🎧 START pod: Matthew Chen, Founder & CEO, Laurence "Autonomous performance marketing"

🎧 START pod: Matthew Chen, Founder & CEO, Laurence "Autonomous performance marketing"

Author: Fondo March 28, 2026 Duration: 7:41

Amazon sellers do not have a data problem.

They have a decision problem.

They already have the clicks
The conversions
The impressions
The keyword history

What they do not have is a system that knows what to do with it.

So brands pay agencies $5,000 to $50,000 a month - and still lose money on ads

Matthew Chen built Laurence to change that.

A quantitative system for Amazon advertising.
Built for continuous decision-making under profit constraints.
Using existing ad copy, reinforcement learning, and custom models to run ads on autopilot.

When confidence is high, it acts
When data is sparse, it borrows signal from similar keywords

The result: about 40% better performance for customers.

Amazon is the wedge.
Autonomous performance marketing is the bigger vision.

🎧 START pod: Matthew Chen, Founder & CEO, Laurence "Autonomous performance marketing"

00:23 What Laurence does
02:12 How the company found the wedge
02:47 The customer quote that changed the company
03:15 The flaw in the standard Amazon ad model
05:25 The move from Amazon to the wider internet
06:12 How Laurence uses transformers today


Behind every startup's big idea is the less glamorous, but utterly essential, work of building a real business. The Startup Growth Podcast, from the team at Fondo, digs into that reality. Fondo itself is an all-in-one accounting platform designed for startups, handling everything from closing the books to filing taxes and even helping secure cash back from the IRS. This practical experience informs every conversation. You’ll hear founders and operators talk not just about vision, but about the tangible systems, financial decisions, and marketing pivots that actually fuel growth. Episodes move beyond theory to explore the operational choices that separate promising companies from sustainable ones. It’s a resource for entrepreneurs who understand that strategy is meaningless without execution, and that a healthy bottom line is the truest measure of progress. Tune in for honest discussions that bridge the gap between entrepreneurial ambition and the business fundamentals required to make it last.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 48

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