The Columbia dropout who outsmarted Big Tech

Roy Lee’s interview app cost him a degree—then launched a $15 million startup

Roy Lee, a 21-year-old South Korean studying computer science at Columbia University, was offered a job interview with Amazon earlier this year. The offer was swiftly rescinded.

The reason: Interview Coder, an artificial intelligence app Lee had developed—and used—during the virtual interview. The tool generated real-time answer suggestions and created the illusion that the user was looking directly at the camera, even when reading off-screen.

Essentially a high-tech cheating assistant, Interview Coder drew immediate backlash after Lee uploaded a full demonstration of the interview to social media. Critics from the tech community slammed the stunt as deceptive and unethical. Lee later said he never intended to secure the job; his aim was to test the app in a real-world setting. In March, Columbia University suspended him for one year. According to reports, Amazon told the school it would suspend recruiting from Columbia unless disciplinary action was taken.

Cluely founder Roy Lee./Cluely

The incident triggered a wider debate in the tech world. Some questioned whether it was fair to punish a student for creatively deploying AI in a system that already embraces automation. Others asked why a top tech company failed to detect the cheating in the first place.

Lee ultimately dropped out of Columbia and co-founded a startup called Cluely with two classmates. In a July 9 video interview with The Chosun Ilbo, he said: “We launched in April, secured $5.3 million right away, and closed a $15 million round on June 20.”

The company operates under a deliberately provocative slogan: “Cheat On Everything.” Its main product—an evolved version of Interview Coder—now provides job applicants with AI-generated answers, relevant background information, and contextual prompts during live video interviews, without the interviewer’s knowledge. As of late June, Cluely had more than 70,000 paying subscribers.

“Our app will soon be as common as calculators or spellcheckers,” Lee said. “Why memorize answers or write code manually when AI can do it in seconds?”

Lee immigrated to the U.S. at the age of three with his parents, who worked in the jewelry business. Asked whether his path would have been different had he grown up in South Korea, he said, “I probably would’ve focused on getting into a good college and landing a corporate job. I don’t think I’d have dropped out and started a company at this age.”

From the start, Lee said, entrepreneurship outweighed academics in his mind. “I took so many programming classes, but none of them were useful. Nothing I learned in school applies to what I’m doing now,” he said. “Since launching Cluely, I’ve learned and experienced more than ever.”

He now lives with his teammates near Cluely’s office in San Francisco, working around the clock.

Lee said he originally hadn’t planned to attend college, but was persuaded by his parents. “They had the typical Korean mindset—‘you still need a degree,’” he said. “In Korea, if you’re smart, people expect you to become a doctor or work for a big company.”

“In the U.S., startups are encouraged—even if you fail, you can try again. I’ve heard Korea is less forgiving,” he added. “This is only the beginning, but I don’t think any of this would’ve been possible if I were still in Korea.”

Now, Lee says perceptions are changing. “I hope more young Koreans take bold steps to enter the U.S. market,” he said.