At first look, Cluely reads like a parody of startup tradition. A 21-year-old founder broadcasting viral movies about chatting on job interviews, relationship with AI overlay and internet hosting events shut down for “an excessive amount of aura”.
And but right here we’re: Andreessen Horowitz simply led a $15 million funding into the startup that turns an individual’s display into an invisible assistant — a type of real-time whisperer for conferences, gross sales calls and even exams.
Or at the least that’s what it desires to be. As a result of Cluely launched a story earlier than it launched a software. And someway, it’s working.
Name it a story first-growth. And it’s been a dialog starter in advert tech circles for the reason that funding information broke final week — much less due to what Cluely does, and extra due to the way it made folks concentrate. With out the spectacle, the argument goes, there’s no $120 million post-money valuation.
“Producing large consideration doesn’t essentially result in income however as soon as it does it may have a compounding impact — except the product itself sucks,” mentioned Joe Zappa, CEO and founding father of advertising and communications agency Sharp Pen Media.
For advert tech operators, that is unfamiliar terrain. The default continues to be to construct, take a look at then speak. However in a market the place everyone seems to be mid-pivot — from level options to platforms, from purchaser instruments to writer instruments (and again once more) — worth props are beginning to blur. AI solely accelerates the development. Because the expertise will get commoditized, so do the merchandise constructed on high of it.
“It’s all the time been the case, a lot to the chagrin of advert tech founders, that a greater product doesn’t result in a greater enterprise however that’s more true than ever now that AI is making it a lot simpler to construct merchandise,” mentioned Zappa.
Which is why Cluely’s second lands. It crystallizes one thing that the advert tech trade’s been circling round: in a crowded area, consideration is usually a moat.
Or as advertising professional James Kirkham put it: “It’s a cultural story, not a tech one the place they’ve tapped into one thing visceral i.e. anxiousness, burnout, the starvation for shortcuts.”
It would sound like spin, however Kirkham has some extent. That emotional shorthand — the viral clips, the headline-friendly provocations — is doing extra heavy lifting than the product itself. And that’s intentional. Cluely’s CEO Roy Chung has mentioned he solely hires for 2 roles — engineer or influencer, The remaining, apparently, is simply noise.
Feedback like that make advert tech veterans flinch. All of it feels too chaotic, too unserious, too slippery to scale. However possibly that’s the purpose.
This was an trade, in spite of everything, that when thrived on pace and ambiguity. It operated within the margins, constructed quick, marketed sooner and apprehensive in regards to the penalties later. Then got here the lawsuits, the regulators, the countless compliance decks. And someplace alongside the way in which, the storytelling stopped.
What’s left is an ecosystem filled with interchangeable platforms, sanitized messaging and the quiet hope that product alone will carry the story. It was an overcorrection — one which left little room for the type of provocation Cluely is now capitalizing on.
“As a result of you probably have 10 folks working at your organization, and all of them are producing a whole lot of hundreds or thousands and thousands of views you possibly can create an enormous lead based mostly on belief that then turns right into a sturdy lead,” mentioned Zappa.
Nonetheless, consideration isn’t the identical as endurance.
Cluely has a narrative, positive. However what it doesn’t have — but — is a working product. And even when it ships finally, the model it’s constructed comes with danger.
“It jogs my memory a little bit of what we’re seeing with a whole lot of corporations proper now claiming to have ‘agentic’ AI options and automatic workflows — however if you look beneath the hood, it’s usually only a deck and a demo,” mentioned Patel. “Hasn’t this sort of hype cycle been occurring for some time?”
He’s proper. Silicon Valley has lengthy rewarded founders who err on the aspect of spectacle. However the highway to a profitable exit isn’t paved in provocation alone. The sting is a robust place to market from — till you fall off.
That’s why advert tech’s warning is sensible. Controversy travels nicely on social media, however hardly ever in procurement conferences. CMOs, IT leads, compliance officers — they don’t signal contracts as a result of one thing went viral.
Patel will get that. At his advert tech agency SWYM, the method is slower, instructional movies on the dynamics and economics of programmatic promoting on LinkedIn, regular brand-building, no theatrics.
“For us at SWYM, the content material we’re placing out isn’t about being edgy for consideration, “ he continued. “It’s about educating and re-framing how folks take into consideration programmatic media and automation — and that’s why I’m fairly protecting of the narrative we’re constructing.”
The lesson isn’t to repeat Cluely’s tone. The dangers — regulatory, reputational, operational — are actual. The smarter takeaway is that this: consideration works greatest when it rides on high of one thing stable — a transparent voice, an outlined standpoint and a cause for folks to care.
“Having the ability to earn mindshare with a hype and a controversial place is wonderful however sooner or later it’s a must to ship,” mentioned Chris Ross, vp analyst at Gartner’s advertising apply. “There are many tales the place there was an amazing narrative however the product by no means actually delivered.”
