What Gamma ($2B Unicorn) Learned that Most Founders Get Backwards | Grant Lee
From Minus One by South Park Commons
March 12, 2026 · 36 min
About this episode
Grant Lee discusses the lessons learned from building Gamma, an AI storytelling platform, and the importance of storytelling in business.
Grant Lee, cofounder and CEO of Gamma, joins South Park Commons General Partner Jonathan Brebner to discuss how his AI storytelling platform is taking on PowerPoint and Google Slides. Grant shares how Gamma survived the Silicon Valley Bank collapse, how they stayed lean while scaling to a $2B valuation, and why he believes “different beats better” when competing against entrenched incumbents. He also gets into the role of storytelling in product, hiring, and growth—and why publishing content (and pushing through "cringe valley") might be the most underrated thing a founder can do. Grant Lee: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grantslee/ Jonathan Brebner: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-brebner/ South Park Commons: https://www.linkedin.com/company/southparkcommons/ Apply to SPC: https://www.southparkcommons.com/apply Chapters: (00:00:00) - Intro (00:02:41) - The Frustration With Slides That Sparked Gamma (00:04:02) - Reuniting With Co-Founders From Optimizely (00:08:46) - The Real Competition: Behavior Change (00:10:37) - The ‘Bet the Company’ Moment and the SVB Crisis (00:14:43) - Why Gamma Built a Lean Team and Hires Slowly (00:17:49) - Why Storytelling Is a Core Founder…
People in this episode
Host: Jonathan Brebner
Guest: Grant Lee
Topics covered
- AI storytelling
- founder experiences
- business growth
- Silicon Valley
- product development
- storytelling in business
Keywords
- Gamma
- AI storytelling
- founders
- Silicon Valley Bank
- business growth
- storytelling
- lean team
- PowerPoint
- Google Slides
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Gamma, Silicon Valley Bank, PowerPoint, Google Slides, South Park Commons, Optimizely
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