It also shows why enterprise features such as team management and additional security settings matter: companies need more than a consumer app when they deploy tools across teams.
A Startup Built From Controversy
Cluely did not arrive quietly. The startup grew out of a viral X thread in which Lee said he was suspended by Columbia University because he and a co-founder built a tool to cheat on job interviews for software engineers.
Lee then turned the technology into a startup. Its early marketing leaned into the controversy with the tagline that it helps users “cheat on everything.”
Since then, Cluely has adjusted its message. With backing from Andreessen Horowitz, Abstract Ventures, and Susa Ventures, the company now uses softer language: “Everything You Need. Before You Ask. … This feels like cheating.”
The shift does not erase the company’s past, but it changes the frame. Cluely is no longer only selling provocation. It is trying to present the same underlying capability as workplace assistance: notes, context, and prompts at the moment they are most useful.
Why Real-Time Notes Are The Core Feature
Lee told TechCrunch that customers are especially interested in Cluely’s real-time note-taking capability. His argument is that AI meeting notes are already a strong use case, but many competing tools deliver value only after the call has ended.
He said, “Meeting notes have been a proven very sticky, very interesting AI use case. The only problem with them is they’re all post-call,” adding, “You want to look back at them in the middle of a meeting, and that is what we offer.”
That distinction is the heart of Cluely’s product argument. A post-call summary helps someone remember what happened. A real-time note layer can help someone respond while the conversation is still active.
That difference may matter in sales calls, customer support, and tutoring, where timing can shape the outcome of an interaction. If a user can see context, notes, or suggested questions before the conversation moves on, the tool becomes less like a record and more like an active assistant.
Glass Shows How Fast Competition Can Arrive
Cluely’s challenge is that the feature attracting customers may be hard to defend. On Thursday, Pickle, which describes itself as a digital clone factory, claimed on X that it built Glass, a free open source product with functionality very similar to Cluely.
By mid-day, Glass had gained over 850 stars and been forked nearly 150 times. Those signals suggest developers were already trying the free version soon after it appeared.
That does not automatically mean Glass will slow Cluely’s growth. Businesses may still care about enterprise features, security settings, team management, support, and packaged deployment. But a free open source alternative can pressure any paid product if users believe the core experience is similar enough.
Cluely’s next test is therefore not just demand. Lee’s ARR claim suggests demand is real, at least according to the company. The larger question is whether Cluely can turn its attention, enterprise features, and controversial brand into a durable business before free rivals make real-time AI meeting notes feel like a commodity.