# Chungin Lee

> Chungin 'Roy' Lee is the 21-year-old Korean-American CEO and co-founder of Cluely, the AI startup that went viral in April 2025 with the tagline 'cheat on everything.' After having his Harvard acceptance rescinded in high school and later being suspended from Columbia University for academic integrity violations tied to Interview Coder - an AI tool he built to help engineers pass technical interviews - Lee dropped out, rebranded the product as Cluely, and raised $20.3M including a $15M Series A from Andreessen Horowitz. Cluely is a real-time AI meeting assistant that monitors screen content and audio to provide invisible live coaching during meetings, interviews, and sales calls.

- **Role:** CEO and Co-Founder at Cluely
- **Organizations:** Cluely, Columbia University (formerly), Interview Coder
- **From:** Atlanta, Georgia, United States
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** Computer Science (dropped out), Columbia University, Attended after Harvard rescission, Diablo Valley College
- **Known for:** Raised $20.3M total funding including $15M Series A from a16z at approximately $120M valuation, Grew Cluely to 70,000 user signups within its first week of launch, Created one of the most viral AI startup launches of 2025 with 'cheat on everything' campaign

## Career timeline

- **2022** — Harvard University rescinds admission offer after Lee was caught sneaking out on a high school field trip; police were called and he was arrested
- **2022-2023** — Attends Diablo Valley College as an alternative path
- **2023** — Enrolls at Columbia University to study computer science
- **2024-2025** — Co-creates Interview Coder with Neel Shanmugam - a Chrome extension providing real-time AI assistance during technical job interviews
- **2025** — Uses Interview Coder in an Amazon technical interview, records it on YouTube, receives offer - which Amazon later rescinds after Columbia reports him
- **March 2025** — Columbia University suspends Lee for one year for academic integrity violation; he and co-founder Neel Shanmugam drop out
- **April 2025** — Rebrands Interview Coder as Cluely; launches with tagline 'cheat on everything'; 70,000 signups in first week; raises $5.3M seed from Abstract Ventures and Susa Ventures
- **June 2025** — Raises $15M Series A from Andreessen Horowitz; company reaches approximately $120M estimated valuation
- **2025** — Speaks at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025; advises founders 'you should never share revenue numbers'
- **March 2026** — Publicly admits to lying about Cluely's ARR - claimed $7M in 2025 when actual revenue was approximately $5.2M; posts Stripe screenshots as evidence

## Achievements

- Raised $20.3M total funding including $15M Series A from a16z at approximately $120M valuation
- Grew Cluely to 70,000 user signups within its first week of launch
- Created one of the most viral AI startup launches of 2025 with 'cheat on everything' campaign
- Built and scaled a content marketing engine with 60+ content creators and 700 video editors
- Reached approximately $5.2M in revenue within first year of Cluely launch
- Spoke at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025
- Built Interview Coder while still a Columbia undergraduate student
- Grew Twitter/X following to 150,000+ followers through strategic viral content

## Latest updates

- **2026-03** — Publicly admitted to lying about Cluely's ARR - claimed $7M in 2025, actual revenue was approximately $5.2M ($2.7M consumer, $2.5M enterprise)
- **2025-06** — Closed $15M Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz, bringing total funding to $20.3M
- **2025-04** — Launched Cluely (rebranded from Interview Coder) with 'cheat on everything' campaign; raised $5.3M seed round
- **2025-03** — Suspended from Columbia University for academic integrity violations related to Interview Coder; dropped out with co-founder Neel Shanmugam

## Links

- Website: https://cluely.com
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/roy-lee-goat
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/im_roy_lee
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/im_roy_lee/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/chungin-lee
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-07