Cheat sheet

On Monday 16 June 2025, what Mr Lee estimated as 2,000 people queued for a party that was not officially happening. Cluely, a startup, had announced it by video on X, with a request to DM for an invite. The police, who had not been invited, closed it down because the queue was blocking traffic.^{4TechCrunchPolice shut down Cluely's party, the 'cheat at everything' startup17 Jun 2025} “We did some cleanup, but the drinks are all there waiting for the next party,” said Roy Lee, Cluely’s 21-year-old chief executive.^{3TechCrunchCluely, a startup that helps 'cheat on everything,' raises $15M from a16z20 Jun 2025,4TechCrunchPolice shut down Cluely's party, the 'cheat at everything' startup17 Jun 2025} Four days later the firm announced $15m from Andreessen Horowitz.^{3TechCrunchCluely, a startup that helps 'cheat on everything,' raises $15M from a16z20 Jun 2025}

Mr Lee’s route to venture capital ran through a disciplinary hearing. At Columbia University he and a co-founder, Neel Shanmugam, built Interview Coder, a hidden tool, invisible to the interviewer, that fed AI-generated answers to candidates in technical job interviews. Columbia suspended both, according to TechCrunch.^{1TechCrunchColumbia student suspended over interview cheating tool raises $5.3M to cheat on everything21 Apr 2025,3TechCrunchCluely, a startup that helps 'cheat on everything,' raises $15M from a16z20 Jun 2025} Mr Lee says he used the tool to land an internship at Amazon. Amazon declined to comment on his case but said candidates must agree not to use unauthorised tools.^{1TechCrunchColumbia student suspended over interview cheating tool raises $5.3M to cheat on everything21 Apr 2025} Columbia, citing student privacy, said nothing.^{1TechCrunchColumbia student suspended over interview cheating tool raises $5.3M to cheat on everything21 Apr 2025}

Two rounds in two months. Cluely, funding raised in 2025, $m

	Raised
Seed (April)	5.3
Series A (June)	15

Source: TechCrunch, 21 April and 20 June 2025¹³

The product that grew out of this is Cluely, a hidden window that a proctor or interviewer cannot see. In April Mr Lee announced the seed round of $5.3m, from Abstract Ventures and Susa Ventures, with a post: “Cluely is out. cheat on everything.”^{1TechCrunchColumbia student suspended over interview cheating tool raises $5.3M to cheat on everything21 Apr 2025} Two months later the Series A, which two investors outside the deal told TechCrunch values the firm at about $120m, was nearly three times the size of the seed.^{3TechCrunchCluely, a startup that helps 'cheat on everything,' raises $15M from a16z20 Jun 2025} TechCrunch reports that the company is profitable, on the strength of Mr Lee’s posts and podcast appearances; it gives no figures, and neither do we.^{3TechCrunchCluely, a startup that helps 'cheat on everything,' raises $15M from a16z20 Jun 2025}

We would not be too quick to treat this as a morality tale about the young. Cluely’s real product, so far, is attention. A tool that claims to be undetectable and tells the world to cheat is a reliable generator of outrage, and outrage is free distribution. Mr Lee has an instinct for the provocative post, which is less a criticism of his business than a description of it. The marketing is also evolving. By 29 April TechCrunch noted that references to cheating on exams and interviews had vanished from the firm’s website and manifesto, leaving sales calls and meetings. Mr Lee spoke of “redefining” the message for the “largest and most impactful markets”.^{2TechCrunchStartups launch products to catch people using AI cheating app Cluely29 Apr 2025}

Nor is the technology obviously a moat. Within days of the launch, rivals were selling to the other side. Validia, in San Francisco, released a free tool, Truely, that sounds an alarm when it detects Cluely, and Proctaroo, of Rhode Island, says its proctoring platform can see the running application.^{2TechCrunchStartups launch products to catch people using AI cheating app Cluely29 Apr 2025} Mr Lee’s answer is that detection is as futile as video-game anti-cheat, and that hardware, from smart glasses to “a brain chip”, will make software irrelevant.^{2TechCrunchStartups launch products to catch people using AI cheating app Cluely29 Apr 2025} The arms race is real. Whether anyone will pay for the weaponry is a question the $15m has been raised to answer.

The fair objection is that the firm profits from dishonesty. Employers who ask candidates to agree not to use unauthorised tools, as Amazon does,^{1TechCrunchColumbia student suspended over interview cheating tool raises $5.3M to cheat on everything21 Apr 2025} are entitled to expect it, and a candidate who deceives a firm to get hired has not done the firm a favour.

Yet the episode shows something about the target. The technical interview, with its timed puzzle solved by a candidate who will never meet such a puzzle at work, is an exam in a skill that is rarely the job. An AI that can pass it undetected measures how weak the test was. The sensible response to a cheating tool is to ask questions that cannot be pasted into one, such as having candidates reason aloud about someone else’s code. That costs interviewers more time. It is also the point.

Investors have bought a company, a brand and a young man with a gift for provocation. They have not obviously bought a durable product. If Cluely endures, it will be because the cheating turned out to be a marketing line, and the assistant underneath it something people wanted to use in the open.