OpenAI Acquihires Founders of AI Marketing Startup Notch

OpenAI has made a strategic move to bolster its commercial AI expertise by acquihiring Vinay Jain and Aman Jain, the founders of the AI performance marketing startup Notch, according to a post on the company’s website.

The founders bring deep experience to OpenAI, having previously worked at Meta where they built billion-dollar ad products utilized by millions of businesses. For the past two years, they have been at the forefront of integrating AI agents into the advertising industry through Notch.

The Vision Behind Notch

Notch was previously building AI agents to automate advertising activities. The startup aimed to solve a persistent industry challenge: the disconnect between a great campaign idea and its live execution. Traditionally, research, briefs, production, testing, and optimization have been fragmented across multiple tools and handoffs.

To bridge this gap, Notch developed technology that acts as a unified creative strategist, designer, and performance marketer. Their platform allowed AI to understand a brand, carry context from one step to the next, and seamlessly turn concepts into visible advertising, all while keeping humans in the loop for direction and approval.

“Working closely with advertisers taught us that useful agents need more than capable models,” the founders noted in their announcement. “They need context, memory, feedback, and thoughtful product design.”

The Next Chapter at OpenAI

By joining OpenAI, Vinay and Aman will be applying their expertise in AI and commercial advertising to one of the industry’s leading research and deployment companies.

In their farewell note, the co-founders expressed deep gratitude to their team, investors, and the customers who trusted them with their brands.

For current Notch users with questions regarding their accounts, the company has directed them to use their existing Notch support channels for assistance during the transition.