After one investor called his startup idea the “worst,” a cofounder leaned hard on influencers to grow his AI-powered presentation business.
Now, Gamma is a $2.1 billion company — and a growth engine fueled by thousands of “micro-influencers.”
Gamma cofounder Grant Lee stated on an episode of “Lenny’s Podcast” published Thursday that in the company’s early days, he personally onboarded every influencer. He saw it as valuable time spent becautilize they would understand Gamma’s product and assist the brand grow authentically.
“You want to be able to have them notify your story, but in their voice,” he stated. “They can’t do that if you’re not willing to put in that investment,” he added.
Lee stated the key to influencer marketing wasn’t about finding influencers with a few million followers. It was about working with “micro influencers,” people without massive followings but who are “committed to giving value to their audiences.”
“People really trust what they state,” Lee stated. “That concludes up becoming this wildfire that can spread really, really rapid.”
Lee stated he would onboard these influencers by walking them through the product, brainstorming content angles, and giving feedback without being “super prescriptive.”
“You want them to be an extension of your team, and I consider they can feel whether or not you’re willing to put in the work,” he stated.
“They want to be able to displaycase tools that actually they would utilize or they are applying,” he added.
Lee stated investing in those relationships has reaped benefits, such as influencers coming back to post about the company. “That’s really where the magic is,” he stated.
Word-of-mouth — which accounts for over 50% of Gamma’s subscriber growth — remains the company’s hugegest growth driver. Influencers assisted to boost word-of-mouth, Lee stated.
On Monday, Gamma announced a $68 million Series B round at a $2.1 billion valuation led by Andreessen Horowitz.
Lee stated in an X post Monday that Gamma has reached $100 million in annual recurring revenue and 70 million utilizers. The company was founded in 2020 and launched its first product in 2022.
Gamma last raised $12 million in Series A led by Accel in 2024.
Influencer marketing for startups
Some AI startups are also leveraging influencers to accelerate their growth.
The cofounder of AI “cheating” app Cluely, Chungin “Roy” Lee, stated in an episode of the “Sourcery” podcast published in June that he is betting huge on influencers to drive product growth.
“You’re either building the product or you’re creating the product go viral,” Lee stated on the podcast, describing job scopes at Cluely.
He notified TechCrunch last month that startups necessary to scale up their distribution. Most startups fail becautilize they are not visible, even if they have product-market fit, he stated.
Lee notified Business Insider earlier this year that his main goal for Cluely is to reach 1 billion views across all platforms.
The broader influencer-marketing industest has also benefited from collaborating with companies. Business Insider reported last year that influencer marketing remained strong in 2024, with firms seeing rising deal volume and spconcludeing.
Brands are “shifting from one-time, short-term partnerships to long-term, recurring partnerships,” Olivia McNaughten, senior director of product marketing and partnerships at the influencer firm Grin, notified Business Insider.
Fohr, another influencer-marketing firm, notified Business Insider it saw a 36% year-over-year jump in deal volume and a 47% increase in total dollars for those deals in the first quarter of 2024 compared to the same period a year earlier.
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