Karri Saarinen

Professional Profile

Karri Saarinen is the co-founder, CEO, and designer of Linear.app, a software company that develops an issue tracking tool for managing software development.1 2 Here are some key details about Karri Saarinen:

Professional Background

Previous Roles::

Principal Designer and design systems lead at Airbnb1
Founding designer at Coinbase1
Co-founder of Y Combinator-backed startup Kippt1 2

Education::

Attended University of Vaasa, studying Management and Organizations at the School of Economics2
Participated in Y Combinator's Summer 2012 batch with Kippt, the first Finnish company funded by Y Combinator2

Achievements and Recognition

Received the Ruby Hero award in March 20132
Awarded the Material Design Award by Google in October 2016 for the Airbnb mobile apps2

Linear.app

Karri co-founded Linear.app, which has quickly become one of the fastest-growing and most beloved issue-tracking tools in the world.3 Some notable achievements of Linear under Karri's leadership include:

A team of 50 employees working 100% remotely across 16 countries5
Used by tens of thousands of companies, including 66% of Forbes top 50 AI companies5
Raised $52 million in total funding while remaining profitable with a negative lifetime burn rate5
Achieved impressive growth with minimal marketing spend (0.5% of revenue) and a small sales team5

Personal

Originally from Finland, now living in the San Francisco area1 2
Fluent in English and Finnish2

Karri is known for his focus on design, product development, and building with taste and craft.3 4 His approach to leadership and product development at Linear has garnered significant attention in the tech industry.

Highlights

Oct 30 · twitter

It was fun to do this one with @HarryStebbings

Oct 29 · twitter

Fellow is one of my favorite kitchen appliance companies. In a market where many products are nearly indistinguishable, it’s hard to find products that are both high-quality and enjoyable to use and look at.

I own several of their pieces and have always appreciated their work. Why it was special to do this interview with @basheertome.

What resonated with me:

Getting feedback from coffee experts while also understanding it needs to work for everyone else
Quality is about the product being exactly what we say it is
There is significant business value in beauty; we create something worthy of a spot on the counter
Reviewers don’t always put as much value on whether something feels nice to use
Clear communication enables the focus needed to do the craft