Cluely, a fast-growing startup in Silicon Valley, recently announced that its annual recurring revenue (ARR) quickly surged to about $7 million after launching a new enterprise product. This growth rate has excited the founder Roy Lee, who told TechCrunch: "Everyone who has a meeting or interview is testing this product."
Cluely uses artificial intelligence to analyze online conversations, providing real-time meeting notes, background information, and question suggestions, all subtly displayed on users' screens without others noticing.
Before the launch of the new product, Lee proudly stated that the company's annual revenue had exceeded $3 million and was profitable. He pointed out that this growth trend was driven by attention from both consumers and enterprises.
Image source note: The image is AI-generated, and the image licensing service provider is Midjourney.
However, Cluely's path to success has not been smooth. In the early days of its founding, Lee was banned from Columbia University for developing cheating tools with his partner, but he turned this into an opportunity to launch a product called "Help You Cheat," which quickly sparked controversy. Today, the company has received support from well-known venture capital firms such as Andreessen Horowitz, Abstract Ventures, and Susa Ventures, and has adjusted its marketing slogan to "Everything is here before you ask."
Despite the controversy, Lee believes it has not affected companies' interest in Cluely's products. He revealed that a recent company has doubled its annual contract with Cluely to $2.5 million, although he did not disclose the company's name.
Cluely's enterprise version is similar to the consumer version, but it includes additional team management and security settings features, suitable for scenarios such as sales calls, customer support, and remote tutoring. Lee mentioned that the most popular feature among Cluely's customers is its ability to record meetings in real time.
"Meeting notes have always been a very popular AI application, but most products provide them after the meeting," Lee said. "You want to be able to view the notes in real time during the meeting, which is exactly our advantage."
However, it seems that Cluely's real-time recording function is not difficult to replicate. Last Thursday, a company named Pickle announced on social media the launch of a free open-source product called Glass, which has similar functions to Cluely. After its release, the product quickly gained over 850 stars and was forked nearly 150 times, showing strong interest from the open-source developer community in this free version.
It remains to be seen whether Cluely can continue its rapid growth in the face of these free competitors in the future.
