After falsely reporting revenue, why did this CEO choose to respond by saying he was "not wearing pants"?

Author: Dingdang

Original Title: CEO Uses Jokes to Respond to Crisis, AI Entrepreneurs Borrow Crypto’s Marketing Tactics

In most startups, if someone exposes “inflated revenue,” they’ll likely face a PR crisis—issuing statements, clarifying misunderstandings, adjusting data, apologizing, and then refocusing on product or business growth.

But Roy Lee, CEO of Cluely, clearly had no intention of doing that.

A Company Born from “Cheating Tools”

Cluely was founded in 2025, originally developed by Roy Lee and his college roommate Neel as a project called Interview Coder. It was an AI-powered tool to help users cheat during LeetCode interviews. Because of this project, both were eventually expelled from Columbia University.

If it were an ordinary person, being expelled would be a black mark to hide. But Roy Lee turned it into a marketing opportunity, even a “life turning point.”

Cluely’s initial slogan was: “Cheat on Everything.” Until November 2025, the company gradually shifted its narrative from “cheating tools” to AI note-taking assistants—such as automatically organizing meeting notes, improving collaboration efficiency, and even modifying participants’ expressions to hide distraction. But no matter how the product evolved, the company—or rather, its CEO—never shed a very obvious trait: it grew almost entirely through controversy.

And the subsequent scandal continued along this path.

An Absurd Performance Triggered by “Inflated Revenue”

It all started when someone uncovered a TechCrunch article published in July 2025. The article mentioned that Cluely’s annual recurring revenue doubled in a week to $7 million. The figure was suspected to be fake.

Faced with the doubt, Roy Lee was surprisingly candid. He quickly posted admitting that he had casually mentioned that number during a call with a reporter, not expecting it to be included in the official article. To prove it wasn’t an exaggeration, he also shared Cluely’s actual data from June 2025: consumer revenue of $2.7 million, enterprise revenue of $2.5 million, totaling $5.2 million.

There was nothing particularly sensational here, and the explanation seemed reasonable.

But on the same day, TechCrunch journalist Julie Bort rebutted Roy’s statement. She said the interview was arranged proactively by Cluely’s PR team, with records—not just a casual chat.

Roy Lee didn’t continue to clarify in writing but chose a more theatrical response. He posted a video with a caption: Major news: Cluely CEO officially responds to TechCrunch.

In the video, he wears sunglasses, a suit, sits in front of the camera with a microphone on the table, looking like he’s about to make a serious statement. But the environment isn’t an office; it looks more like a living room, with an old desktop computer next to him, screen playing Subway Surfers—a classic distraction game. His tone is far from formal, more like a self-deprecating performance, mixing sarcasm and bravado, like a rapper freestyling.

Even more absurdly, at the end of the video, he stands up from behind the table—this serious-looking CEO, and he’s not wearing pants…

Thus, a crisis about “inflated revenue” was turned into a self-mocking performance designed to attract attention.

a16z Bets on the Attention Economy

The venture capital world doesn’t seem to mind this kind of performative founder. In June 2025, Cluely announced a $15 million Series A funding round, with notable investors including Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). Partner Bryan Kim mentioned on a podcast that in the AI era, the traditional “craftsman product + slow growth” model is no longer enough; viral spread itself is part of the product.

He believes the “new AI startup template” is that, as model capabilities become commoditized, attention itself becomes a key resource. Whoever can capture user attention first may build a new moat.

From the “cheating controversy” of Interview Coder, to the expulsion story, to this absurd “response video,” Roy Lee’s personal brand has almost been built along this path: controversy itself is content. It’s not hard to see why a16z chose to invest in Cluely and Roy Lee.

When Controversy Becomes a Growth Strategy

In traditional startup narratives, growth usually comes from product capabilities, technological barriers, and business models. But in today’s internet environment, another resource is becoming increasingly important—attention.

This logic has long been validated in the crypto industry. Many crypto projects generate buzz, controversy, or even dramatized events to grab user attention, then convert that traffic into product growth or commercial value. Especially with the rise of memes, where pure dissemination and entertainment often outweigh traditional product features.

In a way, Roy Lee’s response video exemplifies this logic: when faced with negative news, instead of suppressing controversy, repackage it as content to spread.

In today’s internet environment, attention often outweighs the importance of explaining the truth.