AI cheating startup Cluely CEO calls work-life balance a myth, says work should be your life
It's a sentiment echoed by Silicon Valley veterans. LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman has said that anyone expecting work-life balance at a startup probably isn't cut out for it. Hoffman's message indicates that if you want to succeed in the startup world, you need to be fully consumed by it. The focus, he insists, must stay firmly on the business. 'It's incredibly tough, and there are countless ways a business can fail,' he cautions, urging aspiring founders to recognise that building a company from the ground up is a relentless and demanding pursuit.advertisement'There are only two kinds of people here,' Lee explained on a recent episode of the Sourcery podcast. 'You're either creating the product, or you're making sure the world can't stop talking about it.' The company, based in San Francisco, employs just engineers and influencers, no marketing departments, no sales teams, no middle managers. And if you don't fall neatly into either camp? According to Lee, you don't belong at Cluely.The startup initially grabbed attention with an eyebrow-raising promise, to help software engineers 'cheat' their way through job interviews. That pitch, which saw Lee briefly suspended from Columbia University over a prototype of the tool, generated both headlines and controversy. Cluely has since scrubbed overt references to 'cheating' from its website, but its core proposition remains the same, AI that quietly feeds users answers in real time by watching their screens, all while staying 'undetectable.'Lee's ambitions for Cluely go far beyond the niche world of technical interviews. The young founder believes the company's success hinges not on slick advertising, but on achieving what he calls cultural relevance. 'Our goal is to be everywhere, the biggest thing on TikTok, Instagram, you name it,' Lee said. 'It's not about polished campaigns. It's about understanding what makes people click, laugh, and share.'And that's where Cluely's influencer-heavy strategy comes in. 'You can hire marketers who've been scrolling for years, but they just don't get it the way someone truly plugged into online culture does,' Lee told Business Insider. 'The people creating these viral moments aren't sat in an office somewhere planning ads — they're living it.' His target? A billion views across platforms. - Ends
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