Grant Lee (Gamma)

Lee was born in New York City and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area.⁠[1]

He earned a bachelor’s degree in biomechanical engineering and a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Stanford UniversityStanford UniversityStanford University is a research university in California founded by Leland and Jane Stanford in 1885 and opened in 1891.Open the full entry, and then worked in consulting and investment banking.⁠[2]

On Gamma’s leadership page he wrote: “I’ve lived in slide decks for most of my career.”⁠[1]

Lee joined Optimizely in 2013 and spent about five years there in strategic finance and operations roles, later serving as interim chief financial officer.⁠[2][3]

After Optimizely, Lee was chief operating officer of ClearBrain, a Y Combinator–backed causal analytics startup that Amplitude acquired in March 2020. He then advised startups on growth and strategy.⁠[3][2]

In late 2020 Lee co-founded Gamma with former Optimizely colleagues Jon Noronha, Optimizely’s former vice president of product, and James Fox, a former staff engineer there, to build presentation software; the product first launched in 2022.⁠[3][4][1]

In 2024 Gamma raised a $12 million Series A led by AccelAccelAccel is a venture capital firm co-founded in 1983 by Arthur Patterson and Jim Swartz. It invests through regional teams and early-stage, growth and late-stage funds, with operations in the United States, Europe, Israel and India. Its investment history includes Facebook, Flipkart, Atlassian, Slack and other technology businesses. Fundraising totals, regulatory assets under management and portfolio-company transaction values are distinct measures.Open the full entry; South Park Commons and Hustle Fund were also among its backers.⁠[4]

On October 22, 2025, the Stanford Technology Ventures Program released a conversation between Lee and adjunct lecturer Ravi Belani on finding co-founders, building conviction and gauging product-market fit; the episode page said Gamma then had 50 million customers, $50 million in annual recurring revenue and fewer than 50 employees.⁠[5]

On November 10, 2025, Gamma announced a $68 million Series B led by Andreessen HorowitzAndreessen HorowitzAndreessen Horowitz (a16z) is a venture capital firm founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. It invests from the seed stage through the growth stage and provides operational support to its portfolio companies.Open the full entry, with participation from Accel, Uncork Capital and others, at a $2.1 billion valuation, including a $20 million secondary sale for early employees. The company said it had passed $100 million in annual recurring revenue and had 70 million users worldwide and a team of about 50.⁠[6][4]

In the release Lee said: “Gamma levels the playing field. This is the future of business storytelling.” He also said the company had reached $50 million in revenue profitably within its first two years.⁠[6][4]

On November 11, 2025, a16z released “Grant Lee: Building Gamma’s AI Presentation Company to 100 Million Users,” in which Andreessen Horowitz AI partner Olivia MooreOlivia MooreOlivia Moore is an American venture capitalist and a partner on the investing team at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), where she focuses on AI application investments; she is the byline author of a16z’s consumer generative AI app ranking, “The Top 100 Gen AI Consumer Apps.”Open the full entry and growth general partner Sarah WangSarah Wang (a16z)Sarah Wang is a venture capitalist and general partner on the growth team at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). She joined a16z in 2019 and leads growth-stage investments in AI, enterprise applications and infrastructure, having invested in companies including Character.AI, Wiz, Cursor, Temporal and Exa.Open the full entry spoke with Lee. The episode notes say an investor once called Gamma the worst idea he had heard and hung up mid-Zoom, and that Gamma went on to reach 100 million users and $100 million in annual recurring revenue without spending on advertising.⁠[7][8]

The conversation covered how Gamma’s seven-person team declined to grow, devoted a quarter of its staff to design and personally onboarded every influencer; ignored AI for its first two years and then orchestrated multiple models; grew from 60,000 signups in eight months to 50,000 a day; reached profitability while running on about 12 months of runway; built for prosumers before businesses; and why it hired slowly and valued taste.⁠[7][8]

X: Public account: https://x.com/thisisgrantlee (opens in a new window).⁠[7]

LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry: Public profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grantslee (opens in a new window).⁠[2]