Karri Saarinen, the co-founder and CEO of Linear, has cultivated a reputation as a thoughtful and principled leader in the software industry. Drawing from his design background at Airbnb and Coinbase, Saarinen has imbued Linear with a deep-seated focus on quality, craft, and intentionality. His approach offers a compelling counter-narrative to the "growth at all costs" mentality prevalent in Silicon Valley.
On Product, Design, and Quality
Direct Quotes:
- "Quality is our first principle. Every other metric and decision flows from that."[1]
- "My design philosophy has always been that you should design something for someone. It's hard — impossible even — to design something really good for everyone."[1]
- "We don't believe that there is some kind of problem with doing both speed and quality. I think it's often they can actually go hand in hand if you have the right people."[2]
- "If you don't have a good designer or haven't invested in it, you're probably creating friction in all of these steps, which then hinders your growth as a startup.”[3]
- "People are visual, and when you see something that looks cool or interesting, I think it attracts people to pay more attention. And that's always one of your challenges as a startup—people are not paying attention. And design can help with that."[3]
- "We wanted to build the project and issue tracking system that teams actually love to use so that the value of the system would be much higher."[4]
- "A lot of times the taste comes from the craft... When you understand your craft really well, I think then you also often have the taste to know what good looks like."[2]
- "High quality can... build this like almost irrational loyalty that they don't want to leave because they believe in the product or in the team so much."[5]
- "What often happens to startups is that the pressure to ship or hit certain metrics means they have to compromise the quality. We think we can win this market by being quality-first."[1]
- "The more [an industry] matures, the more the design matters."[6]
Key Learnings:
- Solve the user's problem, not their feature request. When users ask for features, it's crucial to ask follow-up questions to understand the underlying problem they are trying to solve.[7]
- Speed is a core feature. A key insight from early user research was the frustration with slow performance in existing tools. Building a tool that is "never slow" became a foundational goal.[1]
- Intuition is trained, not magical. Saarinen views intuition as a skill developed through experience and validated by talking to customers. It’s about recognizing patterns of what works and what doesn't.[8]
- Build with users, for the right users. While it's critical to get user feedback, it's equally important to filter that feedback based on your target demographic to avoid being led astray.[7][9]
- Product quality is the best growth hack. Linear prioritizes making the product so good that people naturally talk about it, relying on word-of-mouth as a primary growth strategy.[10][11]
- Opinionated software is better. Productivity tools should have a point of view on how work should be done. Linear's "cycles" method is an example of this, offering a structured workflow instead of a flexible sandbox.[6]
- Craft is a key component of quality. Saarinen defines craft as the human process of shaping something and putting a piece of yourself into the work, which ultimately leads to a higher quality output.[5]
- Good design accelerates growth. Design impacts every stage of the customer journey: it creates interest (acquisition), provides clarity (adoption), makes the product more enjoyable (engagement), and keeps users around (retention).[3]
- Don't chase perfectionism. The pursuit of quality shouldn't be confused with perfectionism. Linear is comfortable shipping features internally or to small groups of users early to get feedback and iterate.[2][6]
On Company Building and Culture
Direct Quotes:
- "We think curate not scale when it comes to people."[11]
- "The faster you grow the team... you are kind of diluting the quality of the team or diluting the quality of the culture in the company."[2]
- "We've been trying to keep the teams like the whole company quite small or not overly growing it too fast."[12]
- "I don't think no one like really enjoys the corporate... complexity... We really want to build that company for Builders."[11]
- "We want to have the best people on our side, and get the most insight out of them as we can to make our company's product better."[4]
- "[Company] values should be always something that... is the way we do things."[8]
Key Learnings:
- Stay intentionally small. Linear consciously avoids hyper-growth in headcount, opting for a slower, more deliberate approach to hiring to maintain cultural integrity and quality. The company aims to not more than double its team size each year.[2][12]
- Profitability creates freedom. By becoming profitable early, Linear has given itself the freedom to prioritize quality without being beholden to external pressures that often force compromises.[1][6]
- Founders must stay connected to the craft. Saarinen advocates for founders to remain deeply involved in the product and the work itself, which helps avoid creating unnecessary layers of management.[10][11]
- Hire people who care about their craft. The foundation of a quality-driven culture is hiring individuals who take personal pride in their work, regardless of their role.[2][8]
- Trust is the foundation of a co-founding team. Disagreements are about the subject matter, not personal attacks, which is possible only when there's a deep level of pre-existing trust.[8]
- Remote work can be a strategic advantage. Being fully remote helps Linear maintain focus and avoid distractions like office design, while emphasizing the need for strong communication skills.[10][11]
- Company values should reflect reality. Linear's values were derived from reflecting on what the company was already doing successfully, making them authentic and easy for the team to understand and live by.[8]
- Minimize management layers. By keeping founders and builders close to the work, you can create a more enjoyable and efficient environment for people who love to build things.[11]
- Every employee is close to the customer. To build customer empathy, everyone at Linear is added to the customer support platform. Those who build a feature often help with related support tickets to understand user issues firsthand.[9]
On Strategy, Growth, and Entrepreneurship
Direct Quotes:
- "Momentum matters more than anything."[7]
- "The only real protection you can have as a startup founder... is to be successful."[13]
- "Sometimes it's good to not just build immediately. We wanted to take some time to talk to people and form our thinking around this idea."[1]
- "I think you have to start with a belief about how the world should be different."[9]
- "[Being a founder is] like that quote about jumping off a cliff and building an airplane on the way down."[9]
- "If you're not successful... investors can exert their control... they have much more experience in that than you have as a founder."[13]
- "You shouldn't try to boil the ocean you need to just boil the pot."[13]
Key Learnings:
- Launch and keep launching. Instead of a single "big bang" launch, it's more effective to launch multiple times. Each launch builds on the last, compounding interest and building your brand's story over time.[7]
- Find your focus by starting small. Successful startups often begin with a narrow focus, figure it out for a small group of users, and then scale. Don't try to build a massive platform from day one.[7][13]
- Authenticity is key to branding. A brand is built over time through consistent actions and communication. Startups should be direct and authentic rather than emulating the messaging of large corporations.[6][14][15]
- Profitability is a strategic choice, not just a financial goal. Linear has maintained a net negative lifetime burn rate, meaning it has more cash in the bank than it has ever raised, giving it immense operational freedom.[6]
- Take your time before committing. Before going full-time on Linear, the founders spent time validating their ideas through conversations, which gave them strong conviction in their direction.[1]
- Growth fixes everything, but team momentum fixes team problems. Linear was founded on the belief that if you empower individual contributors and improve their workflow, many larger team and project management issues will resolve themselves.[9]
- Expand your product for existing users. Instead of immediately trying to acquire new types of customers, a powerful growth strategy is to build more workflows and sell more to the customers you already have.[1]
- Don't be afraid to think differently. Saarinen encourages founders to critically assess standard startup advice and forge a path that aligns with their own values and strengths.[10]
- The founder's role must evolve. As a company grows, a founder's job changes. It's crucial to have an honest assessment of where you can best contribute and adjust accordingly, rather than clinging to a specific identity or job description.[16]
Sources
