The Cortex Playbook: Transitioning from Daily to Quarterly Planning in B2B Tech
Most startups begin in survival mode, counting wins by the hour. In a recent Category Visionaries episode, Cortex CEO Zack Rosenberg revealed how understanding your company’s time horizon is crucial for scaling effectively.
“I often like to ask entrepreneurs, what stage of the business are you in?” Zack explains. “And when I ask that question, I mean it in hours, days, weeks, months, quarters. Very few of us get to the stage where we get to really plan out for a year or longer.”
This evolution in planning horizons marks distinct phases in a company’s growth. Zack recalls the early days: “You’d send out five emails, you’d get a response and be like, ‘oh, my God, I got a response. Somebody wants to talk to me.'” Each response felt like a victory, and planning extended only hours ahead.
The transition away from this hour-by-hour mentality didn’t happen overnight. For Cortex, it began with product-market fit in 2022. “Now I’m moving from month to quarterly,” Zack notes. “I have predictability. I know what I’m going to be working on next month… very different than, again, the day to day or the week to week phase.”
This shift in planning horizon affects every aspect of the business. As Zack explains, “The skillset really does have to adjust to where you are in that timeframe, because you can’t plan out six months ahead if you’re only thinking week to week.”
To illustrate the contrast, Zack shares an insight from the corporate world: “My wife works at Fortune 500. Sometimes she gets to plan out three years in advance. That’s a luxury I’ve never experienced in my career.”
However, longer planning horizons aren’t always better. When a Fortune 500 company’s three-year project failed within six weeks, Zack observed: “Could you imagine planning for anything for three years and then six weeks tanking it? Just unbelievable.”
For B2B founders, recognizing your current time horizon is crucial for:
- Setting appropriate goals and expectations
- Allocating resources effectively
- Developing the right organizational capabilities
- Making strategic versus tactical decisions
The key is matching your planning horizon to your company’s maturity while maintaining the agility to adapt quickly. As Zack’s experience shows, the ability to plan further ahead comes naturally with predictability and stability—forcing it too early can be as dangerous as staying too tactical for too long.
The progression from hourly to quarterly planning isn’t just about having more time—it’s about having more certainty. For founders scaling B2B tech companies, this evolution serves as a crucial indicator of business maturity and strategic readiness.