Cory BergmanProjects
Companies I've built, selected writing by me, and press coverage over the years.
Companies
- Factal
In the aftermath of Breaking News, we received an outpouring of support from Fortune 500 companies that relied on the service, and they became the beta users for what came next. Co-founded by Ben Tesch, Charlie Tillinghast and me, Factal brought back several Breaking News team members, got funded and launched in October 2018 — this time focused on corporate security, risk and safety teams. Factal blends AI and experienced journalists to detect, verify and triage critical incidents around the world, built on a lesson from our beta members: security teams don't need more information, they need to know what they can trust. That bet has only grown more important in the era of AI-generated content, where Factal serves as ground truth for the companies, tools and AI agents that depend on it. Founded on a public service mission, Factal has provided free unlimited service to disaster relief and humanitarian aid NGOs since day one.
- Breaking News (NBC News)
Breaking News began as an experiment inside MSNBC Interactive, the joint venture of Microsoft and NBC. Co-founded by Ben Tesch, Tom Brew and me, we began with the Twitter account @breakingnews, which MSNBC took over in an agreement with its creator, Michael van Poppel. We then added the domain, BreakingNews.com, and launched a mobile app. The idea was simple: provide the fastest, accurate breaking news available, linking the best original sources – even if they were NBC's competitors. In 2012, NBC took over full control of MSNBC Interactive, and the network embraced the experiment. Over the next few years, we launched a series of groundbreaking mobile features including proximity alerts, muting and nearby tips (which won a national journalism award and helped us break some of the world's largest stories). The app exploded in popularity, outpacing NBC News' own mobile active user growth, but revenue remained a challenge. When the new NBC News president decided to focus on video, Breaking News got the boot. We published our last update on Dec. 31, 2016.
- My Ballard
I co-founded My Ballard with my wife Kate when we moved to the Seattle neighborhood of Ballard. It began as a part-time blog where we published anonymously as the "Geeky Swedes." As the neighborhood grew in size and popularity, so did My Ballard, becoming one of the largest hyperlocal sites in the country. It became the anchor of a larger network of neighborhood sites we called Next Door Media, and My Ballard and its cousin PhinneyWood won national journalism awards. But as a labor of love, it was difficult to maintain with our day jobs. So in 2020, Kate and I stepped aside and sold My Ballard to its editor, Meghan Walker, for a dollar. We're extremely happy to see the site live on as a valuable community resource.
- Lost Remote
I launched Lost Remote as a newsletter in 1997, and it grew into one of the first blogs on the web. Focused on how technology was changing TV, Lost Remote covered the industry's collision with the internet. Then with the rise of social media, it narrowed its coverage to social TV. Lost Remote was highly influential among media executives, and Mediabistro acquired Lost Remote in 2012. Two years later, Adweek bought Mediabistro, and Lost Remote continued publishing until 2024. Much of the archive still lives on at Adweek.com, with earlier snapshots preserved on the Wayback Machine.
Writing
Coming soon.
Press
Coming soon.