Overview
Notch built software that carried an advertiser’s work from research to live campaigns. Its agent, Max, combined creative production, ad-account data, and approval rules. The founders’ earlier business, Sesame Labs, had first applied their advertising experience to Web3 marketing before building MadMen AI and renaming it Notch.[1][2][3]
In October 2026, Vinay Jain and Aman Jain announced that they were joining OpenAI. Their notice confirms a founder move; it does not disclose a company purchase, transferred intellectual property, or a service closure.[4]
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Founding Story
The founders’ company biographies describe complementary product and engineering work across major advertising platforms. Vinay worked on Facebook Lead Ads; Aman worked on Twitter advertising and the WhatsApp Business API.[5]
Their first documented product served Web3 companies. Sesame Labs entered private beta in September 2022 with gaming businesses including Decentral Games, Ethermon, and League of Kingdoms. Its stack combined customer profiles, campaigns, and rewards.[1]
The company changed direction without replacing its central problem: helping businesses acquire customers. Investor Tanay Jaipuria’s July 2024 account identifies Sesame Labs as MadMen AI’s maker and describes a pivot after market conditions changed. Vinay advised founders to “Prioritize filling seats with engineering talent first.”[2] Aman later explained his competitive view: “Meta’s ad platform is an 𝘢𝘶𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, and auctions are multi-player.” His argument was that an advertiser needed its own faster learning cycle, rather than tools equally available to every bidder.[6]
Timeline
- September 2022: Sesame Labs entered private beta with Web3 gaming companies.[1]
- February 2023: The company announced a $4.5 million seed round co-led by Wing and Patron.[1]
- July 2024: Wing documented the move toward MadMen AI.[2]
- September 23, 2026: Notch publicly promoted Max through a Scentless advertising experiment.[7]
- October 2026: The founders announced their move to OpenAI.[4]
What They Built
Max linked tasks that advertisers usually perform in separate tools. It studied account results, proposed weekly plans in Slack, made creative, and sent approved ads to advertising platforms. It also watched for falling performance and suggested the next tests. The launch release said changes required explicit approval or rules set beforehand.[7]
Notch called its stored brand knowledge a Brand Brain. This connected each new creative task to earlier assets and results. The product pitch moved beyond producing an image toward managing repeated decisions about a campaign.[8]
Market Position
Target Customers
Notch targeted e-commerce advertisers and teams whose creative work could not keep pace with testing. Its launch used Scentless, a direct-to-consumer brand, to demonstrate the complete workflow.[7]
Market Size
No defensible company-specific market estimate was established. The useful question is how many advertisers can delegate recurring work while retaining control of spending and claims.
Competition
Aman’s argument identified a tension: Meta controls the auction, while an advertiser wants an advantage within it. Faster experiments and brand-specific memory could support that advantage. This remains a product thesis, rather than proof that Notch outperformed Meta’s own tools.[6]
Business Model
Notch’s current site offers custom enterprise pricing and demos. Its terms describe a subscription service, with customers responsible for reviewing generated advertising. The about page claims $8 million in funding. The allocation across rounds, current revenue, retention, and gross margin remain undisclosed.[8][9][5]
Traction
The September launch release claimed 85,000 generated live ads and a 30% reduction in Scentless’s customer acquisition cost during a two-month experiment. These are company claims. The release does not supply a controlled comparison or enough underlying data to establish a general performance gain.[7]
Post-Mortem
Notch connected creative work with feedback from deployed campaigns. Its joint founder notice says useful agents need “context, memory, feedback, and thoughtful product design.” An image generator finishes an asset. A marketing agent must remember previous tests and help decide what happens next.[4]
The earlier pivot also matters. Wing’s account suggests that a small team could change markets because it had avoided building a large organization too early. That is an investor’s interpretation, supported by his description of the company’s change in direction, rather than audited evidence of capital efficiency.[2]
As of October 23, the site still advertised enterprise demos; the transition notice directed existing customers to their support channels. No public terms establish what happened to product ownership or customer contracts.[4][8]
Key Lessons
- Retain expertise through a pivot. Sesame Labs changed its target market, while the founders continued working on customer acquisition. Their advertising experience remained useful across product versions.
- Tie production to decisions. Max’s approval rules and campaign feedback explain the product better than its autonomy label. Those controls determine what a customer can delegate.
- Define authority before delegating. Notch’s launch release retained approvals or preset rules for creative and budget changes. The customer must know which decisions the agent can make.
Sources
- Sesame Labs Gains $4.5M — company announcement reproduced by CMSWire
- Wing — The entrepreneur’s guide to lean financial operations
- Vinay Jain — MadMen AI becomes Notch
- Notch founders — Joining OpenAI
- Notch — About the founders and funding
- Aman Jain — Competing inside Meta’s auction
- Notch — September 2026 Max launch release
- Notch — Current product and enterprise offer
- Notch — Terms of service
- Vinay Jain — September 23 launch post