Cluely bags $15M 🧠

What we’ll cover today:

• The “cheat-to-win” startup Cluely bags $15M from a16z 🧠

• Meta tries (and fails) to buy Perplexity, settles for $14.3B in Scale AI 💸

• Why SaaS founders are split on Cluely’s ethics vs execution ⚖️

• The YC afterparty that got 2,000 people shut down by police 🚔

Cluely raises $15M to help people “cheat” smarter 🤖

Cluely, a startup by two ex-Columbia students, just raised $15M from Andreessen Horowitz to grow their AI-powered "cheating" tools.

🚨 Breaking News:
Cluely helps users fake it till they make it, with AI whispering answers during interviews, exams, and sales calls.

⚡ Wire Simplified:

• Cluely was founded by Roy Lee (21) and Neel Shanmugam

• They got suspended from Columbia for building a tool that gamed coding interviews

• Their tool now helps people cheat on job interviews, exams, even dates (!)

• They posted a viral video lying on a date using AI (yes, that happened)

• The startup is already profitable and valued around $120M

✔️ Straight to the Point:
Cluely is betting big on the idea that AI can be your personal cheat code. Whether that’s clever or concerning is up to you.

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Meta wanted Perplexity but bought Scale AI instead 💸

Meta tried buying Perplexity AI, but when that didn’t work out, they invested $14.3B in Scale AI instead.

🚨 Breaking News:
Zuckerberg’s AI shopping spree continues. After Perplexity said no, Meta bought nearly half of Scale AI (no voting rights though).

⚡ Wire Simplified:

• Meta wanted to buy Perplexity but the deal fell through

• So they dropped $14.3B into Scale AI, taking a 49% stake

• Scale AI’s founder and a few team members will now work at Meta

• Meta also tried to acquire Safe Superintelligence earlier this year

• They’re aggressively poaching top AI talent with rumors of $100M signing bonuses

✔️ Straight to the Point:
Meta is throwing billions around like confetti to catch up in the AI race. But is money enough to beat OpenAI and Google?

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