# Lee Robinson

> Lee Robinson is a developer educator and engineering leader who spent five years at Vercel scaling Next.js to over a million monthly active developers, rising from individual contributor to VP of Developer Experience. He now serves as Head of AI Education at Cursor, teaching developers how to build software with AI-powered tools. Known for creating free courses like Mastering Next.js and React 2025, his newsletter 'Optimism (for the web)' and 234K+ Twitter following reflect his belief that great technology should be easy to understand and interesting to learn.

- **Role:** Head of AI Education at Cursor
- **Organizations:** Cursor, Vercel (former), Iowa State University (alumni)
- **From:** Iowa, USA
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering, Iowa State University
- **Known for:** Scaled Next.js to 1+ million monthly active developers, Helped grow Vercel from 30 employees and $1M ARR to 650 employees and $200M+ ARR, Created Mastering Next.js course, widely recognized as the definitive Next.js learning resource

## Career timeline

- **2012** — Began studying Computer Engineering at Iowa State University
- **2016** — Graduated from Iowa State University with B.S. in Computer Engineering (3.5/4.0 GPA)
- **2017** — Joined Workiva as Software Engineer II, working with React
- **2018** — Joined Hy-Vee, Inc. as Senior Software Engineer, led digital storefront rebuild with React and React Native
- **2019** — Created Mastering Next.js course; began building public profile as developer educator
- **2020** — Joined Vercel in developer relations / developer experience role
- **2020** — Launched React 2025 course (later made free), teaching full SaaS app development
- **2021** — Spoke at Next.js Conf 2021 on 'Developer Experience of the Future'
- **2022** — Promoted to VP of Developer Experience at Vercel
- **2023** — Spoke at React Summit 2023 on 'Next.js Metamorphosis' - App Router changes; presented at SmashingConf SF
- **2024** — Delivered opening keynote at Next.js Conf 2024 as VP of Product at Vercel
- **2025** — Departed Vercel after 5 years; joined Cursor as Head of AI Education

## Achievements

- Scaled Next.js to 1+ million monthly active developers
- Helped grow Vercel from 30 employees and $1M ARR to 650 employees and $200M+ ARR
- Created Mastering Next.js course, widely recognized as the definitive Next.js learning resource
- Launched React 2025 course (later made free), teaching real-world SaaS development
- Built Twitter/X following of 234,500+ developers
- Progressed from individual contributor to VP at Vercel in 5 years
- Delivered keynote at Next.js Conf 2024
- Co-created the Next.js SaaS Starter template (github.com/nextjs/saas-starter)
- 7+ years of developer education content creation
- Featured in Lenny's Newsletter for beginner's guide to Cursor

## Latest updates

- **2025-07** — Joined Cursor as Head of AI Education, focusing on teaching developers how to build with AI-powered development tools
- **2025-06** — Departed Vercel after 5 years, published reflective essay on lessons learned
- **2024-10** — Delivered opening keynote at Next.js Conf 2024 as VP of Product at Vercel
- **2024-01** — Featured on Software Engineering Daily discussing Vercel AI

## Links

- Website: https://leerob.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leeerob/
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/leerob
- GitHub: https://github.com/leerob
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@leerob

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/lee-robinson
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-04-21