In San Francisco, a new currency is quietly replacing traditional tech skills like coding and data analysis. It's not a cryptocurrency or a new software framework, but a personality trait venture capitalists are now desperately seeking: 'agency.' This drive to act decisively and push through obstacles, regardless of permission or consensus, is reshaping who gets funded in a world increasingly dominated by artificial intelligence.
This shift is personified by figures like Chungin “Roy” Lee, the controversial co-founder of the AI startup Cluely. His company, which offers an AI tool to assist in everything from job interviews to dating, has attracted millions in funding not for its flawless product, but for Lee's aggressive, attention-grabbing tactics. It highlights a growing belief in the tech world: as AI automates thinking, the future belongs to those who simply *do*.
Key Takeaways
- Silicon Valley is prioritizing a personality trait called 'agency'—the ability to act decisively and overcome obstacles—over traditional technical skills.
- This shift is driven by the belief that AI will soon automate most knowledge-based work, making human initiative the most valuable asset.
- Startups like Cluely, founded by Roy Lee, exemplify this trend, gaining significant funding through controversial marketing and the founder's 'agentic' personality rather than a polished product.
- The focus on 'agency' is creating a new class of tech founders who are often young, aggressive, and adept at using social media to generate hype and attract investment.
- Critics worry this trend could lead to a future where thoughtful, methodical work is devalued in favor of impulsive action and viral stunts.
The New Silicon Valley Doctrine
The streets of San Francisco are a strange tapestry of futuristic ambitions and present-day struggles. Billboards advertise arcane B2B services to a startup ecosystem, while the city's social problems are on full display. Amid this backdrop, a new philosophy is taking hold in the venture capital world.
The core idea is that humanity is approaching a 'bifurcation event.' In this future, AI will handle most cognitive tasks—from writing code to developing business strategies. Qualities like intelligence and expertise, once the bedrock of the tech meritocracy, are becoming commodities. According to this view, even the most brilliant engineer will offer little advantage over an average person when both have access to superhuman AI.
What AI can't replicate, at least for now, is a uniquely human trait: agency. This is described as the innate drive to execute ideas, to push through barriers, and to change the world without waiting for permission. It's a quality now being explicitly sought in tech interviews, where candidates are often asked if they consider themselves 'mimetic' (following others) or 'agentic' (self-directed).
What is 'Agency' in Tech?
In Silicon Valley's current lexicon, 'agency' refers to a specific combination of ambition, initiative, and a relentless drive to achieve goals. An 'agentic' individual doesn't wait for a perfect plan or consensus. They identify a problem or opportunity and act immediately, often using aggressive and unconventional methods to get results. Venture capitalists are betting that this trait is the one human skill that AI cannot easily replace.
Roy Lee and the Cluely Phenomenon
No one embodies this new ideal more than Chungin “Roy” Lee. Lee first gained notoriety as a Columbia University undergraduate. He used AI to complete his coursework and even his college application essay. His first startup, Interview Coder, was a tool designed to cheat on the technical interviews required by major tech companies.
To promote it, he filmed himself using the tool to successfully pass an internship interview with Amazon. After declining the offer, he posted the video online, which quickly went viral. A subsequent disciplinary hearing with Columbia, which he also filmed and posted, led to his suspension. Instead of seeing this as a setback, Lee dropped out, rebranded his tool as Cluely, and moved to San Francisco, where he raised tens of millions in venture capital.
"I knew since the moment I gained consciousness that I would go start a company one day," Lee stated, explaining his lifelong ambition. "I find it hard to sit still in classes, and I feel an internal, indescribable fury when someone tells me what to do."
Cluely's product is an AI assistant that overlays on-screen activities, providing real-time prompts for what to say in meetings, on dates, or during job interviews. Its marketing has been intentionally provocative, including an ad where Lee uses AI-fed lines to manipulate a woman on a blind date. The company's manifesto boldly declares: "The future won’t reward effort. It’ll reward leverage."
Despite the product being described as unreliable and glitchy, investors have flocked to Lee. His story is a testament to the new reality: a compelling, agentic narrative can be more valuable than a functional product.
The Culture of Agency
The environment Lee cultivates at Cluely reflects his ethos. The office, where many employees also live, is a mix of a frat house and a startup incubator. The pantry is stocked with protein shakes and bars, with Lee noting, "It’s impossible to get fat at Cluely. Nothing here has any fat." The focus is on relentless self-optimization, not for personal well-being, but for entrepreneurial performance.
Life Inside Cluely
- Live-Work Environment: Many staff members, including Roy Lee, live in the office.
- Focus on Fitness: A gym is on-site, and the pantry is filled exclusively with high-protein, zero-fat foods.
- Unconventional Decor: The office is decorated with anime figurines and Labubu dolls, which Lee explains are there because "women love Labubus."
- Aggressive Dating Culture: Employees are encouraged to go on frequent dates, which can be expensed to the company, as Lee believes "nothing motivates people more than getting laid."
This culture extends to other young founders who have embraced the 'agency' mindset. Eric Zhu, who started a venture capital fund from his high school bathroom by pretending to have prostate issues, is another example. At eighteen, he now runs a company called Sperm Racing, which hosts live events where viewers watch sperm samples race through a microscopic maze.
Like Lee, Zhu's success comes less from a specific technical skill and more from a brazen willingness to act. "I was just bored," Zhu said when asked why he started his first ventures. "I think anyone genuinely can" do what he did. This sentiment captures the essence of the agency movement: the barriers to entry are not technical, but psychological.
The Rationalist Counterpoint and the AI Dilemma
While some champion this new era of action-oriented founders, others view it with caution. The rationalist community, a Bay Area subculture focused on logic and probability, has long warned about the dangers of artificial intelligence. Scott Alexander, a central figure in the movement, notes the paradox of AI development.
"Humans are great at agency and terrible at book learning," Alexander explained. "The AIs are the opposite." Current AI models can absorb and process vast amounts of information but struggle with simple, independent actions—a phenomenon demonstrated when an AI failed miserably at running a vending machine or playing Pokémon.
Alexander worries that the human desire to offload difficult decisions onto AI could lead to a loss of our own agency, a kind of voluntary submission to machine logic. He describes it as a way to avoid "this terrifying encounter with their own humanity." His best-case scenario for AI is one that acts as a wise but distant guide, refusing to solve all our problems to preserve the very human struggle that builds character and initiative.
This stands in stark contrast to Roy Lee's vision of an AI that frictionlessly provides whatever a user wants, a world he admits would result in "rapid inequality." The clash between these two philosophies—one advocating for careful thought and the other for relentless action—defines the central tension in Silicon Valley today.
As Cluely relocates to New York after facing pushback in San Francisco, the question remains whether this new wave of 'agentic' founders represents the future of innovation or a dangerous bubble fueled by hype and personality. For now, the money is flowing not to the most skilled coders, but to those who, for better or worse, are unafraid to act.