22-year-old quits ₹2.7 crore 'dream job', says 12-hour workdays drained him

The Chief Marketing Officer of Cluely has quit the AI startup, citing 12-hour workdays among his reasons

The Chief Marketing Officer of Cluely has quit the AI startup, citing 12-hour workdays among his reasons. Daniel Min, 22, said that grinding 12 hours a day caused him to miss important moments of life — like getting dinner with his friends or surprising his brother on his birthday.

Daniel Min, 22, has resigned as the CMO of Cluely, an AI startup headquartered in New York.

Min helmed the marketing team at Cluely for just eight months before stepping down from the position. He gave up a lucrative salary in the process — according to an Instagram video he shared one day ago, he was being paid over $300,000 a year ( ₹2.7 crore approximately).

“Grinding 12 hours a day”

Daniel Min, a content creator, joined Cluely as its CMO in May 2025. He was just 21 at the time, having recently graduated from The Wharton School with a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing and Operations Management.

Within four months, things started to “go downhill” for Min.

“I thought working all day, grinding 12 hours a day was what you should be doing when you're at the age of 21,” he said in his Instagram video. “But I started to quickly miss small freedoms like getting dinner with my friends or surprising my brother for his 12th birthday.”

Min explained that he initially enjoyed the work he was doing. A few months down the line, however, it started to feel monotonous. A feeling of ennui set in for the 22-year-old.

“As a leader at the company, I wanted to put my all into it, and in the beginning, the work was super fun, but over time, slowly, it started to get a little bit more monotonous,” he said.

Eventually, the CEO of Cluely, Roy Lee, noticed his dissatisfaction and pulled him aside.

“I thought about it for a second, and that's when I mustered up the courage to tell Roy, I've been thinking for a while of leaving, and I proceeded to start crying,” Min revealed.

For his part, Roy was supportive and encouraged his CEO to choose what makes him happy. Min expressed his gratitude towards the CEO of Cluely. “There's probably no one else who has looked out for me more than Roy, but it broke me to realize that being at Cluely, this little brotherhood that I spent literally 12 hours a day living with wasn't the ladder that I wanted to climb,” he said.