The project tracker that tried to run itself - handing the busywork of building software to an AI agent named Copilot.
Most project management tools ask you to feed them. You write the task, drag the card, update the status, and remember to prune the pile when it grows unruly. Height, a New York software company founded in 2018, started from a blunt observation: nobody enjoys that part. Its founder, Michael Villar, wanted to take the project management out of product management - to let people build while the software kept the ledger tidy on its own.
Height began as an all-in-one app that merged three things teams usually keep in separate windows: a task tracker, a real-time chat, and adaptive workflows. That combination was the early insight. Decisions get lost in the gap between the tool where you plan and the tool where you talk, so Height put them side by side and made the whole thing keyboard-first and fast.
Then it pushed further. By 2023 the company had shipped Copilot, an AI agent that lived inside tasks and projects. In October 2024 it rebuilt the product around that idea and called it what it was: an autonomous project collaboration tool. The pitch was no longer a longer feature list. It was a shorter to-do list - work the software would quietly do for you.
The core app: tasks, real-time chat, adaptive workflows, Kanban boards, Gantt and timeline views, forms, and integrations - flexible enough to scale from a squad to a whole company.
An AI agent embedded in tasks and projects. It brainstorms and drafts tasks, suggests assignees, turns messages into subtasks, dedupes work, summarizes threads, and writes async standups.
The AI-native rebuild: live product docs that update specs in real time, self-maintaining backlogs, automatic bug triage and assignment, and auto-drafted project updates.
Height was built for product, engineering, and design teams - the people who live in a task tracker all day and resent every minute of upkeep. Its named customers skewed toward fast-growing startups that valued speed and flexibility.
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The business model was classic B2B SaaS: per-seat subscriptions with a free tier for small teams and paid plans adding advanced AI, integrations, and admin controls.
The project management market is crowded and well-funded. Linear owns the reputation for keyboard-driven speed that engineering teams love. Jira owns the enterprise. Asana, ClickUp, Notion, and Monday.com each hold their ground.
Height chose a different axis. Rather than out-running Linear on raw speed, it bet on flexibility plus autonomy: keep the keyboard-first pace, but let AI absorb the reporting and meeting overhead that everyone else left to humans. If Linear was the opinionated sports car, Height wanted to be the car that also parked itself.
That made it a better fit for teams who wanted to cut status-update toil than for teams optimizing purely for developer-speed muscle memory.
Height's founder and CEO, Michael Villar, came to project management through payments. Before Height he co-founded Kickoff, a productivity startup that Stripe acquired in 2013. At Stripe he worked as an early product designer and full-stack engineer, building products including Stripe Checkout, the Stripe iPhone app, and Stripe Atlas.
That lineage showed. Height carried a craft-focused, design-led sensibility - the kind that treats speed and polish as features rather than afterthoughts - into a category not always known for either. The company stayed small and product-obsessed, and it drew angel backing from operators who knew the terrain, including Naval Ravikant and Front CEO Mathilde Collin.
| Round | Amount | Date | Selected Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seed | ~$4.25M (approx.) | Pre-2021 | Undisclosed |
| Series A | $14M | Sep 2021 | Redpoint, Matrix, Lightspeed, IA Ventures; angels Naval Ravikant, Mathilde Collin, Alex Maccaw |
Total funding across rounds: approximately $18.3M. Seed amount inferred from public totals - treat as approximate.
Michael Villar starts Height in New York to reimagine project management for product teams.
Height opens public access and raises a $14M Series A to build a project tool for the whole company.
An AI agent arrives for drafting tasks, deduping, summarizing threads, and generating standups.
Height unveils the first-ever autonomous project collaboration tool, with live docs and self-maintaining backlogs.
Height announces its shutdown, giving users roughly six months to migrate. Final public service: September 24, 2025.
Height sat in the AI-native corner of a category defined by gravity. Its differentiator - software that maintains itself - was ambitious and early, and the product drew genuine praise for design and for AI features that reviewers often placed ahead of rivals. But a crowded, well-funded market is unforgiving, and in 2025 Height announced it would wind down, with its last day of public service on September 24, 2025.
What remains is a sharp idea and a useful case study: the difference between automating a few steps and building a tool that quietly keeps itself in order. Height chased the second, harder version - and its arc is a lesson in timing, focus, and the weight of category inertia.
An AI-native project management and collaboration app for product teams that combined tasks, chat, and adaptive workflows, later evolving into an autonomous tool driven by an AI agent called Copilot.
Michael Villar, a former designer and full-stack engineer at Stripe who had earlier co-founded Kickoff, acquired by Stripe in 2013.
Roughly $18.3M in total, including a $14M Series A in September 2021 with investors such as Redpoint, Matrix, Lightspeed, and IA Ventures.
Height emphasized flexibility and AI-driven autonomy - letting an agent handle bug triage, spec updates, and standups - rather than the opinionated, engineering-first speed that defines Linear.
No. Height announced a shutdown in 2025, with its final day of public service on September 24, 2025.