CEO Mitch Grasso wants to make stunning presentations available to anyone.
Launched in February of 2018, Beautiful. AI is the brainchild of designer, engineer, and serial entrepreneur Mitch Grasso. After founding and designing SlideRocket--a cloud-based presentation and collaboration platform--Grasso noticed a problem that many of his users had in common: “Even though people enjoyed the tool and used it, they were still creating terribly ugly presentations.” Even though most people find themselves creating presentations regardless of their profession, only a few have any training in design. And those who lack this expertise continue to find creating presentations to be a frustrating experience. Out of this key insight came Beautiful.AI, a cloud-enabled presentation platform with a design AI as an integral part of the software. Beautiful.AI allows users to seamlessly input their data to create stunning presentations without wasting time struggling with formatting. According to Grasso, this new technology has the potential to effectively “democratize design,” giving anyone the power to create their ideal presentation without wasting any time.
“Opinionated Software”
Most people don’t know which presentation layouts will resonate best with their audience or most effectively communicate their ideas. But Grasso, with his training as a designer, has a pretty good idea. Using his framework of presentation “best practices,” Grasso and his team have created a platform that will guide users through their creation process. With the ability to choose from various layout options, but the freedom to input their own data and conclusions, beautiful.AI gives users both the flexibility of a blank canvas and the assurance of a tried and true approach. Moreover, these different layout options, which Grasso describes as “smart templates,” account for the different roles a slide can take in a presentation. Beautiful.AI has templates for all different purposes, from data presentation to comparative analysis. The user just has to input their information and then let the slides design themselves. As Grasso puts it, “You’re just telling your story, and we’re making it beautiful.”
Increasing their offerings
Beautiful.AI is currently a free service, but they are looking to expand their offerings to include a “Pro” package, which is expected to be priced competitively compared to other SaaS presentation services. The pro package will include more services to benefit their users beyond the embedded design AI, such as the ability to upload company fonts, and the ability to receive analytic feedback on how viewers interact with the presentation. Beautiful.AI is also considering capping the number of presentations that can be created for free by any one user.
Beautiful.AI looks to the future
Two weeks after their launch in February of 2018, Beautiful.AI had already attracted users in 190 countries. As such, the company looks to expand its service offerings more so than their geographical presence. Presentation creation is just one of many areas where average workers could benefit from the distillation of design principles into an interactive platform. However, in an effort to garner more users across the world, they are working to make their UI more accessible to users in different languages.
