I would pull all of this outside of GUIDE and just have the timer open your GUIDE GUI/splashscreen etc.
function openingExample
h = figure;
T = timer('Period',1,... %period
'ExecutionMode','singleShot',... %{singleShot,fixedRate,fixedSpacing,fixedDelay}
'BusyMode','drop',... %{drop, error, queue}
'TasksToExecute',1,...
'StartDelay',2,...
'TimerFcn',@openAndClose,...
'StartFcn',[],...
'StopFcn',[],...
'ErrorFcn',[]);
plot(1:10); %splash screen!
drawnow;
start(T);
function openAndClose(~,~)
close(h); %close splash
untitled; %Name of your GUIDE GUI ( I keep untitled around)
drawnow;
end
end