Grant Lee spent years crafting presentations as a consultant and investment banker. Now his AI startup, Gamma, is transforming how other businesses communicate.
After earning his mechanical engineering degree from Stanford University, Lee spent nearly a decade in finance. The global shift to remote work in 2020 quickly exposed the limits of traditional presentations—and his combined tech and financial expertise pointed to a solution.
Lee’s experience ranged from helping to scale Optimizely to joining the small startup ClearBrain. “During the pandemic, I had a chance to reflect on what I wanted to do next,” he said.
After seeing startups from multiple angles, Lee knew he wanted to be a founder himself. “I wanted to start at ground zero,” Lee said, “and really build a company from the ground up.”
Setting the deck straight: Co-founding Gamma
Lee found himself immersed in advisory work in 2020, spending countless hours with slide decks—and that’s when the idea for Gamma crystallized.
“Slides and presentations end up becoming the language of business. It’s how ideas and information spreads, and it’s often how decisions are made. That part of it has always fascinated me.” –Grant Lee, Co-Founder and CEO of Gamma
Lee was living in London at the time and reached out to former Optimizely colleagues James Fox and Jon Noronha, who were still based in San Francisco. They all agreed that building this startup required in-person collaboration.
“A lot of our early bets were that we felt like San Francisco was still going to be the hub for where innovation happens,” Lee said.
In a converted two-bedroom apartment in San Francisco, Gamma was created.
“Honestly, it’s kind of crazy to think back,” Lee said. “We worked in different rooms because it was a shelter-in-place time and we had to buy massive air filters.”
The team secured seed funding in 2021, launching a public beta in 2022.
To learn more about how we support startups like Gamma, connect with a Startup Banking expert.
From beta to breakthrough: Achieving growth with AI and J.P. Morgan
Throughout 2022, Gamma refined its product with beta customers. But when Gamma integrated artificial intelligence in March 2023, growth exploded—the startup gained 10 million users in just nine months.
“When you think about the traditional sort of presentation tools like slides, you’re often faced with this blank canvas—and the majority of us are not visual designers,” Lee said. “Integrating AI and continuing to innovate on our product’s initial building blocks has allowed us to deliver on the promise we wanted to: make things simpler and faster for our users.”
Yet March 2023 brought turbulent times for the startup ecosystem. The launch coincided with March 2023’s market volatility in regional banks, testing startups nationwide.
“I remember sitting in one of the corners of that two-bedroom apartment, two weeks away from our biggest launch—the AI launch—and not knowing if we could even make payroll,” Lee said.
With its accounts caught in the regional banking turmoil, Gamma needed a swift solution. Lee reached out to a former investment banking colleague at J.P. Morgan. “He put me in touch with the team that eventually got us all set up. It was very quick and responsive. We jumped on a call, and we were off to the races after that,” Lee said.
Now with 30 million users worldwide, Gamma continues to expand. “I’m excited on all fronts. The technology is advancing so quickly, and we’re just scratching the surface in terms of what the capabilities will be,” Lee said.
Take your presentations to the next level. J.P. Morgan Startup Banking clients can access a Gamma discount through our Startup Offers platform.
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