a16z Podcast

Grant Lee: Building Gamma’s AI Presentation Company to 100 Million Users

Date: November 11, 2025
Podcast: a16z (Andreessen Horowitz)
Guest: Grant Lee (Co-founder & CEO, Gamma)
Hosts: Olivia, Ben, and Podcast Host/Narrator

Episode Overview

The episode explores Gamma’s meteoric rise from a pandemic-born startup to an AI-powered presentation platform serving nearly 100 million users and reaching $100 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR). Grant Lee shares candid stories from Gamma’s earliest fundraising rejections to the present-day product and culture decisions that powered Gamma’s rapid, organic, and profitable growth. The discussion covers Gamma’s differentiation in the crowded productivity space, its unique product and design philosophies, the role of AI, strategic decisions around growth, company building, and what’s next for the future of presentations.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Founding Story & Early Rejection

• Hard Beginnings: Grant shares a memorable fundraising rejection and the psychological impact of pitching against huge incumbents like Microsoft and Google:

  • “He basically says, this has got to be the worst idea I've ever heard. Not only are you going up against massive incumbents, they have ultimate distribution. There is no way you're going to compete against them.” [00:00]
  • Rejection led Grant to internalize key truths: building in a legacy-dominated field is incredibly tough, so growth must be intertwined with product from day one.

• Founding Amid Pandemic: Early Gamma pitches happened over Zoom from a cramped London flat after putting his kids to bed. Fundraising was “just done over Zoom...in the middle of the night.” [02:20]

2. How Gamma Differentiated: “Better to be Different than Better”

• Rejecting Incrementalism: Grant noticed that many failed presentation tools just tried to be “incrementally better slideware” but still clung to outdated paradigms (“the 16:9 prison” of PowerPoint).

  • “It's better to be different than better. And so for us, we wanted to be fundamentally different.” [06:58]

• Reimagining Presentations: Early innovations included abandoning static 16:9 slides, making content mobile-responsive, integrating multimedia and web elements, and enabling interactive, nonlinear storytelling.

  • “Why am I spending 90% of the time on the formatting and 10% of time on the content?” [10:58]

3. Product Philosophy: Intuitive, Accessible AI

• AI as an Enabler, Not a Crutch: Gamma didn’t simply add AI; it wove it into approachable, user-centric experiences, inspired by IDEO’s David Kelly and the “one-button mouse.”
  • “We’re right now maybe in the one button era of AI... It’s powerful but intimidating. And so we need to recognize that.” [05:25]
• Iterative User-Centered Design: Observing real user friction points and improving step by step.

4. Technological & UX Insights

• Role of AI: AI expedited and complemented Gamma's vision for fast, effortless content creation. Gamma balanced automation with human input, designing flows where users retain control.
  • “You want to be involved...it's your story you're telling, it's not the AI story.” [09:10]
• Evolution of Features: From single-player creation to collaborative (multiplayer) environments—mirroring both individual and business needs.

5. Massive Organic Growth: Flywheel Building

• Focus on Word of Mouth:
  • “The number one thing I always advise...focus on word of mouth. Don’t fool yourself into thinking of product market fit until you have strong word of mouth.” [25:00]
• Nailing First 30 Seconds:
  • Gamma spent months solely improving the first 30 seconds of user experience.
  • Growth exploded: “What took us eight months to get to 60,000 signups, within a few days we surpassed that...then 25,000 signups a day, 50,000 signups a day.” [25:00]
• Founder-Led Marketing: Grant personally onboarded every influencer, learning the craft before building a team.
  • “In this era it‘s really important to have founder led marketing...telling your story broadly in a way that is compelling.” [25:00]

6. Product Sequencing & Monetization Strategy

• From Prosumer to Enterprise:
  • Focused on winning “bottoms up” love—starting with prosumers before tackling B2B and enterprise.
  • Sought strong internal champions in prospective client organizations before scaling up enterprise efforts.
  • “Set yourself up for success if you can, and that’s where prosumer first is, is the...way you want to start.” [31:58]
• Pricing Evolution:
  • Initial growth focused solely on engagement; monetization came after validating product demand.
  • “We spent zero effort on the monetization piece...didn’t have a way for people to pay!” [28:53]
  • Adopted simple, familiar ChatGPT-style pricing, ensuring economical growth and rapid profitability (“three months to $1 million ARR and profitability”). [28:53]

7. Building the Team, Culture, and “Taste”

• Core Team Structure: The first seven hires formed a complete “MVP crew” with the DNA to iterate and execute end-to-end.
  • “Hire painfully slowly from the very beginning...it’s allowed us to maintain relatively lean, given our traction.” [37:00]
• Design-Led Culture: Up to 25% of the team was design (“I don’t think that’s common among startups.”) [40:15]
• What is “Taste” at Gamma?
  • Taste isn’t just visual; it’s the entire “restaurant experience.”
  • “Taste is really thinking about that entire experience. The moment you log into our product to the moment you’re sharing something with somebody else.” [41:35]

8. Founder's Hands-On Approach

• “Do the Job Yourself”: Grant stresses doing jobs personally (e.g., marketing, influencer onboarding) until you experience enough pain to justify a hire.
  • “If they're not both (strong technically and culturally), then they're not someone that we're going to work with at Gamma.” [37:00]
  • “I was onboarding every single influencer myself.” [44:32]
• Founder as Face of the Brand: Grant stars in Gamma’s launch videos, embracing founder-led communication, embodying the company’s “don’t be boring” culture.
  • “No one will ever care as much about the brand as you do.” [47:45]

9. Product Evolution: AI Agent, Teams & API

• Gamma 3.0: Launching agents that serve as design partners, collaborative teams, and an API for automated, data-driven content generation.
  • “We can actually serve businesses of all sizes now...going from single player to multiplayer mode, from prosumer tool to business application.” [16:33]
• API Use Cases: Meeting notes to presentations, CRM-to-decks automation, real estate listing printouts—Gamma serves as the content infrastructure layer. [19:42]

10. Measuring Product Impact & User Stories

• Feature Feedback Loops: Public Canny board, “Gambassador” Slack, and “Gammarama” internal usage rituals drive honest product feedback.
• Personal and Business Use Cases: Internal tradition of “Gammarama” has staff presenting on personal hobbies, business users creating sales decks, and families making digital scrapbooks as sentimental gifts. [51:25]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Incumbents:
  “He basically says, this has got to be the worst idea I've ever heard...there is no way you're going to compete against them.” — Grant Lee [00:00]
• On Growth Philosophy:
  “It's better to be different than better.” — Grant Lee [06:58] “Don't fool yourself into thinking of product market fit until you have strong word of mouth.” — Grant Lee [25:00]
• On AI UX:
  “We're right now maybe in the one button era of AI.” — Grant Lee [05:25]
• On Company Culture:
  “Hire painfully slowly from the very beginning.” — Grant Lee [37:00] “Make it dead simple to create, dead simple to share. If you do that, you complete the flywheel.” — Grant Lee [35:52]
• On Taste and Design:
  “Taste is really thinking about that entire experience. The moment you log into our product to the moment you're actually sharing something with somebody else, your colleague.” — Grant Lee [41:35]
• On Founder-Led Execution:
  “If you've not done the job yourself, how do you know what you're hiring for?” — Ben (referencing a classic quote) [43:36] “I was onboarding every single influencer myself.” — Grant Lee [44:32]
• On Brand Building:
  “No one will ever care enough, you know, as much about the brand as probably you do.” — Grant Lee [47:45]

Timestamps for Important Segments

• Early Rejection & Fundraising Lessons: [00:00 – 02:12]
• Product Philosophy: “Better to be Different…” / User Onboarding: [06:58 – 10:37]
• How AI Shapes Presentations & User Experience: [05:25 – 13:19]
• Organic Growth, Word of Mouth, and Viral Loops: [25:00 – 28:32]
• Monetization Story & ARR Growth: [28:53 – 31:11]
• Sequencing: Prosumer to B2B & Enterprise: [31:58 – 33:55]
• Bottoms-Up Love and Network Effects: [34:03 – 35:52]
• Building the Team, Culture, and Taste: [37:00 – 41:35]
• The Importance of Doing the Job Yourself: [43:36 – 46:51]
• Founder-Led Brand & Marketing: [47:45 – 49:03]
• Personal and Work Use Cases, “Gammarama” Stories: [49:14 – 52:07]

Episode Highlights & Takeaways

• Gamma’s rise was not due to “better” slideware, but by fundamentally reinventing presentations with AI—storytelling, fluid formats, interactivity, and effortless UX.
• Intense focus on early user experience (the first 30 seconds) directly enabled explosive, organic, and durable growth.
• Painfully slow hiring, founder-led marketing, and a deeply design-centric culture enabled both agility and quality at scale.
• Monetization followed demonstrated value; pricing was pragmatic and simple, echoing what users already understood.
• Gamma’s philosophy that “taste” is the entire user journey, not just how slides look, results in products that are both powerful and delightful to use.
• Strategic patience—starting with prosumers and leveraging their passion—allowed Gamma to cross into the enterprise with momentum and champions already in place.

This episode is a masterclass in product-led growth, finding your differentiation in a world of entrenched incumbents, scaling taste and culture, and empowering users—both designers and non-designers alike—to communicate visually at a new level.