Case Study: Cluely – The Startup That Made Cheating Go Viral

The Origins: From Columbia Classrooms to Internet Chaos

Cluely’s story begins not as a polished Silicon Valley startup, but as a scrappy side project. The co-founders—Chungin “Roy” Lee and Neel Shanmugam—were undergraduate students at Columbia University when they built their first viral tool: Interview Coder. This was no ordinary AI chatbot. It was designed to run secretly during coding interviews, feeding real-time answers to students who were struggling with algorithmic questions.

Within days, Interview Coder spread like wildfire across TikTok and Reddit. Videos of students using the tool to ace interviews racked up millions of views, sparking outrage in the tech world. Critics called it dangerous, unethical, and a threat to meritocracy. But the real turning point came when Columbia University intervened. The founders were suspended, effectively exiled from the academic path they had been following. For most people, this would have been the end of the story—a cautionary tale about the perils of cutting corners. For Lee and Shanmugam, it was the beginning.

Instead of abandoning the project, they doubled down. The controversy wasn’t a liability—it was free advertising. The founders realized something profound: the very outrage that was getting them punished in academia could be weaponized in the startup world.

Building a Brand Around Outrage

This realization shaped Cluely’s brand identity. Unlike most productivity tools that emphasize efficiency, learning, or collaboration, Cluely leaned into its rebellious side. It adopted the provocative slogan: “Cheat on Everything.”

The phrase was deliberately chosen to elicit a visceral reaction. Parents, teachers, and traditionalists would recoil at the word “cheat.” But for young, internet-savvy users, the slogan was a rallying cry. It spoke to a generation skeptical of rigid systems—whether school exams, job interviews, or corporate hiring tests. By embracing the taboo, Cluely positioned itself not just as a product, but as a cultural statement.

This branding strategy wasn’t accidental. The Cluely team studied virality deeply, using ragebait and outrage loops to keep their product in the news. Videos of Cluely in action were polished, high-energy, and designed for TikTok’s short-form addiction cycle. Rumors were seeded—some users even speculated that the founders had been arrested. None of this was true, but in the attention economy, truth mattered less than engagement. Each cycle of outrage drew in more creators, more discussion, and more downloads.

The Distribution-First Playbook

At its core, Cluely is not a product-first company—it is a distribution-first company. In the AI era, where new apps and tools can be cloned within weeks, speed and reach are often more important than craftsmanship. Venture capitalist Bryan Kim of a16z summarized this mindset perfectly: “Momentum is the new moat.”

Cluely embodied this philosophy. Instead of waiting for a flawless app, the founders shipped fast, often with buggy or incomplete features. They focused instead on getting into people’s hands and feeds as quickly as possible.

The results were staggering. In its early weeks, Cluely amassed:

• Over 38 million views on TikTok,

• 220,000 new followers,

• More than 1,500 user-generated videos,

• A daily average of 5,800 mentions across platforms.

This wasn’t achieved through traditional advertising. Cluely built an army of “growth interns”—young content creators tasked with pumping out TikToks, memes, and viral posts daily. Each creator became a micro-distribution channel, creating a multiplier effect. Unlike conventional startups that burn money on paid ads, Cluely hacked culture itself to grow.

The Money Follows the Hype

The viral growth didn’t just attract users—it attracted investors. In record time, Cluely secured a $5.3 million seed round, co-led by Abstract Ventures and Susa Ventures. This was remarkable for a company with little more than a controversial reputation and a fast-growing user base.

But the real shock came only months later. Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), one of Silicon Valley’s most powerful venture firms, led a $15 million Series A round at a valuation of nearly $120 million.

This wasn’t just capital—it was validation. It showed that even the most conservative investors were willing to bet on a company whose very business model was built around challenging ethical norms. Cluely’s founders claimed they were already profitable, though skeptics questioned whether this was sustainable. Regardless, the numbers signaled one thing: controversy sells, and in the world of AI startups, speed plus virality can outweigh almost everything else.

Redefining Cheating: From Taboo to Tool

The heart of Cluely’s strategy lies in reframing. When critics accuse the company of promoting dishonesty, the founders respond by asking a simple question: Is using AI really cheating?

They draw parallels with calculators in math or spellcheck in writing. Both tools were once criticized for making people “lazy.” Today, no one questions their legitimacy. To Cluely, their app is just the next evolution of this cycle. In their view, job interviews, academic tests, and standardized assessments are outdated rituals that ignore how work is actually done. In a world where AI copilots are becoming the norm, shouldn’t success be measured by what you can produce with tools, not without them?

This ideological spin turned Cluely from a “cheating app” into something bigger: a cultural debate about fairness, technology, and the future of human evaluation.

The Backlash and Risks

But Cluely’s rise has not been without resistance. Many educators and employers remain deeply concerned. If AI can whisper answers during interviews, what stops it from undermining the credibility of every hiring process? Some ethicists warn that normalizing “cheating” corrodes trust in society. One expert put it bluntly: “If everyone’s cheating, why stop at the traffic light?”

There are also practical problems. Early users reported glitches, lag, and awkward delivery that sometimes made the AI more distracting than helpful. In other words, the product still has a long way to go before it can be relied on in high-stakes settings.

Even more threatening is the rise of counter-tools. At Columbia University, a group of students created Truely, an AI detection app designed to spot if someone is using tools like Cluely in real time. This arms race between cheating tools and detection tools could shape the entire sector.

For investors, the risks are massive. Analysts suggest Cluely is a binary bet: either it becomes a billion-dollar company redefining productivity, or it collapses under lawsuits, bans, and reputational damage.

Lessons for Entrepreneurs: The Rookie Lens

So what can we learn from Cluely’s meteoric rise?

First, controversy can be a moat. In crowded markets, being safe and boring often means being invisible. Cluely dared to be provocative, and that audacity built them a global audience in weeks.

Second, distribution can be more powerful than product. By building virality into their DNA, Cluely bypassed the need for massive ad budgets or years of product development. They proved that in the AI age, momentum itself can become defensibility.

Third, narrative framing matters. By comparing their tool to calculators and spellcheck, Cluely redefined “cheating” as “augmentation.” This narrative not only deflected criticism but also aligned the company with a broader technological shift.

Finally, risk is inseparable from reward. Cluely is playing on the edge—between innovation and scandal, between billion-dollar potential and total collapse. It’s a reminder that startups are not just businesses; they’re bets on where society is headed.

The Bigger Picture: Audacity as a Strategy

Cluely’s story is not just about an AI app. It’s about a cultural shift in how technology collides with norms. It asks uncomfortable questions: If AI is everywhere, does authenticity still matter? If everyone has access to “cheating tools,” is it really cheating anymore—or just the new baseline of productivity?

Cluely basically forces us to confront the paradoxes of progress. It is both a cautionary tale and a blueprint. It shows how outrage, speed, and boldness can create momentum that no competitor can easily replicate. But it also reminds us that audacity comes at a cost.

In the end, Cluely represents the raw energy of Gen-Z entrepreneurship: fearless, chaotic, controversial, but impossible to ignore. Whether it becomes the next billion-dollar AI company or a footnote in tech history, its story will be studied for years as an example of how culture, controversy, and capital intersect to shape the future.