The Story of Cortex: Building the Decision Engine for Video’s Golden Age

Sometimes the most successful companies emerge from completely different ventures. In a recent Category Visionaries episode, Cortex CEO Zack Rosenberg shared how a struggling sports content business led to an innovative AI platform that’s changing how publishers monetize video content.

The story begins with an ambitious vision: creating the ESPN of tomorrow across social media channels. The company built audiences around niche sports content, from ultimate frisbee to major league eating, attracting 600,000 daily viewers. But there was a catch. As Zack recalls, “If this were on national television, that would be a number one hit. But because we were across social channels, we were making at best $11 a day in revenue.”

This revenue challenge forced creative thinking. The team developed tools enabling local advertisers to embed messaging into their video content. The impact was immediate: “All of a sudden, went from making $11 a day to $1,000 a broadcast.” This pivot revealed a broader opportunity in video monetization.

By late 2019, major media companies including CBS, iHeartMedia, and News12 signed on to test the concept. But launching in January 2021 exposed new challenges. Despite early wins with big publishers, progress stalled. A strategic repositioning in 2022 finally unlocked sustainable growth.

The company’s name, derived from the decision-making part of the brain, reflects its core mission. “Cortex, the name derives from, obviously, the part of the brain that helps make decisions, and that’s exactly what we see ourselves doing for video,” Zack explains. The platform ties advertising outcomes to video content, solving a fundamental challenge in the industry.

The scale of this challenge is staggering. “If you were to sit here and try to watch every video on the Internet today, it would take you 17,000 years to do back to back,” Zack notes. “And that’s if everyone stopped uploading right now.” This makes manual content analysis impossible, necessitating AI-powered solutions.

Looking ahead, Zack sees Cortex playing a pivotal role in what he calls “the golden age of video.” His vision centers on creating personalized experiences without invasive data collection. “I know that if you’re watching golf, you have an affinity towards golf,” he explains. “I don’t need to know if you’re old or young or what gender or religion or any of these sorts of things.”

This approach could fundamentally change how video content is monetized and experienced online. “We have the opportunity right now to bring value to content and what you’re watching and what you’re interested in a way that it’s been done in search for 20 years, but we never had the capacity to do it in video,” Zack says.

From failed sports venture to AI pioneer, Cortex’s journey illustrates how initial setbacks can reveal larger opportunities. By solving the video understanding challenge, they’re not just building a company—they’re creating infrastructure for the next generation of content monetization.