Silicon Valley’s Hottest AI Metric Is Also Its Least Trusted

The co-founder of Cluely — an Andreessen Horowitz-backed startup with the motto, “Cheat on everything” — ignited a controversy earlier this month after confessing to lying to a reporter about his company’s performance on a popular Silicon Valley metric: annual recurring revenue, or ARR.

Cluely Chief Executive Officer Roy Lee told a TechCrunch reporter the company’s ARR doubled in one week to $7 million. Later on X, Lee said he “got a random cold call from some woman asking about numbers and told her some BS,” calling it “the only blatantly dishonest thing I’ve said publicly online.” He added that the post ...