{"data":{"type":"company_profile","id":70427,"entity_id":"wefunder:company:70427","attributes":{"canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/cortex","generated_at":"2026-06-08T02:54:48Z","updated_at":"2026-06-07T05:02:14Z","entity_ids":{"company":"wefunder:company:70427","slug":"wefunder:company_slug:cortex"},"profile_visibility":{"owner_published":true,"public_search_results":true,"site_search_listed":true,"privacy_mode":"promote","invite_only":false},"provenance":{"source":"wefunder_public_company_profile","as_of":"2026-06-08T02:54:48Z","claims":{"total_amount_raised":{"source":"FrontCompanySummary#amount_raised","last_verified_at":"2026-06-07T05:02:14Z","as_of":"2026-06-08T02:54:48Z","confidence":"high"},"total_investors":{"source":"FrontCompanySummary#number_of_investors","last_verified_at":"2026-06-07T05:02:14Z","as_of":"2026-06-08T02:54:48Z","confidence":"high"},"active_raise_states":{"source":"Fundraise.visible(nil, nil)","last_verified_at":"2025-02-06T01:17:55Z","as_of":"2026-06-08T02:54:48Z","confidence":"high"},"latest_fundraise_state":{"source":"Fundraise.visible(nil, nil).order(funding_started_at)","last_verified_at":"2025-02-06T01:17:55Z","as_of":"2026-06-08T02:54:48Z","confidence":"medium"}}},"company":{"id":70427,"entity_id":"wefunder:company:70427","slug":"cortex","name":"Cortex","tagline":"AI-powered visual analytics that helps marketers make better creative choices","elevator_pitch":"Cortex is a B2B SaaS platform used by the some of the world's leading brands to know what images and videos to make, how to make them, and which images and videos to promote with advertising budgets. Brands spend $600 billion every year on visuals without knowing these insights. Much of that $600 billion is wasted and careers can be ruined due to poor performance. With Cortex, that entire $600 billion is de-risked. Brands can invest that money with confidence.","story":"Cortex is a SaaS platform that uses machine learning to predict the performance of visuals. We help enterprise brands like Toyota, L’Oreal, and Oreo save up to 50% spend by predicting the performance of marketing visuals before a single dollar is spent.We’re growing fast, and we’ll be on target to hit our 2021 target revenue by landing just 10 of the companies in our current pipeline.*The above graphic contains forward-looking projections that cannot be guaranteed46 companies own 2,165 total brands in our target industries, making every account we close a significant landmark. Here’s a look at our current pipeline:We’ve developed a robust business model that will enable us to scale effectively year over year. Here’s how it works:We’ve carved out a unique niche in the $600B global advertising market, and demand for visual content in this market is growing at a rate of 30% per year.Our collective expertise spans decades, and we’ve built the expert team needed to make Cortex the right investment for your portfolio.Over the next 18 months, we will remain laser focused on repeatedly executing our sales playbook. It works, we have many world class customers to reference, and we have identified 46 specific companies in those same industries that we will target. Selling to a fraction of those 46 will allow us to achieve our 2021 and 2022 goals. As we do that, we’ll continue plugging our software API into other creative software and get paid per use. We have two examples of this in place already. Long term, this will allow us to make high margin revenue every time creatives use any software, be it our platform or others.","location":"Boston, MA","website":"https://www.meetcortex.com","total_amount_raised":1069865,"total_investors":1217,"is_funded":true,"is_active":true,"quality_score":4,"related_urls":["https://wefunder.com/cortex","https://www.meetcortex.com"]},"media":{"share_image_url":"https://uploads.wefunder.com/uploads/company/header_media_photo/70427/xxl_cropped_Screen-Shot-2020-12-07-at-3.40.14-PM.jpg","logo_url":"https://uploads.wefunder.com/uploads/company/logo/70427/large_cropped_cortex_logo_aquare.png","header_media_url":"https://uploads.wefunder.com/uploads/company/header_media_photo/70427/standard_cropped_Screen-Shot-2020-12-07-at-3.40.14-PM.jpg","cover_photo_url":"https://uploads.wefunder.com/uploads/company/header_media_photo/70427/standard_cropped_Screen-Shot-2020-12-07-at-3.40.14-PM.jpg","profile_video_url":"https://wefunder.wistia.com/medias/mxa8d67f3x"},"links":{"company_url":"https://www.meetcortex.com"},"highlights":[],"quick_facts":[{"index":1,"claim_id":"claim-fact-1","value":"Best in class customers - L'Oréal, Marriott, Toyota, Deloitte, Oreo, and more - with $600k run rate"},{"index":2,"claim_id":"claim-fact-2","value":"Founders’ previous company was in the same space and grew fast enough to be on the INC 5000"},{"index":3,"claim_id":"claim-fact-3","value":"Cortex was one of 10 startups accepted into the super competitive Techstars Boston class in 2020"},{"index":4,"claim_id":"claim-fact-4","value":"New world-class customers signing on in the past weeks - including Kraft-Heinz and Pernod Ricard"},{"index":5,"claim_id":"claim-fact-5","value":"Unique technology - the only platform that can predict how people will react to something they see"},{"index":6,"claim_id":"claim-fact-6","value":"Customers renewing and expanding - including L’Oreal, KAO, and Marriott"},{"index":7,"claim_id":"claim-fact-7","value":"Raised $1.2M to date from impressive CEO angel investors, Revup Fund, and Techstars"},{"index":8,"claim_id":"claim-fact-8","value":"14 major international brands are already in late-stage pipeline for onboarding in 2021"}],"team":[{"id":1173024,"entity_id":"wefunder:company_role:1173024","user_entity_id":"wefunder:user:1201872","role":"founder","name":"Brennan White","title":"CEO","bio":"A startup guy since college, Brennan started in sales at other people’s startups before starting two of his own. His first startup created content for the world’s best brands and grew fast enough to be a member of the Inc 5000.","avatar_url":"https://uploads.wefunder.com/uploads/company_role/custom_photo/1173024/square_cropped_Brennan_new_headshot.jpg?1606333279","profile_url":"https://wefunder.com/brennanwhite","personal_url":"http://www.meetcortex.com","linkedin_url":"https://www.linkedin.com/in/brennanwhite/","related_urls":["https://wefunder.com/brennanwhite","http://www.meetcortex.com"]},{"id":1173022,"entity_id":"wefunder:company_role:1173022","user_entity_id":"wefunder:user:1155152","role":"founder","name":"Matt Peters","title":"Chief Customer Officer","bio":"Subject matter expert. 15 years as a Creative Director working with marketing leaders at brands like Marriott, Dunkin' Donuts, Sonic, \u0026amp; Puma. Built a successful content agency with two years on the INC 5000. Angel investor.","avatar_url":"https://uploads.wefunder.com/uploads/company_role/custom_photo/1173022/square_cropped_Headshot-42.jpg?1670861577","profile_url":"https://wefunder.com/mattpeters2","linkedin_url":"https://www.linkedin.com/in/mkpeters/","related_urls":["https://wefunder.com/mattpeters2"]},{"id":1261131,"entity_id":"wefunder:company_role:1261131","role":"employee","name":"Dimitry Kudryavtsev","title":"VP of Engineering","bio":"Experience building tech teams \u0026amp; culture in a startup environment. Tech-leader of multiple R\u0026amp;D projects that applied computer intelligence technologies to develop mission-relevant tools for DoD. Enjoy uncovering deep insights in creative content.","avatar_url":"https://uploads.wefunder.com/uploads/company_role/custom_photo/1261131/square_cropped_0.jpg?1606939435","linkedin_url":"https://www.linkedin.com/in/dimitrykudryavtsev/","related_urls":[]},{"id":1249901,"entity_id":"wefunder:company_role:1249901","role":"employee","name":"Dung Phan","title":"Lead Data Scientist","bio":"Specialized data scientist. Received Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from the University of Massachusetts Boston. Published 15+ papers in the field of multiobjective optimization and machine learning.","avatar_url":"https://uploads.wefunder.com/uploads/company_role/custom_photo/1249901/square_cropped_86714533_10221817712022230_1822668250794688512_o.jpg?1606939435","related_urls":[]},{"id":1249904,"entity_id":"wefunder:company_role:1249904","role":"employee","name":"John Lahr","title":"VP of Growth","bio":"Leads the Growth team at Cortex, overseeing 45% Quarter on Quarter sales growth last year and expanding the enterprise customer base over 2020. Over the past 6 years, he’s brought creative technology to MIT, Marriott, Toyota, Mondelez, and more.","avatar_url":"https://uploads.wefunder.com/uploads/company_role/custom_photo/1249904/square_cropped_IMG_0008.jpg?1606939431","related_urls":[]},{"id":1249909,"entity_id":"wefunder:company_role:1249909","user_entity_id":"wefunder:user:1216411","role":"employee","name":"Herman Uscategui","title":"Senior Vice President Strategic Ventures","bio":"Led Starbucks to develop global alliances, new markets development across four continents. MA in engineering Saitama University, PhD scholar, University of Tokyo. Master’s in economics from Temple University Japan and fluent in several languages.","avatar_url":"https://uploads.wefunder.com/uploads/company_role/custom_photo/1249909/square_cropped_1516246293705.jpg?1606939431","profile_url":"https://wefunder.com/herman.uscategui","related_urls":["https://wefunder.com/herman.uscategui"]}],"featured_investors":[{"id":5137,"entity_id":"wefunder:company_investor_profile:5137","investor_profile_id":753280,"investor_profile_entity_id":"wefunder:investor_profile:753280","subject_entity_id":"wefunder:user:1215746","name":"Christian Magel","avatar_url":"https://uploads.wefunder.com/2021/user_default_icon_circle.png","profile_url":"https://wefunder.com/christianmagel","investment_total":41000,"investment_info":"Invested $1,000 this round \u0026 $40,000 previously","is_lead_investor":true,"related_urls":["https://wefunder.com/christianmagel"]}],"investor_memos":[],"tab_counts":{"posts":87,"ask_questions":70,"featured_investors":1,"faq_entries":5},"active_fundraises":[{"id":37899,"entity_id":"wefunder:fundraise:37899","state":"successful","offering_type":"4(a)(6)","funding_type":"note","structure":"equity","security_type":"equity","currency":"USD","testing_the_waters":false,"min_purchase":250,"max_purchase":9,"funding_target":250000.13,"funding_started_at":"2020-12-02T00:52:01Z","funding_closed_at":"2021-02-23T05:02:14Z","auto_close_at":"2021-02-23T04:59:59Z"}],"latest_fundraise":{"id":37899,"entity_id":"wefunder:fundraise:37899","state":"successful","offering_type":"4(a)(6)","structure":"equity","testing_the_waters":false,"can_invest_now":false,"funding_started_at":"2020-12-02T00:52:01Z","funding_closed_at":"2021-02-23T05:02:14Z","terms":{"eb":null,"nb":"$8.4M","txt":"pre-money valuation"}},"recent_posts":[{"id":159158,"entity_id":"wefunder:feed_item:159158","type":"FeedItem::Update","visibility":"public","title":"MAUs up by 26.6% in October!","preview":"Hello Fam, an update and retrospective on the last several months:October Monthly Active Users (MAUs) grew by 26.6%. This handily beats the growth target of 20%. At this rate of growth, a year from now Cortex would have two orders of magnitude more users than some of the biggest competitors out there. Cortex would be the far-and-away leader in the space in terms of users and in a fantastic position to monetize that tsunami of users. The Cortex Team is really excited by this support from the u...","published_at":"2022-11-03T15:10:48Z","author_name":"Brennan White","url":"/feed/159158","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/feed/159158"},{"id":158781,"entity_id":"wefunder:feed_item:158781","type":"FeedItem::Update","visibility":"public","title":"Cortex Selected to Pitch Major Brands in Zurich","preview":"Hey Fam, this is a short and fun one.Cortex has been selected as a finalist in the Food-Tech Innovation Awards! As a result, Cortex's co-founder, Matt Peters will fly to Zurich and pitch several major food brands for significant business.Chosen from over 100 companies, Cortex gets free exhibition space at a conference, an exciting opportunity to win proof of concept projects with big food brands like Barilla and Lavazza, and some face time with a tremendous jury of food industry heavyweights....","published_at":"2022-10-14T18:45:57Z","author_name":"Brennan White","url":"/feed/158781","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/feed/158781"},{"id":158612,"entity_id":"wefunder:feed_item:158612","type":"FeedItem::Update","visibility":"public","title":"30% MAU Growth in September","preview":"Hello Fam, a super short update today to share that Cortex smashed yet another Monthly Active User (MAU) goal. Instead of the target 20% month-on-month growth, Cortex grew MAUs in September by 30.6%!Coupled with beating our goals in August and July as well, that means MAUs grew by over 125% in Q3! This is an exciting growth trajectory that puts us well-ahead of the pace needed to hit our user acquisition goals in Q4 and beyond into 2023. The team is as engaged as ever with all of the new user...","published_at":"2022-10-05T18:57:04Z","author_name":"Brennan White","url":"/feed/158612","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/feed/158612"},{"id":158480,"entity_id":"wefunder:feed_item:158480","type":"FeedItem::Update","visibility":"public","title":"Cortex one of \"The 19 most promising advertising and marketing tech startups of 2022, according to VCs\"","preview":"Hey Fam, the Cortex Team is getting recognized for their hard work by the VC community. Check out how Cortex is listed as one of the most promising startups in our space, by VCs on Business Insider!\"Cortex boasts a suite of machine learning tools meant to predict the success of heavily visual ad campaigns like video ads or Instagram posts before they even run. The AI-powered platform can pick out which visual elements — like use of the color pink or close-up shots of eye makeup — are best at ...","published_at":"2022-09-28T21:31:46Z","author_name":"Brennan White","url":"/feed/158480","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/feed/158480"},{"id":157902,"entity_id":"wefunder:feed_item:157902","type":"FeedItem::Update","visibility":"public","title":"Cortex Usage Beats Estimates!","preview":"Hello fam, sharing a very exciting update today. As we shared recently, Cortex's free tier is live and is growing very fast. Today, I get to begin to share HOW fast and some detail about that usage. We've been sitting on this data for a few weeks to let it bake completely, but now I can begin to share the data more freely. Stay tuned over the next few weeks for lots of deep usage and user growth data. I promise you won't be disappointed. :)Last month we shared three predictions for Freemium. ...","published_at":"2022-09-16T17:58:00Z","author_name":"Brennan White","url":"/feed/157902","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/feed/157902"},{"id":157640,"entity_id":"wefunder:feed_item:157640","type":"FeedItem::Update","visibility":"public","title":"Cortex-Free is LIVE + Growing, Cortex's Total Addressable Market is huge!","preview":"Hello Fam, short, but exciting update here. Stay tuned over the next few weeks for several exciting updates.The only free creative data platformCortex Freemium was completed and launched much sooner than expected. This means the creative industry finally has its only free creative data platform. This means every marketer, advertiser, designer, market researcher... every person that works with photos or videos, now has the option to work smarter, faster, and more effectively with no financial ...","published_at":"2022-08-23T00:50:14Z","author_name":"Brennan White","url":"/feed/157640","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/feed/157640"},{"id":156586,"entity_id":"wefunder:feed_item:156586","type":"FeedItem::Update","visibility":"public","title":"Building A Free Cortex","preview":"Hello Fam! I hope everyone's Q2 was delightful. It's been a very fun one for us at Cortex and we have a big update that we're excited to be able to share a bit about today.The MissionSince Day 1 the mission of Cortex has been to \"unlock the power of the world's creatives.\" Every day, that mission is what keeps the Cortex Team working passionately and at a high level. The world needs what we have built and we're working like crazy to make it available to everyone.The Limiting FactorOne thing t...","published_at":"2022-07-13T15:41:55Z","author_name":"Brennan White","url":"/feed/156586","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/feed/156586"},{"id":155200,"entity_id":"wefunder:feed_item:155200","type":"FeedItem::Update","visibility":"public","title":"New Product Capabilities - Demographics!","preview":"Hello team! Today we're happy to share an\u0026nbsp;exciting new product milestone\u0026nbsp;with you.The most customer-requested new capability for Cortex over the past year has been the ability to slice all of our data by demographics and geography. That feature set is\u0026nbsp;now live for all customers!Now every customer of Cortex can know exactly what content works for any subset of their audience - any channel, any location, any demographic. Never before, have creatives been able to know what they ne...","published_at":"2022-05-02T16:27:00Z","author_name":"Brennan White","url":"/feed/155200","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/feed/155200"},{"id":153426,"entity_id":"wefunder:feed_item:153426","type":"FeedItem::Update","visibility":"public","title":"Thanks! - Cortex Lands a New Reseller - WON","preview":"Hello fam, well that was an amazing campaign. Thanks to each of you who participated.As promised, we've moved to a less frequent cadence of updates for a while to spare your inboxes.That said, I have a quick update for everyone that I'd like to share. Today, Cortex announces that it has entered an agreement with WON, a Belgium-based technology partner. WON has over two decades of experience working with large multinationals like Philips and Stellentis in the European market.WON will help expa...","published_at":"2022-03-08T15:27:18Z","author_name":"Brennan White","url":"/feed/153426","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/feed/153426"},{"id":152925,"entity_id":"wefunder:feed_item:152925","type":"FeedItem::Update","visibility":"public","title":"L'Oréal Renews - One Day Left","preview":"Hello everyone, there is\u0026nbsp;one day left to invest\u0026nbsp;in Cortex. Thanks SO much for the support thus far. I'm excited to close out our second successful crowdfunding campaign in the past 13 months.As the campaign comes to a close, the Cortex Team wants to share\u0026nbsp;one of the most exciting updates.Cortex's largest customer, and one of the world's leading cosmetics brands,\u0026nbsp;L'Oréal has renewed its subscription for another year.With dozens of the best skincare, haircare, and cosmetics ...","published_at":"2022-02-21T21:45:21Z","author_name":"Brennan White","url":"/feed/152925","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/feed/152925"},{"id":152923,"entity_id":"wefunder:feed_item:152923","type":"FeedItem::Update","visibility":"public","title":"900 Investors! THANK YOU","preview":"Thanks to the whole Cortex Fam for the support as we have one day left in our second crowdfunding campaign. We've just crossed 900 new investors with this round. Combined with our first campaign here on Wefunder that means we have added over 2,000 individuals to the Cortex Fam in the past year.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;We're honored and truly thankful.\u0026nbsp;Stay tuned for a couple final updates from the campaign!","published_at":"2022-02-21T21:24:26Z","author_name":"Brennan White","url":"/feed/152923","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/feed/152923"},{"id":152900,"entity_id":"wefunder:feed_item:152900","type":"FeedItem::Update","visibility":"public","title":"TWO DAYS LEFT! - A Customer Returns for More - John Frieda","preview":"Hello Fam, First, a quick housekeeping note:There are TWO DAYS LEFT to invest.\u0026nbsp;This is not a drill. If you're one of the hundreds of people following this campaign for weeks, now is the time to act. In our last crowdfunding campaign one year ago, several people waited until the last day, had some issue or another, and were left out of the campaign.As you can see, they missed out on a lot of value this past year. Make sure you take action soon if you're so inclined so you can avoid that f...","published_at":"2022-02-21T01:11:58Z","author_name":"Brennan White","url":"/feed/152900","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/feed/152900"},{"id":152887,"entity_id":"wefunder:feed_item:152887","type":"FeedItem::Update","visibility":"public","title":"3 Days Left! - Creative Insights for Crowdfunders, Straight from Cortex","preview":"Hey Fam, Since we only have\u0026nbsp;a few days\u0026nbsp;left in the campaign, we thought it would be fun to turn Cortex’s AI technology on the crowdfunding space and leave our friends at Republic with some marketing insights they can use for future campaigns.\u0026nbsp;For some of you, this may just be a fun and interesting glimpse into an ultra-basic use case of Cortex. For others, this might be useful for you as you plan to launch your own equity crowdfunding campaigns. Of the hundreds of findings, her...","published_at":"2022-02-19T22:33:16Z","author_name":"Brennan White","url":"/feed/152887","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/feed/152887"},{"id":152831,"entity_id":"wefunder:feed_item:152831","type":"FeedItem::Update","visibility":"public","title":"4 DAYS LEFT - Cortex adds a customer - Insign LA","preview":"Hello fam! There are four days left in the campaign. It's truly hard to believe it's gone so fast.\u0026nbsp;The Cortex team wanted to share one final update before the holiday weekend: Cortex has added Insign LA to the growing list of agencies that rely on Cortex's data.Based in both Los Angeles and Paris,\u0026nbsp;Insign LA\u0026nbsp;is known for its capability to provide strategic insights to its clients. Who better for Cortex to work with than a company devoted to making other companies better at their...","published_at":"2022-02-18T17:46:58Z","author_name":"Brennan White","url":"/feed/152831","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/feed/152831"},{"id":152814,"entity_id":"wefunder:feed_item:152814","type":"FeedItem::Update","visibility":"public","title":"Cortex Adds a Customer - Ben \u0026amp; Jerry's - 6 Days Left!","preview":"Hey fam, I have a\u0026nbsp;tasty\u0026nbsp;one for you today.I'm pleased to share that the king of euphoric ice cream,\u0026nbsp;Ben \u0026 Jerry's, is a customer of Cortex.\u0026nbsp;By tapping into Cortex's data, this special brand guarantees that only their award-winning ice cream, and not their creative strategy, is\u0026nbsp;Half-Baked.Ben \u0026 Jerry's is yet another world-class Cortex customer in one of the largest markets for advertising — food and beverage.As one of two friends from New England who founded a company...","published_at":"2022-02-18T00:37:10Z","author_name":"Brennan White","url":"/feed/152814","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/feed/152814"},{"id":152745,"entity_id":"wefunder:feed_item:152745","type":"FeedItem::Update","visibility":"public","title":"800 Investors! - Seven Days Left - Thank you","preview":"Hey Cortex fam, a short thank you today as we cross\u0026nbsp;800 investors\u0026nbsp;with\u0026nbsp;7 DAYS LEFT in the campaign. Click here to reserve your spot.It's amazing to connect with each of you and welcome you and your support of the mission. Adding 800+ people to the family in a few short weeks shows exactly how powerful this mission (and opportunity) is.\u0026nbsp;THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT. The Cortex Team is super excited to show you what they can do.A sneak peak at the updates coming over the final we...","published_at":"2022-02-15T17:59:34Z","author_name":"Brennan White","url":"/feed/152745","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/feed/152745"},{"id":152685,"entity_id":"wefunder:feed_item:152685","type":"FeedItem::Update","visibility":"public","title":"10 Days Left! - Returning Customer! - Bioré","preview":"Hello fam! There are\u0026nbsp;10 days left\u0026nbsp;to invest in Cortex in what is likely to be\u0026nbsp;the very last opportunity\u0026nbsp;for regular folks to get involved. After this campaign, Venture Capital will likely be Cortex's exclusive path to capital.If you're considering, or you think someone you know wants to be involved with Cortex, make sure to\u0026nbsp;take action in the coming days.Also, we have yet another exciting customer update to share. This time, it's a\u0026nbsp;happy customer returning for mo...","published_at":"2022-02-11T19:49:42Z","author_name":"Brennan White","url":"/feed/152685","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/feed/152685"},{"id":152654,"entity_id":"wefunder:feed_item:152654","type":"FeedItem::Update","visibility":"public","title":"Cortex Adds a Reseller - Edelman","preview":"Hello fam! As we come into the final two weeks of the fundraising campaign on Republic, we have so much news to share it's scary. As a heads up, we'll likely be sharing\u0026nbsp;at least one update every weekday from here on out. Please bear with us. Lots of good things happening.I promise we'll give your inboxes a bit of a break after the end of the campaign.That said, today I have another exciting update for you all.The Cortex Team is thrilled\u0026nbsp;to share news of another\u0026nbsp;Cortex reseller ...","published_at":"2022-02-10T21:34:01Z","author_name":"Brennan White","url":"/feed/152654","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/feed/152654"},{"id":152575,"entity_id":"wefunder:feed_item:152575","type":"FeedItem::Update","visibility":"public","title":"Two Weeks Left! - Cortex Adds a Reseller - Venebles Bell + Partners","preview":"Hello Fam, comin' in HOT with another quick win to share. But first, a heads up:There are TWO WEEKS LEFT in Cortex's Republic Campaign. Time truly does fly these days. If you are following this deal and considering investment, make sure to reserve your spot soon.Without further ado, the aforementioned win:It's our great pleasure to share another win on the Cortex reseller-partner front -\u0026nbsp;Venebles Bell.Venebles Bell is a full-service advertising and marketing agency that offers soup-to-nu...","published_at":"2022-02-08T19:37:16Z","author_name":"Brennan White","url":"/feed/152575","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/feed/152575"},{"id":152447,"entity_id":"wefunder:feed_item:152447","type":"FeedItem::Update","visibility":"public","title":"Cortex Adds a New Customer! - SONY","preview":"Hey Cortex Fam, I've been talking a big game about big news coming up. Today, with\u0026nbsp;less than three weeks left in the Republic Fundraising campaign,\u0026nbsp;the Cortex Team is delivering on that promise, BIG TIME.Today, the Cortex Team is proud to announce\u0026nbsp;SONY as a Cortex customer.If you need a reminder of who Sony is, check out the summary at the bottom of this post. This win is important for Cortex on several fronts beyond revenue:Sony is another MAJOR name to Cortex's growing list o...","published_at":"2022-02-02T18:51:32Z","author_name":"Brennan White","url":"/feed/152447","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/feed/152447"},{"id":152427,"entity_id":"wefunder:feed_item:152427","type":"FeedItem::Update","visibility":"public","title":"THANK YOU - Cortex Begins Rolling Close - 3 WEEKS LEFT","preview":"A HUGE THANKS is in order for YOU, the Cortex Fam.\u0026nbsp;Today Cortex closed on\u0026nbsp;over $400,000 from the Republic campaign. Thanks to each of you, the Cortex Team can immediately put this capital to work hiring, growing, and otherwise stepping things up!\u0026nbsp;As there are only\u0026nbsp;THREE WEEKS LEFT\u0026nbsp;in the campaign, we look forward to raising even more and taking even larger strides.This is the last planned equity crowd fundraising campaign for Cortex, so make sure you get your final in...","published_at":"2022-02-02T00:17:39Z","author_name":"Brennan White","url":"/feed/152427","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/feed/152427"},{"id":152355,"entity_id":"wefunder:feed_item:152355","type":"FeedItem::Update","visibility":"public","title":"A Deep Dive - How Cortex Acquires Users","preview":"Hey Fam, excited to share a bit more detail in today's update.\u0026nbsp;You've all probably seen the headlines - that\u0026nbsp;Cortex has grown users 10% weekly\u0026nbsp;since the launch of our self-sign-up platform. But recently, lots of you have been asking to learn more about how Cortex acquires users. We've decided to share a lot more info here to provide that visibility.By the end of this update, you'll have a clearer picture of the methods employed by the Growth team to acquire users and have a cle...","published_at":"2022-01-29T00:12:11Z","author_name":"Brennan White","url":"/feed/152355","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/feed/152355"},{"id":152267,"entity_id":"wefunder:feed_item:152267","type":"FeedItem::Update","visibility":"public","title":"Major Customer Renewal - Myer - One Month Left in the Republic Campaign!","preview":"Hello fam, as we enter\u0026nbsp;the final month of the fundraising campaign on Republic, keep your eyes peeled for some of Cortex's most exciting updates yet... like the one Cortex is sharing today:The Cortex Team is proud to announce an annual contract renewal of one of Cortex's best customers -\u0026nbsp;Myer. For those of you located in or with connections to Australia, you'll recognize Myer as the publicly-traded\u0026nbsp;$1.9B (USD) revenue retail leader\u0026nbsp;with over 50 stores nationwide across all...","published_at":"2022-01-25T23:11:40Z","author_name":"Brennan White","url":"/feed/152267","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/feed/152267"},{"id":151147,"entity_id":"wefunder:feed_item:151147","type":"FeedItem::Update","visibility":"public","title":"An Offer for YOU - Cortex Trial for Investors","preview":"Hello Fam, we value your support tremendously want to start giving back immediately.Also, recently, we've had several investors reach out to us about using Cortex for themselves professionally.To kill two birds with one stone, we've created a two-week,\u0026nbsp;free\u0026nbsp;trial of Cortex that we're extending to our entire family (you).If you guys work in a creative field — marketing, advertising, product, etc. and you think you'd benefit from visual data about your company, competitors, your indus...","published_at":"2021-12-17T16:21:08Z","author_name":"Brennan White","url":"/feed/151147","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/feed/151147"},{"id":150965,"entity_id":"wefunder:feed_item:150965","type":"FeedItem::Update","visibility":"public","title":"You can help! - The Voice of Creativity Podcast - 10th Episode","preview":"Hello Cortex Fam,\u0026nbsp;Now that Cortex's AI enables creative workers to stop guessing, stop stressing, and stop risking their careers on each new campaign, one of the Cortex Team's focuses is to make sure\u0026nbsp;every creative on Earth\u0026nbsp;knows this technology exists.To further this part of the mission, you might remember that earlier this year, Cortex's CEO Brennan White joined the board of\u0026nbsp;International Advertising Association. Being deeply connected to the oldest and most global assoc...","published_at":"2021-12-09T18:50:51Z","author_name":"Brennan White","url":"/feed/150965","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/feed/150965"}],"q_and_a":[{"id":122318,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:122318","question":"Hi Matt, thanks for the thoughtful answer. I am glad to have invested and may do more. The more I think about it, the more I like your moat - having that amount of data may be even better than a patent because there is no work-around when it comes to data! Can you clarify a few things from your financials? At a run rate of 31K/month it would appear that your revenue for 2020 will be lower than 2019. Am I understanding that correctly? Also, your monthly burn now is 84K, so even if this doesn't improve you have 4-5 months of cash in the bank and another 4-5 months raised here. You hope to be profitable in 10 months, but you also think it's likely you'll need to raise more money. These two projections seem to say different things. Finally, your projection gets to around 200K/month revenue starting in March, as opposed to 30-50K now. What are the expenses that go up that prevent another 150K or more of revenue erasing the 84K burn?","author_name":"Alan Jacobson","votes":3,"created_at":"2020-12-31T12:48:25Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/cortex#question-122318","answers":[{"id":125559,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:125559","answer":"Thanks Alan, we’re excited to have you on the journey with us. We agree that having the data moat is the strongest moat out there! Happy to further clarify some things. Our projections are aligned, but I can see the confusion. We do expect to be profitable this year, But simultaneously, we will likely raise more capital to expand our lead in the market. There is a lot to be said for fueling super aggressive growth which might be best achieved with new capital from a Series A. Achieving profitability gives us flexibility and allows us to raise from a position of strength. Regarding burn, I just want to clarify that we are projecting $200k in revenue in Q1 of this year, not $200k/month in revenue. However, even with that clarification, our revenue growth over the next three quarters will erase our net burn, hence getting to profitability. The burn isn’t instantly erased because we’re hiring and increasing our advertising spend at the same time as the revenue is jumping up.","author_name":"Matt Peters","votes":0,"created_at":"2021-01-20T14:54:29Z"}]},{"id":132135,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:132135","question":"any chance to get an answer to my question from 19 feb? thanks","author_name":"Vlad Sandu","votes":2,"created_at":"2021-02-23T20:11:44Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/cortex#question-132135","answers":[]},{"id":118075,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:118075","question":"Hi, Exciting company and congratulations on the revenue growth. I'm doing some due diligence with a friend and have a few questions to start: 1) From your revenue figures, it looks like you have 11 employees making. Could you comment on number of employees in relation to the size of the company and the $464k payroll breakdown? 2) How many are full time vs part time employees? Are Brennan and Matthew full time or part time? 3) Putting the convertible notes aside, you have about $350k of current debt that is due within a year. How do you plan on paying this back? If it is from the proceeds of this round, how much do you think you'll have left to help with the company's growth? 4) Where are the $115k goodwill coming from? Did your company acquire another company and if so, can you elaborate? Thanks, Moe","author_name":"Moe Hakim","votes":2,"created_at":"2020-12-08T18:00:54Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/cortex#question-118075","answers":[{"id":118226,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:118226","answer":"Hi Moe, Thanks for your questions. 1) We currently have 12 employees, seven of those employees are focused on product/engineering and that team includes some full-time off-shore developers to allow us to be super efficient with our money while delivering the best possible product to our customers. Also, note that the two founders are not taking a salary yet. 2) We currently have 11 full time employees and 1 part time employee. Both Brennan and Matt are full time. 3) Most of our debt was in the form of convertible notes, all of which converted into equity during our equity round in August 2020. At this time the only major debt is the RevUp note listed in our disclosures. We do not anticipate any need to use proceeds from this round to pay debt. 4) The original technology for Cortex was developed at the founders’ first company. We spun that technology out into its own company (Cortex). For this spinout, we had the technology/IP/assets independently valued, which is where the $115k number comes from.","author_name":"Matt Peters","votes":1,"created_at":"2020-12-09T16:06:25Z"}]},{"id":305138,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:305138","question":"Where can I find a copy of the dissolution paperwork? The link has expired, and I lost track of the one I had previously.","author_name":"Kyle Michael Tavares","votes":1,"created_at":"2025-04-01T17:37:18Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/cortex#question-305138","answers":[]},{"id":209485,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:209485","question":"Good Morning or it is in my world of Alaska, I was just wondering if you had any recent updates. I haven't heard from you for a very long time and I like to hear from my investments once in awhile I get a little lonely when I don't hear anything, any news you'd like to share????? Mary Richards Wasilla Alaska","author_name":"Mary Richards","votes":1,"created_at":"2022-06-26T17:37:41Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/cortex#question-209485","answers":[]},{"id":178121,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:178121","question":"wow interesting that I stumbled onto a new cortex raise over on republic ... maybe we should have received some communication??","author_name":"Paul J Chambers","votes":1,"created_at":"2021-11-07T17:32:57Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/cortex#question-178121","answers":[{"id":178220,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:178220","answer":"We were waiting until the platform fixed some bugs around committing (most of the investing options were disabled). Now that they're fixed, the updates just went out. Thanks to all who found us already. We've seen several familiar folks in the round already.","author_name":"Brennan White","votes":0,"created_at":"2021-11-08T18:52:29Z"}]},{"id":153848,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:153848","question":"What is happening, I have not heard any updates?","author_name":"Kathy Stanley","votes":1,"created_at":"2021-06-16T00:42:34Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/cortex#question-153848","answers":[{"id":163202,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:163202","answer":"We've recently teased out our next slew of updates. Many more to come around our upcoming fundraise. Stay tuned.","author_name":"Brennan White","votes":0,"created_at":"2021-08-12T16:57:20Z"}]},{"id":152796,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:152796","question":"Crickets ....","author_name":"Paul J Chambers","votes":1,"created_at":"2021-06-05T05:10:26Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/cortex#question-152796","answers":[{"id":160417,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:160417","answer":"We've just shot out our teaser update to everyone. Lots of news to come. Thanks for your patience.","author_name":"Brennan White","votes":0,"created_at":"2021-07-29T17:25:48Z"}]},{"id":132026,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:132026","question":"just missed out will there be another round ?","author_name":"Ali Ali","votes":1,"created_at":"2021-02-23T06:26:10Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/cortex#question-132026","answers":[{"id":160420,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:160420","answer":"Hi Ali, Good news - yes. We've just shared an update about that. Stay tuned to see how you will be able to participate.","author_name":"Brennan White","votes":0,"created_at":"2021-07-29T17:28:11Z"},{"id":191459,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:191459","answer":"Two weeks left in the 2nd Campaign. I'm following up here so you get the chance if you're still interested. https://republic.com/cortex","author_name":"Brennan White","votes":0,"created_at":"2022-02-07T22:15:28Z"}]},{"id":131960,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:131960","question":"Do you have social media pages (Facebook, Instagram) that we can share?","author_name":"Craig J. Vom Lehn","votes":1,"created_at":"2021-02-22T21:01:20Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/cortex#question-131960","answers":[{"id":133493,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:133493","answer":"We generally stick to Twitter and Linkedin, but aren't super active on either quite yet: https://www.linkedin.com/company/11218803 https://twitter.com/meetcortex Please feel free to follow us and/or share!","author_name":"Brennan White","votes":0,"created_at":"2021-03-04T19:06:52Z"}]},{"id":131958,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:131958","question":"Do you intend to pay a dividend?","author_name":"Craig J. Vom Lehn","votes":1,"created_at":"2021-02-22T20:50:48Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/cortex#question-131958","answers":[]},{"id":131407,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:131407","question":"Hi , Looking forward to invest in your cool company , I have 2+ questions: - Any plans to tackle the affective computing industry ? - The 600k revenue … is solely coming from Cortex API licensing? if yes, can you be so kind to detailthe amount on upsell / renewal/new business ? Thank you, Vlad","author_name":"Vlad Sandu","votes":1,"created_at":"2021-02-19T08:39:40Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/cortex#question-131407","answers":[]},{"id":130080,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:130080","question":"Hi Brennen, Great initiative! As you know I have a keen interest in the automated creative content research and testing space. There is so much waste in this domain with publishing creatives that do not work as well as those that are based on research/testing. Regarding the investment - can you share some details around governance such as: how often the board meets, are annual shareholder meeting dates set, how are decisions made....?","author_name":"John Lindsay","votes":1,"created_at":"2021-02-11T17:27:05Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/cortex#question-130080","answers":[]},{"id":129974,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:129974","question":"Hi Matt, You and your team have an awesome vision - one that will take Cortex places. I just added to my investment and may investment before funding closes in about a week or so. I think you may have already answered this question, but I will ask anyway just for clarification. At what rate do you see your quarterly revenue grow in terms of percentage? I know it is hard to quantify future revenue, but perhaps you can give me a ballpark figure. In the meantime, great job on extending your contract with Toyota. I hope that the Olympics will happen in Japan this year. Keep up the good work!","author_name":"Jilani Warsi","votes":1,"created_at":"2021-02-11T02:21:30Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/cortex#question-129974","answers":[{"id":130293,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:130293","answer":"Hi Jilani, thanks for your question and investment! Glad to have you along for the ride. Our annual goals for the next two years (broken down by quarter) are in the Overview section of this Wefunder profile. You can check that out for more detail if you'd like. That said, we're targeting a tripling of revenue this year and another tripling the following year as well. Thanks so much for the kind words about Toyota. We're excited to work with such a tremendous brand and share your hope for the Olympics!","author_name":"Brennan White","votes":0,"created_at":"2021-02-12T19:16:46Z"}]},{"id":129626,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:129626","question":"What if any is your “unfair competitive advantage”?","author_name":"James Bellefeuille","votes":1,"created_at":"2021-02-09T21:00:58Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/cortex#question-129626","answers":[{"id":129751,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:129751","answer":"We have three that I'd call out here. 1. We're the only technology that predicts how humans will react to something that they see. This was a huge breakthrough to build that hasn't been replicated by other parties. 2. Our data and machine learning model lead - We have dozens of partnerships and proprietary data from dozens of the world's best brands that others don't have access to. The system automatically determines where custom machine learning models are needed, so our years building this product have created an uncatchable lead. 3. Our Team - with the core Cortex team we combined rare machine learning academic experience with unique ML product experience, award winning content creation work, with top-tier enterprise sales capability to global brands. That combination of extremely rare skills gives us a very unfair advantage","author_name":"Brennan White","votes":1,"created_at":"2021-02-10T16:03:08Z"}]},{"id":129434,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:129434","question":"Hi, How long does the $10k pilot run before converting to an annual subscription model? With the pilot program, are clients able to see the value in the standard solution? or are they requesting customizations at this stage? Are custom model premiums per brand or per company? Are custom premiums fixed amounts or depending on the level of customization?","author_name":"Duke Duncan","votes":1,"created_at":"2021-02-09T04:13:58Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/cortex#question-129434","answers":[{"id":129753,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:129753","answer":"Hi Duke, thanks for your interest. The pilot converts when the customer is ready. Sometimes they convert in a week, but more often they take 3-6 weeks. The pilot is the \"wow moment\" where the clients see the value in having access to this kind of data perpetually. It has over 100% conversion rate so far (sometimes one pilot leads to multiple licenses). All pricing is per brand, for pilots, custom models, or licenses. Custom models pricing varies depending on customization. Thanks!","author_name":"Brennan White","votes":1,"created_at":"2021-02-10T16:08:08Z"}]},{"id":120729,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:120729","question":"Hi, Congrats on the success so far. I have few questions before I invest. 1) What is the revenue and P\u0026amp;L in 2020(Atleast till Nov 2020)? I could see them only for 2018 and 2019. 2) What is the company's short term and long term plan with respect to growth and revenue? 3) What is the company's short term and long term plan with respect to Product as such? 4) How is the Valuation of 8.42 M arrived? 5) I see the Company is founded in 2014. When is the first revenue generated for the company? I could see revenues starting from 2018. Does that mean there was no revenue for the first 4 years of the company? If so, May I know the reason for the delay in generating revenue? 6) What is the company's exit plan in future? IS it going to be IPO or Acquisition by another larger company? Thanks, Dunet.","author_name":"Dunet King Lenin","votes":1,"created_at":"2020-12-22T19:43:34Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/cortex#question-120729","answers":[{"id":125472,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:125472","answer":"Thanks for your interest, Dunet. To jump right in: 1. We’ll be sharing this info with our investors as soon as the end of year docs are completed. 2. We anticipate achieving $2 million in revenue in 2021 and $6 million in 2022, from direct sales of Cortex’s software platform to a specific list of companies. Longer term, the Cortex API, and expanding customers on Cortex’s software platform, will enable growth to accelerate at an even faster rate. 3. In the medium term, the team is laser-focused on selling the current software to a select subset of the world’s best companies in the industries where we already have strong traction. Longer term, the Cortex API will become more important to the business as it begins to deliver Cortex’s insights everywhere Cortex customers do their work. 4. Immediately prior to this Wefunder campaign, Cortex raised capital from angels and VCs we met throughout Techstars and via Demo Day. This valuation was derived for that investment round and was duplicated for Wefunder so investors on Wefunder benefitted from the same valuation chosen by professional investors. 5. Cortex Studio first began selling in 2018. In prior years there was revenue as we validated the technology and the various use cases Cortex customers were asking for. 6. Cortex has built the only technology in an entirely new category. There is an opportunity to build a category-defining company, like a Salesforce, and go IPO. The team is focused on building toward that outcome. Happy New Year!","author_name":"Brennan White","votes":0,"created_at":"2021-01-20T00:28:12Z"}]},{"id":118061,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:118061","question":"Hi Cortex Team, Congrats on the success so far. B2B/Marketing SaaS has become one of my main investment theses, so I was particularly excited to check out Cortex. One of my readers passed along your deal to me and asked for my thoughts. I'm writing a first pass of a deal memo (https://www.muhanzhang.com/cortex/) which will be published soon and had the outstanding questions below: 1. Technology: if possible, would it be possible for your VP Engineering to give some more detail about how your technology works? At a minimum, what your stack looks like? I understand trade secrets, but I'd love to hear more about how your technology is really novel. Feel free to speak a little jargon to me, I have a technical background and am not afraid of Google :) Alternatively if you're really protective of this information, feel free to reach out to my email and I'd love to learn more in a private channel, though I imagine many investors would love to how you're implementing ML/AI as company. 2. Strategic Positioning on the Food Chain: I invested in two other marketing SaaS companies: Insense and Rad. The former is doing similar analysis to you, but focusing on a fully integrated digital marketing solution a la AdMob/Social Native/etc. and the latter is building a distribution marketplace for micro SMBs and influencers that historically has been too low value to serve. How do you see yourself playing in this ecosystem? You can check out those deal memos on my site at muhanzhang.com/coName if you're unfamiliar with the companies. 3. Scale: I noticed your debt increased 187%, while you reported a profit in 2019. Was the money that would have been your burn (by my calculation, roughly $500k) financed into debt? Financing by venture debt is a sensible solution, though I'd love to hear more about finance strategy. This ties into my possible concern that at present you're more of a tech-enabled digital agency, where your B2B customers still want your consulting, and the tech is a vitamin (a la in the video you demonstrated,) rather than a pure B2B SaaS play where marketers are willing to pay just for your platform and then self-serve. I love the strategic pricing underneath procurement thresholds and financing early product development with customer revenue, leaning into your B2B expertise, and would like to hear your sales strategy roadmap in the next 18-24 months. Thanks in advance for your responses. Bests, Muhan https://www.muhanzhang.com/cortex/","author_name":"Muhan Zhang","votes":1,"created_at":"2020-12-08T14:48:36Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/cortex#question-118061","answers":[{"id":118342,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:118342","answer":"Hi Muhan, As you suggested, we’ve reached out to you directly for some of your more detailed questions, but I’ll also include a few points below. Regarding the short-term debt, you can see in Cortex’s reviewed financials that this was actually not an increase in debt, but simply convertible notes moving from long-term to short-term debt on the balance sheet. Cortex had no meaningful increase in total debt in 2019 and, as described in the disclosures, all convertible notes were converted during the equity round in August of 2020. Regarding being a tech-enabled digital agency, that is not the case. Cortex does not provide consulting or agency services. Cortex customers use the software themselves, applying those insights into planning, production, distribution, etc. - it’s all SaaS.","author_name":"Matt Peters","votes":0,"created_at":"2020-12-10T00:31:59Z"}]},{"id":116920,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:116920","question":"Very interested in this opportunity. Some questions before I pull the trigger investment-wise: 1. Historically, what percent of your customers have renewed their annual subscription? What's currently the longest tenure? 2. Do you plan to offer any services to companies on a \"one-off\" or \"as-needed\" basis in addition to the established retainer approach? 3. When will the pending graphics in this pitch be available? Particularly eager to see revenue growth specifics. 4. What happened to the successful marketing agency that two of Cortex's founders built previously? Is it still operational? Why launch a new venture if that one was going well? Thanks in advance for your feedback; all the best either way. :-)","author_name":"Kenneth Alan Jackson, Jr.","votes":1,"created_at":"2020-12-02T15:06:06Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/cortex#question-116920","answers":[{"id":118775,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:118775","answer":"Many thanks for your thoughtful questions, Kenneth. To jump right in: 1. 100% of customers using Cortex Studio have renewed, but that’s not the right metric to use here. Our current annual subscription packages are somewhat new and most customers are in their first year, so a renewal percentage isn’t a large sample set. We do have many proof points of customers wanting more. For example, we’ve recently had extension and/or expansion from all of the recent renewal opportunities, including companies like Marriott, KAO, and L’Oreal. Details on those expansions/extensions will be included in the updates section of Wefunder, stay tuned to learn more about those. 2. We offer non-recurring pilots. Our sales strategy is to sell a non-recurring pilot then upgrade to a recurring subscription. In addition to providing upfront injections of revenue, we find pilots to be the best way to establish a beachhead with a new company. The “wow moment” for our customers happens the first time they see Cortex’s insights about their audiences. Pilots shorten the time to that wow moment. 3. Everything is now available on our profile. Thanks for your patience. 4. We grew our first company into an award-winning digital agency with a global client roster that made the INC 5000 multiple years and it’s still operating today. Its focus enabled us to discover the huge problem Cortex solves and its financial success put us in the position to fund the start of Cortex with our own money. When we created Cortex and saw the enormous potential of solving this $600 billion problem, we realized that Cortex was a much larger opportunity so we put new leaders in place at our first company so that we could step away and focus on Cortex full-time.","author_name":"Brennan White","votes":2,"created_at":"2020-12-12T00:08:35Z"}]},{"id":265741,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:265741","question":"Why aren't there any investor updates available?","author_name":"Hubertus Ulrich Schubert","votes":0,"created_at":"2023-10-16T19:37:38Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/cortex#question-265741","answers":[]},{"id":265597,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:265597","question":"Where do I have to look for the password?","author_name":"Ran DIM","votes":0,"created_at":"2023-10-14T19:52:06Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/cortex#question-265597","answers":[]},{"id":263952,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:263952","question":"I read on kingscrowd that Cortex is INACTIVE and closed SHOP??","author_name":"Rahul Patel","votes":0,"created_at":"2023-10-03T13:25:29Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/cortex#question-263952","answers":[]},{"id":258493,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:258493","question":"I guess the worlds best brands are spending their 600 billion elsewhere. As noted in so many posts, we hardly ever received investor updates. In hindsight, that was a flashing red light that the Cortex experience would not end well. Not all startups operate that way, only the bad ones.","author_name":"B Begin","votes":0,"created_at":"2023-08-15T23:03:21Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/cortex#question-258493","answers":[]},{"id":255998,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:255998","question":"Are there any updates since March 2023?","author_name":"Cory Merrill","votes":0,"created_at":"2023-07-28T16:08:17Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/cortex#question-255998","answers":[]},{"id":246979,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:246979","question":"Why do I never hear from your company? cathyprice1@charter.net","author_name":"Cathy Price","votes":0,"created_at":"2023-05-15T13:21:02Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/cortex#question-246979","answers":[]}],"faq":[{"question":"Very interested in this opportunity. Some questions before I pull the trigger investment-wise: 1. Historically, what percent of your customers have renewed their annual subscription? What's currently the longest tenure? 2. Do you plan to offer any services to companies on a \"o...","answer":"Many thanks for your thoughtful questions, Kenneth. To jump right in: 1. 100% of customers using Cortex Studio have renewed, but that’s not the right metric to use here. Our current annual subscription packages are somewhat new and most customers are in their first year, so a renewal percentage isn’t a large sample set. We do have many proof points of customers wanting more. For example, we’ve recently had extension and/or expansion from all of the recent renewal opportunities, including comp..."},{"question":"Hi Cortex Team, Congrats on the success so far. B2B/Marketing SaaS has become one of my main investment theses, so I was particularly excited to check out Cortex. One of my readers passed along your deal to me and asked for my thoughts. I'm writing a first pass of a deal memo ...","answer":"Hi Muhan, As you suggested, we’ve reached out to you directly for some of your more detailed questions, but I’ll also include a few points below. Regarding the short-term debt, you can see in Cortex’s reviewed financials that this was actually not an increase in debt, but simply convertible notes moving from long-term to short-term debt on the balance sheet. Cortex had no meaningful increase in total debt in 2019 and, as described in the disclosures, all convertible notes were converted durin..."},{"question":"Hi, Exciting company and congratulations on the revenue growth. I'm doing some due diligence with a friend and have a few questions to start: 1) From your revenue figures, it looks like you have 11 employees making. Could you comment on number of employees in relation to the s...","answer":"Hi Moe, Thanks for your questions. 1) We currently have 12 employees, seven of those employees are focused on product/engineering and that team includes some full-time off-shore developers to allow us to be super efficient with our money while delivering the best possible product to our customers. Also, note that the two founders are not taking a salary yet. 2) We currently have 11 full time employees and 1 part time employee. Both Brennan and Matt are full time. 3) Most of our debt was in th..."},{"question":"Hi Cortex Team, To me the value proposition stacks up. The question then becomes whether the technology works. Would be fantastic if you could advise on the following questions: 1. What is your churn rate? 2. What is your net promoter score (if available)? 3. What percentage o...","answer":"Thanks for the kind words, Max. 1 + 3. (I’ve combined parts of your first and third questions. Also, I’ve pasted from a similar question in this forum, then added to it.) 100% of customers using Cortex Studio have renewed, but that’s not the right metric to use here. Our current annual subscription packages are somewhat new and most customers are in their first year, so a renewal percentage isn’t a large sample set. We have many proof points of customers wanting more. For example, we’ve recen..."},{"question":"Hi, lots to like here, congrats on your success so far. Can you say a little more about your moat: Any plans to patent anything? Can you give a laymen's explanation of why the data you've collected gives you a lasting advantage? Anything else about why it would be hard for a d...","answer":"Hi Alan, thanks for your questions. Here’s a little more information. Firstly, yes, Cortex may be pursuing some patents on the technology in the near future, specifically around some of the novel video processing technology we’ve created. Regarding the data, the moat gets bigger every day. Cortex collects massive amounts of data from publicly available sources (like social media) and then uses machine learning to generate proprietary data about the initial data that no one else has. The more ..."}]}}}