Roy Lee, also known as Chungin Roy Lee, is the co founder and chief executive of Cluely, an AI company best known for real time meeting assistance and its deliberately provocative marketing around the idea of “cheating on everything.”
Before Cluely, Lee and co founder Neel Shanmugam built Interview Coder while studying at Columbia University. The project became controversial because it was designed to provide hidden AI help during technical job interviews.
How Roy Lee became known online
Lee first gained widespread attention through demonstrations of Interview Coder. The tool could read the context of a coding interview and provide suggested solutions without appearing in a normal screen share.
He also publicised the conflict that followed with Columbia and employers, which turned the product into a much larger online story than a normal student software project.
What happened at Columbia?
Columbia Spectator reported in April 2025 that Lee and Shanmugam faced disciplinary proceedings over Interview Coder.
Lee received a one year suspension. After the proceedings, both founders left Columbia rather than continuing their studies there.
That episode is often simplified online into claims that Lee was “expelled.” The more precise account from the university newspaper is that he received a suspension and then dropped out.
From Interview Coder to Cluely
The founders expanded the idea beyond software engineering interviews. Cluely was built as a general real time AI assistant that can listen to conversations, use screen context and provide answers during meetings, sales calls and other live situations.
The product’s controversial origin became part of the brand. Rather than distancing itself from the cheating debate, Cluely used it in marketing and turned the argument into attention.
The funding timeline
- 2025 seed round: Cluely raised US$5.3 million in a round co led by Abstract Ventures and Susa Ventures.
- June 2025: Andreessen Horowitz led a US$15 million Series A.
- Reported valuation: TechCrunch reported that investors believed the Series A valued Cluely at around US$120 million after the investment, although that figure was not publicly confirmed by a16z.
Why Cluely grew so quickly
Lee has been unusually open about treating attention as part of the product strategy.
Andreessen Horowitz described Cluely as a startup where virality was built into distribution. The company used provocative short videos, public arguments and a founder persona that kept the product circulating on social media.
That approach is polarising, but it helped a very young software company become widely recognised in a crowded AI market.
What does Roy Lee actually run?
Cluely now sells a live AI meeting assistant rather than only an interview tool. Its product can generate notes, answer questions during a conversation and use previous meeting context.
The company still markets screen share invisibility as a paid feature, which means the ethical debate around disclosure has not disappeared.
See our full Cluely explainer for what the software does today and the difference between a legitimate product and permitted use.
Why he remains controversial
Supporters see Lee as an aggressive founder willing to challenge old rules around how people use AI. Critics argue that products designed to hide assistance can undermine interviews, exams and other situations where independent performance matters.
Both views explain why Lee gets more attention than a typical founder at a company of Cluely’s size.
What this profile does not claim
Holyprofweb is not using unverified net worth estimates or family details. Those figures are commonly copied across biography websites without reliable sourcing.
The useful public story is the company, the Columbia disciplinary case, the funding and the way Lee built attention around the product.
For more founder profiles, see Holyprofweb’s People section.