At Home w/ Karri Saarinen, Co-Founder of Linear
A few years back, I got a DM from a founder wanting to meet and swap stories about adventures in entrepreneurship. Despite being backed by some of the top VCs in the world, they were taking a very different approach from the classic VC blitzscaling playbook. As we sat on the back patio of a bar in Brooklyn, it was clear that how Jori and his founding team at Linear were building was very aligned with how we were encouraging founders to consider building through indie (note — we are, sadly, not investors in Linear).
Years and a Series B later, the Linear founders have continued building their company on their terms.
A few weeks back, I had the opportunity to sit down with Jori’s co-founder, Karri Saarinen, at his home in California for a wide-ranging talk. We covered everything from their time at some of the biggest hyperscalers of the last wave (think AirBnB, Coinbase, Uber), to net-negative lifetime burn rate (they’ve basically never spent the $52M they’ve raised), to their version of “Founder Mode”, to Finnish potato farming.
A few notable takeaways from this conversation:
Building a Different Kind of Company
Linear aims to build a company and product in a way that differs from typical Silicon Valley startups by focusing on product quality and craft rather than rapid scaling. By maintaining profitability and controlled growth instead of burning through venture capital, they’ve been able to build a venture-scale company without giving up optionality. The founders draw on their experiences at companies like Airbnb and Coinbase to avoid pitfalls they observed there, like culture dilution from hyper-growth. They’ve emphasized a small, high-quality team over rapid hiring.
Product and Growth Philosophy
Linear prioritizes product quality over growth hacks or aggressive marketing. By focusing on making the product so good that people naturally talk about it, they’ve been able to capitalize on word-of-mouth from satisfied users as a growth strategy.
Founder Approach
Karri emphasizes the importance of founders staying connected to the product and the craft. Because they care deeply about the output and quality of work, they can avoid creating unnecessary management layers or processes. Karri advocates for founders to think critically about standard startup advice and find their own path that aligns with their strengths and values.
Remote Work and Culture
Linear is fully remote, which they see as an advantage in maintaining focus and avoiding unnecessary distractions like office design. The company emphasizes clear communication and looks for employees with strong communication skills to thrive in a remote environment. Remote works if the founders want it to.
I really loved this conversation with Karri.
It highlights for me that there really is a new wave of ultra ambitious founders who are finding a way to stay true to themselves and their visions by focusing on what matters, and putting themselves in a position to controlling their own destiny. Linear, Vanta, Zapier, Webflow, and so many others are validating that growth at all costs doesn’t have to cost you everything.
I hope you enjoy listening to this conversation as much as we enjoyed recording it.
As always if you or someone you know are working on something that could be a fit for indie, don’t hesitate to reach out.
— Bryce
