Inside Kortex: From Second Brain to Video Search Breakthrough

The Million Dollar Question: How Should You Hire?

Kortex started as a note-taking app built by creators, for creators. Initially focused on content makers and entertainers, the team quickly realized that building a great product was only half the battle. The real challenge was defining how to get there.

It’s a common trap for early-stage founders to over-index on product polish before confirming product intuition. What stood out about Kortex’s story isn’t that they pivoted, it’s that they knew when their own instincts weren’t enough.

"We had the vision early on. But figuring out how to build it? That was a lot of trial and error."

One of the earliest friction points? Hiring.

“People treated the job like a 9-to-5. But at a startup, you need people who treat it like their company.”

This reflects a broader truth we see across early-stage companies: velocity doesn’t come from headcount, it comes from headspace. Startups often think the solution to burnout or bottlenecks is to add people. But the right 5 people with founder-mindsets will outbuild 15 misaligned hires.

Early teams should be lean by design, hungry, adaptable, and deeply aligned with the mission. And this ideology holds true even when a business becomes wildly successful.

Example: Apple’s investor relations team. Under Nancy Paxton before she retired in 2020, even at trillion-dollar scale, Apple kept its IR team extremely lean to ensure only the best in the industry were hired.

Takeaway: Hire fewer people, more slowly. Rely on personal referrals and proven collaborators. Prioritize “startup people” who take ownership and solve problems proactively.

Pivots Are a Feature, Not a Flaw

Every good startup story has a pivot. For Kortex, it came when their own engineers couldn’t explain what they were building.

“If we can’t describe it to our friends or family, how will our users get it?”

This led them to refocus on a new product: video search and memory. Inspired by the pain of trying to recall a specific Instagram reel or YouTube video, they’re building a tool that uses natural language to find exact frames across video content.

Founder tip: If you can’t describe your product in 10 words or less, you don’t understand it deeply enough to build it. And if your users can’t describe it to their friends, it won’t spread.

Fast Teams Are Fullstack Teams

When reflecting on velocity, one lesson stood out:

“Split roles slow things down. When everyone’s fullstack, things get built in hours, not days.”

Fullstack ownership meant engineers could ship faster and with greater accountability. It also reduces cognitive overhead caused by handoffs and fragmented communication.

Cultural tip: Fullstack thinking scales context, speed, and ownership. The best technical founders embed this early.

Final Words of Wisdom

“Be very picky about who you work with: smart, high-energy, moral people. Everything stems from that.”

Kortex’s story highlights that early-stage success is less about the original vision, and more about:

• Learning fast

• Course-correcting bravely

• Choosing the right people

Yes, invest in product. But even more important?

Invest in people

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404 Team
www.404.investments
investments@404.investments