# Kurt Schrader

> Kurt Schrader is the co-founder and CEO of Shortcut, the New York project management platform for software teams that started life as Clubhouse in 2014. After years of building and scaling engineering organizations, including a stint as CTO of Intent Media where he grew the team from one person to more than 40, he set out to build tooling that stays simple for daily users while giving leaders real visibility. In 2025 he steered Shortcut into the AI era with Korey, an AI product manager that turns plain-language ideas into build-ready plans.

- **Role:** Co-Founder & CEO at Shortcut
- **Organizations:** Shortcut, Korey.ai, Intent Media, CTO School, ThoughtWorks, Ten Ton Labs
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** BSE, University of Michigan
- **Known for:** Co-founded and scaled Shortcut into a widely used project management platform for software teams, Raised roughly $41 million across seed, Series A and Series B rounds from Battery Ventures, Greylock and Lerer Hippeau, Grew Intent Media's engineering team from one person to more than 40 as CTO

## Career timeline

- **2001** — Earned a BSE from the University of Michigan
- **2011** — Co-founded and organized CTO School in New York City
- **2012** — Served as CTO of Intent Media, growing the engineering team from 1 to over 40
- **2014** — Co-founded Clubhouse (later Shortcut) in New York with Andrew Childs
- **2016** — Launched the Clubhouse project management platform after a year in beta
- **2017** — Raised a $10M Series A led by Battery Ventures
- **2020** — Raised a $25M Series B led by Greylock Partners
- **2021** — Rebranded the company from Clubhouse to Shortcut
- **2022** — Shortcut earned Great Place to Work certification with a 97% rating
- **2025** — Launched Korey, an AI product manager for engineering workflows

## Achievements

- Co-founded and scaled Shortcut into a widely used project management platform for software teams
- Raised roughly $41 million across seed, Series A and Series B rounds from Battery Ventures, Greylock and Lerer Hippeau
- Grew Intent Media's engineering team from one person to more than 40 as CTO
- Built a company culture rated a great place to work by 97% of employees, 40 points above the US average
- Launched Korey, positioned as the first AI product manager built for engineering workflows

## Latest updates

- **2025-09** — Launched Korey, an AI product manager that converts natural-language ideas into structured, build-ready plans and integrates with Shortcut and GitHub Issues.
- **2025-09** — Shortcut announced a new era of product development positioning Korey as the first AI product manager built for engineering workflows.

## Links

- Website: https://kurt.karmalab.org
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kurt
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/kurt
- GitHub: https://github.com/kschrader
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/clubhousesoftware

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/kurt-schrader
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-07-15