Cortex

Brands spend $600 billion a year on advertising. But without engaging, effective ads, much of that money is wasted.

Cortex helps brands invest this money with confidence.

Its software-as-a-service uses machine learning to predict the performance of visual advertisements. In doing so, it helps brands like Toyota, Oreo, Marriott, Sony, and Accenture save up to 50% of their advertising dollars. And it predicts the performance of marketing visuals before a single dollar is spent.

Cortex was founded by a pair of successful entrepreneurs in the marketing industry. Their previous company was a content marketing agency for Fortune 500 brands that reached $10 million in annual revenue.

Now their focus is on Cortex, whose technology helps brands know what images and videos to create, and what content to promote.

Said Jason Kuruzovich, a data and analytics professor, “I’ve seen the data-driven decision making capabilities Cortex can provide its customers. I’m expecting big things from this team.”

As mentioned, advertising is big business. But with little to no insight into how ads performs, it quickly becomes a risky one.

The main issue is that advertisers only know what works after they’ve spent weeks or months — and millions of dollars — creating content.

If the content works, brands often don’t know why and can’t replicate the success. If it fails, they’ve wasted time and money, and still don’t know what to change.

Solving these issues is Cortex’s main benefit. No other technology can predict how people will react to something they see. (It’s been estimated that humans make 95% of their decisions quickly and on “first sight.”) That means Cortex is in a unique position to solve advertising problems for major brands — before they spend time and money trying to solve them.

Here’s how the company’s software works:

First, software ingests examples of visuals and advertising campaigns. (Cortex analyzes more visual content every 12 hours than a single ad executive can during their entire career.) Content can be from magazine and television ads, social media campaigns, and visuals on websites and mobile apps.

Next, data is enriched using a number of novel approaches that enable Cortex to understand the visuals.

Finally, the company's proprietary algorithm predicts how people will react in the future to various combinations of visual elements. Because the data collection and analysis is done by Artificial Intelligence, there’s no bias. The software can provide clear, unbiased guidance on how companies can improve their visual communications.

Cortex generates revenue through software subscriptions. Annual plans can range from $2,000 to $30,000 a year and come with premiums such as custom data and video analysis.

As of Q3 2021, Cortex had a $300,000 annual run rate. By Q4 2022, the company expects to achieve a $3 million run rate.

Cortex received a $100,000 investment in 2020 from Techstars Boston, a startup accelerator. It’s seeking additional capital to expand its team and secure patents for its technology.

Team Background

Matt Peters - Co-Founder

Matt is a subject matter expert with respect to digital advertising.

Before starting Cortex, he co-founded Pandemic Labs, a social media strategy company that guided content for brands including Canon, Sonic Automotive, and The Ritz-Carlton.

Prior to that, he spent time in the film industry, working for production companies including Warner Brothers, Lionsgate, and Touchstone Television.

He earned a Bachelor’s degree from Emory University.

Brennan White - Co-Founder & CEO

Prior to starting Cortex, Brennan founded Ad Age Collective, an advertising agency that created content for Fortune 500 brands.

Before that, he spent 10 years as Founder of Pandemic Labs, a digital technology company responsible for social media campaigns for enterprise brands. Under his guidance, this company reached $10 million in annual revenue, and was listed among the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing companies.

He earned a degree from Vassar College.

Dung Phan - Data Scientist

Dung is an expert in machine learning and multi objective optimization technologies. Throughout his career, he’s published more than 15 papers on these subject fields.

Prior to joining Cortex in 2015, he worked as a research assistant and teaching assistant at the University of Massachusetts, where he earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science.

Dimitry Kudryavtsev - VP of Engineering

Dimitry has experience building technology systems for startups.

He began his career as a software engineer with Charles River Analytics, a computer software company. He then was a senior software engineer with Wellington Management, an investment management firm.

More recently, he was a software engineer with DataXu, a marketing and advertising company, as well as Roundtown, an events services company. For the past five years, he’s served as a member on the Forbes Technology Council.

Dimitry earned a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Buffalo.

Co-Investors

TechStars

Prominent accelerator for tech companies. Investments include Uber, ClassPass and Twilio.