Unique Research · Insight · June 14, 2024
For many organizations, slides are the language of persuasion — they close decisions, attract capital, and, when done poorly, create headaches. For people who dislike PowerPoint or lack design skills, AI-native tools like Gamma now turn text or documents into decks.
In a TikTok-shaped world, some even use Gamma for vertical presentations or modular sites. That helped the San Francisco startup reach 17 million customers and climb to #16 on Similarweb’s January AI-apps ranking — just behind Midjourney.
To fuel growth, Gamma raised $12M led by Accel (an early investor in Dropbox, Facebook, and Slack), bringing total funding to about $22.3M. Founder & CEO Grant Lee says Gamma’s goal is to push organizations past the traditional PowerPoint era. Unique Research compiled this Fast Company conversation with Lee.
Will presentations go vertical like TikTok and Instagram?
Grant Lee: Classic PowerPoint locks you into 16:9. In Gamma you can build fluid cards of any height, optimized for vertical or horizontal. “Plasticity” is what we’re learning — incumbent tools were designed for print and projection, when content had to fit a fixed screen.
Why raise when burn is near zero?
Lee: We’re a lean 16-person team in SF. Growth is fast and we’re profitable — cash burn is effectively zero. We didn’t raise for runway; we raised to deepen a partnership with Accel and to signal long-term commitment as we hire.
Most likely way to miss the $22M bar?
Lee: We’re chasing a huge market — 500M+ PowerPoint users globally, approaching 1B. Failure would mean we didn’t capture a meaningful share. Distribution still wins, and enterprises struggle to leave tools everyone already knows. Traditional decks still dominate. Even winning a niche may not fund the vision — so the failure mode is missing that ambition.
How can AI help people who fear presenting?
Lee: People hate live speaking — and even Loom, because one mistake means re-recording. What if the deck could present in your voice? Voice and visual avatars can deliver the content. That’s the magic of async share: customize for audiences, even languages. If creation feels light, people create more.
Interactivity?
Lee: You can add interactive elements. We plan polls and quizzes inside decks — to engage, measure understanding, and gather live feedback. Even offline, people can click and vote.
Which markets?
Lee: Early Notion-like trajectory: most users are outside the U.S. Europe (UK, Spain, Italy, Germany) is growing fast; Brazil in LatAm; Korea, Japan, and Taiwan in Asia; Australia and New Zealand starting. Many of these feel underserved.
From Stanford ME to CEO?
Lee: I started in consulting/IB — living in slides, cleaning decks at the last minute. Later as CFO I owned internal communication, mostly Google Slides, and kept asking why it was still so painful. We learn slides as kids, but the tools barely evolved. Decades of that frustration pushed me to rebuild presentation software.
Compiled from Fast Company; Unique Research editorial.