Gorgias built its 'company brain' Cortex with a 4-person team in 3-4 weeks — the year of groundwork mattered most
femke_plantinga · x · 2026-09-30
In a discussion about building internal AI knowledge bases, Gorgias's Yochan Khoi shared how the company built Cortex, its internal "company brain":
- The build is the quick part: Gorgias spent about a year on another tool before knowing exactly what it wanted; a 4-person team then shipped Cortex in 3-4 weeks.
- Maintenance is underestimated: roughly half of Yochan's time still goes to new features and changes, with most of the rest spent helping people use it well.
- Seed it like onboarding: every department wrote down what a new joiner who couldn't ask anyone questions would need in week one.
Key takeaway: building a company brain is technically easy; the real costs are upfront requirement discovery and ongoing upkeep — factors teams should weigh before choosing build vs. buy.
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