Cluely CEO Roy Lee admits to publicly lying about revenue numbers last year
The $7 million in annual recurring revenue that Cluely co-founder and CEO Roy Lee shared with TechCrunch last summer was a lie, Lee admitted on Thursday on X. Wrote Lee, this “is the only blatantly dishonest thing i’ve said publicly online, so this is my formal retraction.” Yet his post on X also misrepresents the backstory of how and why he told TechCrunch his ARR in the first place. Lee says in that same post that he “got a random cold call from some woman asking about numbers and told her some bs, did not expect an article about it.” But that call occurred because Cluely’s public relations representative emailed TechCrunch and offered to make Lee available for a story. On Friday, Jun 27, 2025 at 8:38 a.m., Cluely’s PR person sent an email to TechCrunch reporter Marina Temkin that said, “I’d love to arrange an interview with Roy. Whether for a deeper dive into Cluely’s next phase or a fresh angle on his vision, we’d be happy to make it happen.” Temkin agreed. The PR …





