Roy Lee, the co-founder and CEO of the startup Cluely, publicly admitted on X (formerly Twitter) that he fabricated annual recurring revenue (ARR) figures shared with TechCrunch last summer. While the company initially reported $7 million in ARR, Lee acknowledged on Thursday that this figure was false, stating, "this is the only blatantly dishonest thing i've said publicly online, so this is my formal retraction." However, Lee's subsequent post attempted to reframe the narrative, claiming he had received a random cold call from a woman and carelessly provided incorrect numbers without expecting media attention. This account contradicts the actual sequence of events. In reality, the interview was initiated through a formal public relations strategy. On June 27, 2025, at 8:38 a.m., a Cluely PR representative sent an email to TechCrunch reporter Marina Temkin, offering to arrange an interview with Lee. The email explicitly suggested discussing Cluely's next phase or the founder's vision. Following Temkin's acceptance, the representative provided Lee's contact number and confirmed his availability. After several attempts to reach him, Lee answered and conducted the interview as scheduled. Cluely had garnered significant attention in the summer of 2025 due to its controversial product, which allowed users to secretly access answers during video calls without detection. The company's origins trace back to a viral post by Lee claiming suspension from Columbia University after he and a co-founder developed a tool to cheat on software engineering job interviews. Leveraging this controversy, the founders secured $5.3 million in seed funding from Abstract Ventures and Susa Ventures to commercialize the cheating tool. The venture was hyped as a potential game-changer, with market predictions suggesting it might spur a new industry of detection tools. By June, Cluely had raised a $15 million Series A round from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). Throughout this period, the company mastered the art of viral marketing, utilizing provocative stunts and outrageous claims to maintain headlines and attract users. Lee openly discussed the success of these "rage-bait" tactics at TechCrunch's 2025 Disrupt event in October, noting how effective they were for early customer acquisition. At that same event, he declined to provide updated revenue figures, advising the audience that "you should never share revenue numbers" when a product is still evolving and relying heavily on marketing rather than organic growth. Cluely has since pivoted, rebranding from a cheating tool to an AI-powered meeting note-taker. In a notable irony, Lee's recent admission of his past deception and the subsequent posting of his actual Stripe account numbers appear to contradict his own prior advice given at the Disrupt event. While the company has transitioned its focus, the revelation underscores the volatile nature of its growth strategy and the risks associated with the marketing-heavy approach Lee once championed.