Chronicle AI launches with 100K users, reimagines presentations as websites

Chronicle AI Presentations has launched publicly after accumulating a waitlist of over 100,000 users, including 10,000 businesses, following months of stealth development. The AI-powered presentation platform, co-founded by Mayuresh Patole and Tejas Gawande, aims to transform how people create and deliver presentations by replacing traditional slide formats with interactive, web-like experiences that prioritize visual storytelling and design quality.

What you should know: Chronicle fundamentally reimagines presentation creation by abandoning the traditional slide format in favor of a scrollable, interactive canvas powered by AI assistance.

• Users can start with a blank canvas or generate drafts by uploading PDFs, pasting text, or sharing links, with Chronicle’s AI analyzing input and suggesting outlines.
• The platform uses modular “widgets” for text, images, charts, and embedded media that are pre-engineered for design and motion.
• Features like Peek and Deep Hover allow presenters to zoom in, highlight, or isolate content to guide audience attention during presentations.
• The final output resembles a website more than a traditional deck, with content that scrolls vertically rather than advancing through slides.

The big picture: Chronicle enters a crowded market dominated by PowerPoint and Canva, but differentiates itself by focusing on preventing bad presentations rather than just speeding up creation.

• Direct competitors include Gamma, which claims 50 million users and $50 million in annual recurring revenue, along with Beautiful.ai, Prezi, Tome, Slidebean, Pitch, Decktopus, and Visme.
• The company’s approach reflects modern audience expectations shaped by social media consumption patterns that favor visual, scannable, high-impact information.

Why this matters: The organic growth to 100,000 users without marketing suggests significant demand for presentation tools that prioritize design quality and user experience over speed alone.

• “We saw interest explode with zero marketing. It was all word-of-mouth from people who created something amazing with Chronicle and showed their teams,” Patole notes.
• “This response has been humbling, and it tells us how desperate people are for a better way to communicate ideas.”

What they’re saying: The founders emphasize that Chronicle addresses fundamental design challenges rather than just efficiency concerns.

• “Chronicle is quite different from PowerPoint in that the output is not slides at all. It is a completely different format,” Patole said. “You can create a really impactful and stunning presentation in minutes instead of hours. We also ensure that you cannot create a bad presentation on Chronicle.”
• “Modern audiences are trained by social media to expect information that’s visual, scannable, and high-impact,” Gawande explained.
• “The problem is that it’s extremely hard to make great presentations but at the same time it’s extremely easy to make bad ones.”

Financial backing: Chronicle raised $7.5 million in 2023 from Accel and Square Peg, venture capital firms, plus angel investors from major tech companies including Apple, Google, Meta, Slack, Stripe, and Adobe.

• The company plans to implement a freemium SaaS model with free access for individuals and paid plans for teams and enterprises.
• Current focus remains on product development and expanding beta access rather than aggressive monetization.