The Vision

Fine, we'll say it.

Most writing and note-taking apps aren't writing and note-taking apps.

They're word processors. Sometimes with an AI chat tacked on. And to get your writing into those word processors, you need 10 different tabs open. You need your outline, your research, multiple articles, and maybe even a few books on the side. When it comes to note-taking, random ideas pile up in one messy note until you decide to start a new one and let those ideas die.

And what happens when you close that word processor and re-open it? All of your ideas and sources—the things that help you write—are gone. Or you have to open them all again and get back into the flow.

Today's knowledge management apps are great at giving you a place to write or take notes. Or they make you feel productive for building out complex dashboards.

But they fail when it comes to saving, organizing, and discovering the ideas that leads to good writing or creativity in general. They do not help produce creative work. They give you a place to dump information. Small ideas, highlights, and sources don't belong in one long running document that you'll forget about by tomorrow.

Our vision with Kortex is to be a true second brain for creatives.

• Capture any idea from anywhere, with one button click.
• Save any highlight, transcript, or source material in your workspace so you don't have to navigate to different links.
• Connect, organize, and display your ideas all in one place so you don't need to open new tabs as you write.
• Surface the perfect idea right when you need it to help with creative blocks.
• Use the emerging power of AI, not to replace writing or creativity, but to have a PhD level researcher or best-selling editor right by your side.
• Find any idea, even if your workspace has so much information that you thought you'd never find it.

We don't want to build another word processor.

We want to build the first synthesis tool.

We want you to expand the capacity of your brain, navigate through it with clarity, and use it to create good work.

From input to output, not just putting text in a document.

As Kortex evolves, we hope to pave the way for the future of creative work.

For Creators, By Creators

Creators are a special type of person.

They are both businesses and consumers.

They land at the intersection of the B2B and B2C markets, and few people serve that intersection well.

Creators need to be able to:

• Learn like students
• Write like authors
• Research like scientists
• Capture like note-takers
• Synthesize it all together in their work

At any time and any place.

On a walk. At your desk. On a plane without internet.

A single specialized tool can do one of these well, but not all of them.

An "all in one" everything app can do some of these well, but tend to do none of them well, because they are not built for creators.

The founders of Kortex are creators first. They understand how the act of creation isn't a job, it's a lifestyle. We are building Kortex to enhance the creative workflow for both businesses, consumers, and independents by creating a seamless way to learn, write, research, capture inspiration, and everything else that allows you to synthesize ideas into something worth sharing with the world.

We are taking a bet on the future of the creator economy.

We believe it will be the new economy.

But here's the thing. A creator is not a new age "content creator."

A creator is the essence of your being. You are not a replaceable specialist. You are a natural generalist. Humans create tools and knowledge to thrive in any environment. That's what has built the world we live in today. We are not a polar bear that can only survive in Alaska or a lion that can only survive in the Savannah.

Creators are the new entrepreneurs of this digital world.

Creators are those who understand that when life gets uncertain, they can create their own path.

Creators are those who develop the future-proof skills: how to learn, how to think, and how to earn.

Artificial Intelligence

AI won't kill creativity.

It will change what it means to be creative. Because at this point in history, we have a rather immature definition of creativity. It's still something we don't completely understand because it's not the typical definition of "mashing ideas together from different sources to create something new."

We believe that—if done right—artificial intelligence can radically enhance creative work. Yes, people can try to use AI as a quick fix, but that's already proven to fall flat many times before.

When you create something—be it writing, designs, or preparing for a speech–you need to pull from various relevant sources. You need the right idea that sparks the next idea that sparks the next.

As of right now, our vision for artificial intelligence in Kortex is to:

• Enhance creative work and automate busy work
• Surface relevant ideas right when you need them
• Access any information you need, fast, without changing tabs
• Use your captures, documents, and sources as context for chats
• Assist your ideation, writing, and editing to overcome creative blocks
• Find granular ideas within a messy workspace so you don't have to worry about organization or optimization

Information overload is already a huge problem. That's what has allowed humans to make so much progress in the first place. When anyone can access any information at the click of a button, this only creates more need for creativity.

It's less about how much information you have and more about what information is important enough to keep. We want your Kortex workspace to be synonymous with signal, not noise.

Small Team, No Funding

There has never been a point in history where a team like our own would be able to make such a change in the world.

The puck is moving from institutions to individuals, and individuals who team up to actualize a shared vision for the future.

We believe that we can compete with incumbents at a fraction of their size and funding. As of right now, we are self-funded and do not plan to scale our team unless necessary.

We do not view our team as the typical employee. We view them as entrepreneurs who see Kortex as a stepping stone to create their ideal life. While not everyone can "own" Kortex, we do believe that Kortex can help everyone reach a point where they can build something of their own.

To do this, we attempt to create a culture that fosters these values:

Specialized generalists.

With information and technology, individuals on our team can take on more than just traditional roles. We expect our team to be masters of one domain with interests and talents that span far and wide, improving the impact they can make in their specialty. We believe that good work stems from an understanding of all moving pieces.

High agency.

Our goal is to foster agency in those who join Kortex. We will hold your hand, but we will eventually let go. You are allowed to just do things. You are allowed to just solve problems. You don't have to ask permission to pursue a little side project that you believe in, but we may not.

Interest based projects.

We believe that joy in work comes from making progress on a project that you want to work on. Conventional schools and jobs have made us hate the few things that make life fun: challenge, improvement, and learning. While there will always be work that nobody wants to do, we hope that the majority of our team can work on projects that they have a stake in, and be amply rewarded for it's completion.

Speed, taste, and distribution.

The main differentiators in today's world. You must be able to adapt to rapid changes. You must be able to build with speed when opportunity arises. You must cultivate your taste—which takes time and experience—to create a product that feels higher quality to the people we are trying to attract. Lastly, every individual can build an audience of supporters for their work. The success of Kortex is fueled by the audiences of creators, and we strive to give our team a "launchpad" into their own work if they so choose. If our team wants to start their own thing, we hope that Kortex can help fuel that with both people and the knowledge to sustain it.

Intensity.

It's unfortunate that "trying hard" or taking things seriously has become something to scoff at. Intensity isn't about taking everything seriously. It's about taking the right things seriously. We pursue our vision with intensity because it can't be created any other way.

Depth.

Surface-level information, products, and processes are helpful for beginners, but the market is flooded with them. In order to truly transform someone's life, you need to capture them on the surface and guide them toward depth. Yes, we want our product to become deeply integrated in someone's life, but we want it to be something so transformative their life would be worse without it, not with it.

Experimentation and mistake-making.

If we aren't making mistakes, we aren't taking enough risks. As a small team, mistakes are the only way to discover a unique path forward. Mistakes are how we differentiate ourselves, and we make a lot of them. To most companies, mistakes are costly and discouraged without trying to be. At Kortex, we attempt to make as many calculated mistakes as possible, as we know that's a path that many won't be able to replicate.

General Roadmap

Kortex is a massive undertaking.

First, we had to build a better writing experience. Not just another word processor.

As creatives, a word processor with scattered documents isn't enough. So we created an environment where finding and surfacing ideas is seamless with:

• Connections & tags – non-hierarchical organization so you can find related ideas even if they aren't in the same folder.
• Elements – create templates and organize documents by specific blocks.
• Infinite panes – open any document, source, or capture on the side to have ideas ready as you write.
• Capture – organize individual ideas that don't belong in documents.
• Library – add external highlights, PDFs, links, video transcripts and more.

Now that we have a foundation, we need to make the entire process seamless.

We plan to do this with:

• Global capture – capture any idea or source from anywhere on your computer with the click of a button or shortcut.
• Auto tags and connections – stop worrying about organization and be able to surface relevant information at any time.
• Auto source transcription – any article, link, video, or PDF will auto transcribe into Kortex so you can open the information without opening a separate tab.
• AI chat integration – chat with AI to get any information from your workspace, or add specific documents or sources as context to enhance prompting and writing.
• AI assistance & autocompletions – get suggestions and edits from a professional level editor. Have AI give suggestions or write the next portion of your project.
• AI neural search – as you're writing, have relevant ideas within your workspace show up in real time to avoid creative blocks.
• Snippets – save templates for documents and AI prompts that you can paste anywhere with a keyboard shortcut, not just inside Kortex.

Along with that, we are well aware that many small quality of life features need to be developed such as:

• File Storage – add any file type like images, documents, PDFs, ePubs, etc (including file types not supported by Kortex, like Photoshop documents) so Kortex can store all of your work.
• Library Rework – remove the library view and have all files in one singular filterable "Home" view. List view, card view, or graph view.
• Toggle Headings – All headings on a page are toggleable for ease of navigation on pages with a lot of text.
• Gallery Block – An intuitive way to add columns and rows to your pages for visual organization.
• Team & Guest Management – Add new members to edit and collaborate in non-private workspace documents. Invite guests to view and duplicate non-private workspace documents.
• RSS Feed Integration – Add your favorite RSS feeds to your library to read and highlight without leaving the app.
• ePub Reader – Attach ePub files to a source within your library to read and highlight.
• Kindle Highlight Sync – Sync your Kindle highlights to Kortex without an external app.
• Article Reader – import any web page and read it in Kortex. Save highlights and reference it with AI.
• Image Search – upload images and find anything inside of them with a simple search. If the image as a cup, searching “cup” will display the image.
• Full Offline Availability – Save your Kortex files to your local device for privacy and speed.
• Kortex Themes – Change your Kortex theme to match your writing aesthetic and personality.
• Pane Layouts – Save layouts for specific panes to quickly setup your preferred workspace. Have a layout for taking notes, a layout for writing, and a layout for whatever else you enjoy using Kortex for.
• Graph View – View and navigate the connections between your documents in one node-based view.
• Citation Management – For academic writers and those who want to manage citations for papers.

Even further, we have plans for the future of AI agents. We will have customizable prompt flows that prepare content for you:

• Educator – Create personalized curriculums and study plans for specific topics. The future of learning.
• Ghostwriter – Create posts, newsletters, articles, book chapters, and more as a starting point you can edit yourself, or simply use for inspiration.
• Scheduler – Schedule your creative work to post on social platforms, blog platforms, and newsletter platforms.
• Researcher – Get curated ideas, citations, papers, and documents within your workspace for specific knowledge work.

Many of these agents will be paired with necessary features like a Public Profile to display your creative work in public in a unique way.

It's safe to say we have a long road ahead of us, but 2025 will be the year Kortex makes a mark.

If you want to keep up with us, sign up for Kortex and you will receive email updates.

You can also join our public Discord server to ask us questions at any time.

If you enjoy using Kortex, the most helpful thing you can do for us is mention Kortex on social media. Suggest it to friends. Tell people how you use it!

Thank you for being here.

– The Kortex Team

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