Cluely’s ARR doubled in a week to $7M, founder Roy Lee says. But rivals are coming.

Cluely, the Silicon Valley AI startup that has rapidly become a sensation, has announced an extraordinary surge in its annual recurring revenue (ARR), hitting approximately $7 million just one week after the launch of its new enterprise product. Founder Roy Lee shared this remarkable achievement with TechCrunch, stating, “Every single person who has a meeting or an interview is testing this out.”

Known for its innovative AI tools that analyze online conversations, Cluely provides real-time notes, contextual information, and suggests relevant questions discreetly on a user’s screen, unbeknownst to others in the conversation.

Prior to this latest milestone, Lee had already garnered attention by revealing the company’s ARR had surpassed $3 million and that the startup was profitable. The recent explosion in interest, according to Lee, stems from both individual consumers and large businesses recognizing the utility of Cluely’s offerings.

Cluely’s journey has been marked by controversy from its inception. Founder Roy Lee gained notoriety after a viral X (formerly Twitter) thread detailed his suspension from Columbia University. Lee and a co-founder had developed a tool to assist with software engineer job interviews, initially marketing the subsequent product with the provocative tagline: “cheat on everything.” However, with significant backing from prominent venture capitalists such as Andreessen Horowitz, Abstract Ventures, and Susa Ventures, the company has refined its marketing to a more nuanced message: “Everything You Need. Before You Ask. … This feels like cheating.”

Despite its polarizing past, which contributed to its rise as a Silicon Valley phenomenon through “rage-bait marketing,” Lee asserts that businesses are embracing Cluely’s product. He disclosed that a public company recently doubled its annual contract with Cluely to $2.5 million, though he declined to name the client.

The enterprise version of Cluely’s product builds upon its consumer counterpart, incorporating advanced features like team management and enhanced security settings. Its applications span various business use cases, including optimizing sales calls, streamlining customer support, and facilitating remote tutoring sessions.

According to Lee, the most compelling feature for customers is Cluely’s unparalleled ability to generate real-time meeting notes. “Meeting notes have been a proven very sticky, very interesting AI use case. The only problem with them is they’re all post-call,” Lee explained, contrasting Cluely with competitors. “You want to look back at them in the middle of a meeting, and that is what we offer.”

However, Cluely’s rapid ascent is not without its challenges. The innovative real-time notetaker, a cornerstone of its appeal, may face swift replication. On Thursday, Pickle, a company known for its “digital clone factory” approach, announced on X the development of Glass. Glass is an open-source, free product that offers functionality strikingly similar to Cluely’s. Within hours of its release, Glass garnered over 850 stars and nearly 150 forks on development platforms, signaling a strong interest from the open-source community.

The coming months will be crucial in determining whether Cluely’s impressive growth trajectory can withstand the emergence of free, open-source alternatives like Glass, as the competitive landscape for real-time AI assistance intensifies.