Cluely’s Roy Lee on the ragebait strategy for startup marketing

Cluely’s Roy Lee has a message for startup founders: you should think more about how to go viral.

“If you’re not in deep tech, you should generally focus quietly on distribution,” Lee told the audience at Disrupt 2025.

But he also made it clear that not everyone is cut out for this kind of viral marketing.

“If you’re good at tech, you’re probably not funny and you’re probably not going to be a content creator because you don’t have it in your blood. Realistically, most of these people have no chance of going viral.”

Cluely’s AI assistant shot to fame in April with a viral claim that its undetectable windows could help you “cheat everything” – a claim that was quickly debunked when a series of surveillance services showed they could actually detect the AI ​​assistant’s use. But within months, the company had raised $15 million from Andressen Horowitz, making it one of the most visible products in the crowded AI assistant world.

As Lee puts it, it’s part of his talent to go viral, which often means a lot of people get very angry with him. “I think I’m particularly good at framing myself in a controversial way,” he said on stage. “I do a lot of things that are different. And everything I do that is different, I frame it through the filter of my voice. And of course my voice is very infuriating to a lot of people.”

For Lee, it’s part of a broader theory of social media, in which attention is the only currency.

“Reputation is a thing of the past,” Lee said. “You can try to be the New York Times and guard your rock-solid reputation, but realistically you have Sam Altman on the timeline talking about hot guys and you have Elon Musk going crazy.”

“You just have to realize that the world is moving to a different place,” he continued, “where you have to be extreme, you have to be authentic and you have to be personal.”

However, it is difficult to say how well that strategy works. However, when asked about Cluely’s revenue or user numbers, Lee demurred.

“What I’ve learned is that you should never share sales figures because if you do well, no one will talk about how well you’re doing. And if you do poorly, people will only talk about how poorly you’re doing,” Lee said. “I will say we’re doing better than I expected, but it’s not the fastest growing company of all time.”