How Gamma Grow from 0-$50M ARR, 50M users w/30 people
Small Teams+AI are the Future
Gamma is one of the best examples of how a small team + AI can deliver massive results.
In my last piece about Tome and Gamma Tome Failed in AI PPT—Why Is Gamma Thriving?,” I analyzed Tome and Gamma—both started strong in the AI presentation field, but ended with dramatically different outcomes.
I explored their journeys from the perspectives of product positioning, use cases, and the founders’ mindsets.
Tome took an aggressive, high-profile approach (in terms of capital, market strategy, and team), but ultimately failed in the AI presentation space. Gamma, on the other hand, adopted a different strategy—carefully controlling its fundraising pace, team size, and marketing efforts—and has achieved far greater success to date.
Recently, Gamma founder Grant Lee announced that Gamma has surpassed 50 million users and $50 million in ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue). The company has also been profitable for 15 consecutive months since early 2024, all with a team of just around 30 people and a total of $23 million in funding.
At the same time, Gamma has officially expanded its product from AI-powered presentations to the broader creative space. It now supports slide decks, social media content, documents, and website generation—realizing its vision of becoming an “all-in-one creative expression platform.”
Gamma’s Growth Journey
Gamma was founded in late 2020 by former Optimizely finance head Grant Lee and two former colleagues. Initially, the team developed two products: a hybrid tool combining document and presentation functions (Gamma), and a virtual office tool called “The Lobby.” They eventually pivoted fully toward presentation tools.
In August 2022, Gamma officially launched on Product Hunt with the slogan: “Write like a doc, present like a deck.” Although it gained attention, early users struggled to find real value in the product. Retention was very low—many users would try it once and never return—because creating presentations still felt too difficult. By year-end, the user base was only 60,000, and the company was running into serious financial challenges.
The team discovered that the core problem was the “blank page problem”—the psychological hurdle users face when starting a presentation from scratch.
In response, the team launched a three-month “crazy sprint” to rebuild the product with AI. They integrated several AI models—including OpenAI’s GPT and Stability AI’s Stable Diffusion—to automate the creation process.
In March 2023, Gamma relaunched on Product Hunt—this time resembling more of a ChatGPT wrapper, as evident from the new slogan: “A new medium for presenting ideas, powered by GPT-4.” Ironically, this wrapper-like product marked the beginning of Gamma’s transformation and success.
Gamma’s launch on Product Hunt. SOURCE: Product Hunt
This new version helped Gamma gain 3 million users within three months. Many became paying customers, and the product entered a high-growth phase that continues to this day. Here’s a simplified timeline of Gamma’s development:
Fall 2020: Grant Lee’s team founded Gamma
Aug 2022: Product Hunt debut, gains tens of thousands of users
Mar 2023: Relaunch as GPT-4-powered Gamma AI, gains 3M users in 3 months
Jan 2024: Reaches 17M users
May 2024: Raises $12M Series A (led by Accel), total funding reaches $22.3M
Apr 2025: ARR surpasses $50M, user base reaches 50M (hundreds of thousands of paying users)
A Deliberate Approach to Fundraising
Gamma has always taken a cautious stance on fundraising—emphasizing that capital should only be raised with a clear purpose and avoiding early dilution. This philosophy stems from Grant Lee’s own experience.
Recently, Grant said he didn’t want Gamma’s employees to follow the same path as at Optimizely—where he was one of the first 100 employees but ended up with very few stock options.
If Gamma succeeds, he hopes every contributor will benefit meaningfully, unlike employees at many AI startups who end up with nothing after acquisitions.
How Gamma Found PMF: AI + The IKEA Effect
As mentioned, Gamma achieved Product-Market Fit (PMF) by using AI to solve the blank page problem—but this wasn’t a straight path. Initially, due to low retention, they experimented with many approaches to solve it.
They tried focusing on niche user groups (e.g., teachers and institutions), added real-time collaboration like Google Docs, and created templates to guide users, but these all required heavy investment and had limited impact.
Real-time collaboration, while seemingly critical during remote work, turned out to be less important than a great solo user experience. Then came a major turning point: