Shortcut
Shortcut is a cloud-based project management platform for software development teams, offering issue tracking, sprints, roadmaps, and AI agent workflows (Korey). It serves engineering, product, design, and leadership teams via a freemium SaaS model with enterprise upgrades.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2014
- HeadquartersNew York, United States
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Shortcut does
Shortcut is a cloud-based project management platform purpose-built for software development teams, providing issue tracking, sprint planning, kanban boards, roadmaps, OKR-style objectives, reporting, and integrated documentation. Originally founded as Clubhouse in 2014 and rebranded in January 2020, the platform serves engineering, product, design, and leadership teams with a fast, lightweight alternative to enterprise tools such as Jira. The product portfolio spans the core Shortcut platform and 11 feature modules (Stories, Boards, Sprints, Roadmaps, Docs, Automations, Reporting, Objectives, Backlog, Teams, Custom Fields) plus deep native integrations with GitHub, GitLab, Slack, and Figma, and a Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server connecting the workspace to AI coding tools such as Cursor and Claude Code. The Korey AI agent, introduced in 2025 as a separate sub-brand, extends the platform into AI-driven product engineering workflows including task scoping and pull request generation.
The platform is built on AWS infrastructure (ec2-us-east-1) with a publicly reported 99.95% uptime over 90 days for the web app, and exposes a REST API (v3) for custom integrations. Shortcut holds SOC2 Type 2, HIPAA/BA, GDPR, and CCPA compliance certifications, supporting both regulated and international customers. The business model is a SaaS subscription with a free forever tier (up to 10 members) and a quote-based Business Plan that includes SAML SSO, advanced automations, and priority support. Distribution combines a product-led growth self-serve motion with an enterprise field sales motion for larger accounts and a startup program offering 12 months of free Business Plan access to pre-Series A companies. Headquarters are in New York, NY, and the company operates as Shortcut Software Company, a private venture-backed entity that has raised approximately $39 million in cumulative funding across five rounds, with a $25 million Series A in January 2020.
Shortcut firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Shortcut
- Legal name
- Shortcut Software Company
- Website
- https://shortcut.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2014
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Shortcut is a cloud-based project management platform for software development teams, offering issue tracking, sprints, roadmaps, and AI agent workflows (Korey). It serves engineering, product, design, and leadership teams via a freemium SaaS model with enterprise upgrades.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Shortcut industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Project Management Software
- NAICS
- Software Publishers (513210)
- SIC
- Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Enterprise Work Management & Collaborative Workflow Platforms (HDAEAHAI)
- akta.pro secondary industry
- Low-Code/No-Code Application Platforms (HDAEAKAA)
Keywords
Where Shortcut is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- New York
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Shortcut business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Operations
Revenue model
- Software Subscription: SaaS subscription model with tiered plans (Free, Business). Revenue generated through recurring subscription fees with annual or monthly billing.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Monthly | Free Plan - Core project management features |
| Subscription | Annual | Business Plan - Full-featured for growing teams |
| Freemium | Multi-year contract | Startup Program - 12 months free Business Plan |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels6 records
Shortcut product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Shortcut provides a cloud-based SaaS project management platform built for software development teams, offering issue tracking, kanban boards, sprints, roadmaps, docs, automations, objectives, reporting, and backlog management. The platform includes native integrations with GitHub, GitLab, Slack, and Figma, plus a REST API and the Korey AI agent for autonomous product engineering workflows. It is sold primarily on a freemium subscription model with tiered plans for individuals, startups, and enterprise organizations.
Product overview
Shortcut is a unified project management platform designed for software teams and AI agents, comprising the core Shortcut product plus multiple integrated modules. The core platform provides issue tracking, kanban boards, sprints, roadmaps, and reporting, while AI capabilities are delivered through Korey (an AI agent sub-brand) and the Agent Coordination feature. The product portfolio includes: Shortcut (core platform), Korey (AI agent for product engineering), and feature modules including Boards, Stories, Roadmaps, Docs, Sprints, Automations, Reporting, Objectives, Backlog, Teams, Custom Fields, and Agent Coordination. Shortcut positions itself as a Jira alternative targeting engineering, product, design, and leadership teams, with special programs for startups.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Korey: AI agent for product engineering workflows - enables teams to accelerate product development from idea to spec to PR
- Shortcut MCP Server
- Shortcut for Agents
Products and services
- Shortcut Fast, powerful project management platform for software teams and their AI agents. Provides issue tracking, sprints, roadmaps, kanban boards, docs, automations, reporting, objectives, and backlog management. Sold on a freemium SaaS subscription model with a free forever tier and paid Business Plan.
- Korey AI Agent AI agent for product engineering workflows that works alongside human teammates to scope tasks, write pull requests, and track progress directly in Shortcut. Combines text conversation with code generation for multi-step workflows from idea through specification to PR creation.
- Shortcut MCP Server Model Context Protocol server that exposes read-only Shortcut tools to AI coding assistants like Cursor and Claude Code, enabling agents to read context and stay synced to GitHub activity.
Quantifiable outcome
- Companies could save 6–12% of every dollar under proper spend management (industry research cited in unrelated article, not directly Shortcut)
Companies that use Shortcut
Customer profileNamed customers9 records
Segments6 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
Shortcut technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration6 records
AI capability4 records
Feature13 records
Shortcut partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Nine partnerships are on record, tiered core and secondary.
- GitHubcoreDeep integration with GitHub for automated workflow updates. Stories move automatically through workflow states as PRs are opened and merged. GitHub webhooks and API requests supported.
- GitLabcoreIntegration with GitLab for VCS event processing and automated workflow updates. GitLab webhooks supported.
- SlackcoreSlack integration for notifications and collaboration. Users can create Stories directly from Slack threads and link discussions to work items.
- FigmasecondaryIntegration with Figma for design-to-development workflow connection.
- AnthropiccoreUnderlying AI provider for Korey AI agent. Anthropic Claude models power the Korey AI assistant for product engineering workflows.
- Amazon Web Services (AWS)coreCloud hosting provider for Shortcut and Korey services. AWS ec2-us-east-1 region used for primary infrastructure.
- WorkOScoreAuthentication provider for Korey AI agent, enabling secure login and user management.
- SalesforcesecondaryCRM used internally by Shortcut's sales and customer support teams to manage customer relationships.
- StripecoreBilling processor for subscription payments and payment processing.
Scale indicators3 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Shortcut competitors and assessment
Company assessmentBroad incumbents
- Asana: Asana is a broad work management platform serving cross-functional teams including product and engineering. While more general than Shortcut, it competes for the same buyer in product/engineering project tracking, especially at mid-market and enterprise scale.
- Azure DevOps (Microsoft): Azure DevOps is Microsoft's enterprise platform providing work item tracking, boards, sprints, and repos for software teams. It is a broad incumbent alternative for engineering organizations already standardized on Microsoft tooling.
- Jira (Atlassian): Jira is the dominant incumbent in software team project management and the explicit incumbent Shortcut positions itself against. It offers overlapping capabilities at much larger scale with a heavier, more configurable product, serving enterprise and mid-market engineering organizations globally.
- Monday.com: Monday.com is a broad work operating system used by product and engineering teams for project tracking, roadmaps, and automations. It competes with Shortcut for cross-functional team workflows but is not specialized for software development the way Shortcut is.
- GitHub Projects: GitHub Projects is a project planning and tracking tool built directly into the GitHub developer platform. It competes with Shortcut for issue tracking ownership by leveraging GitHub's massive developer mindshare and tight coupling with code repositories.
Emerging players
- Notion: Notion is an all-in-one workspace with project tracking, docs, and increasingly AI features. While broader than Shortcut, it competes for product and engineering team workflow ownership, especially among startups and mid-market teams.
- Height: Height is an autonomous project management tool with AI-driven workflows for software teams. It overlaps with Shortcut on the developer-tooling niche and competes on automation, AI, and speed for small-to-mid software organizations.
Direct peers
- Trello (Atlassian): Trello is a lightweight kanban-based project management tool owned by Atlassian. Shortcut explicitly lists Trello as a migration source, indicating direct competition for teams seeking more structure than Trello offers but not as heavy as Jira.
- ClickUp: ClickUp is an all-in-one productivity and project management platform that includes software-team-focused features like sprints, docs, and AI. It overlaps with Shortcut across agile engineering workflows and competes on price-conscious PLG positioning.
- Linear: Linear is the most direct competitor to Shortcut — a fast, opinionated project management platform purpose-built for software development teams with issues, projects, cycles, and roadmaps. It competes head-to-head on UX speed and developer experience targeting the same engineering persona.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat6 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights8 records
Customer concentration
Shortcut social profiles
Digital presenceShortcut compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance4 records
Shortcut financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Shortcut leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles4 records
Shortcut subsidiaries and ownership
Company hierarchySubsidiaries2 records
Shortcut funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds5 records
Investors13 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Shortcut M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Shortcut
What does Shortcut do?
Shortcut provides a cloud-based SaaS project management platform built for software development teams, offering issue tracking, kanban boards, sprints, roadmaps, docs, automations, objectives, reporting, and backlog management. The platform includes native integrations with GitHub, GitLab, Slack, and Figma, plus a REST API and the Korey AI agent for autonomous product engineering workflows. It is sold primarily on a freemium subscription model with tiered plans for individuals, startups, and enterprise organizations.
Is Shortcut a public or private company?
Shortcut is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was Shortcut founded?
Shortcut was founded in 2014. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Shortcut based?
Shortcut is headquartered in New York, United States, in the North America region.
How does Shortcut make money?
One revenue line is on record: software Subscription.
Who are Shortcut's main competitors?
Broad incumbents on record are Asana, Azure DevOps (Microsoft), Jira (Atlassian), Monday.com and GitHub Projects. Emerging players are Notion and Height. Direct peers are Trello (Atlassian), ClickUp and Linear.
Does Shortcut have an API?
Yes. Shortcut offers a REST API (v3) that allows developers to build custom integrations and automations. The API enables programmatic access to create, read, update, and delete stories, epics, projects, teams, and other workspace entities. Developers can build custom integrations and automations using the user-friendly API. A Shortcut MCP (Model Context Protocol) Server is available that exposes read-only tools for connecting Shortcut to tools like Cursor and Claude Code, allowing agents to get coding and stay synced to GitHub. Developer documentation is at developer.shortcut.com/api/rest/v3.
What industry is Shortcut in?
Shortcut's product category is Project Management Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDAEAHAI, Enterprise Work Management & Collaborative Workflow Platforms, with a secondary code of HDAEAKAA, Low-Code/No-Code Application Platforms. Its NAICS code is 513210 and its SIC code is 7372.