# Karri Saarinen

> Karri Saarinen is the co-founder and CEO of Linear — a $1.25B unicorn project management tool trusted by 66% of Forbes' top 50 AI companies, including OpenAI, Ramp, and Vercel. A Finnish designer-turned-engineer who grew up questioning why everyday objects look ugly, attended 5,000-person LAN parties as a child, and turned that instinct into one of the most respected product careers in Silicon Valley. After shaping the visual language at Coinbase and Airbnb (Cereal typeface, Design Language System, Lottie, Google Material Design Award), he co-founded Linear in 2019 with two fellow Finns from Helsinki — and built it to 20,000+ customers and $100M+ ARR while staying profitable the entire time. His philosophy: quality is the growth strategy, tools embed opinions so choose accordingly, and the best MVP in a crowded category isn't minimal — it's sharply opinionated for a specific audience.

- **Role:** Co-Founder & CEO at Linear
- **Organizations:** Linear, Airbnb, Coinbase, Kippt, Rails Girls, Hartwall Arena Assembly (attendee)
- **From:** Finland
- **Nationality:** Finnish
- **Education:** University of Vaasa
- **Known for:** Co-founded and CEO of Linear — $1.25B valuation unicorn, 20,000+ paid customers across 16 countries, $100M+ ARR (2025)

## Career timeline

- **Early 2000s** — Checks coding books out of a local library so his gaming crew could have a decent website. By fifth grade, deep into Quake multiplayer. The 'cool teams' had their own websites — so he built one.
- **Sixth Grade** — Attends Assembly, a landmark 5,000-person LAN party at Hartwall Arena in Helsinki. Not just there to play — there to understand systems.
- **~2010–2011** — Co-founds Rails Girls, a nonprofit to get more women into software development. Works with Kisko Labs and Flowdock in Helsinki's startup ecosystem.
- **2012** — Posts Kippt — a social bookmarking tool — to Hacker News. Reaches 10,000 users in months. Accepted into Y Combinator Summer 2012. Moves to San Francisco permanently.
- **2013–2015** — First Designer, then Head of Design at Coinbase. Shapes the visual language of the company that would become crypto's public face. Designs for clarity and trust in a sector defined by noise.
- **2015–2018** — Principal Designer at Airbnb. Leads the Design Language System. Co-creates the Airbnb Cereal typeface. Works on Lottie, the company's open-source animation library. Earns a Google Material Design Award. Observes what hyperscale does to culture — takes detailed mental notes.
- **March 2019** — Resigns from Airbnb with co-founders Jori Lallo and Tuomas Artman — three Finns from Helsinki. Starts building Linear full-time in April. The mandate: build the best-in-class tool for software teams, the Apple way.
- **2019–2023** — Builds a 10,000-user waitlist with one website and one blog post. Raises $52M total across Seed, Series A, and Series B ($400M valuation at Accel). Stays profitable throughout. Never blitzes. Never A/B tests the core product instinct.
- **January 2026** — 118-person team. 20,000+ paid customers. ARR from ~$100K+ accounts up 6.3× year-over-year. Net operating income up ~3.5×. Still profitable. Still negative lifetime burn.
- **June 2025** — $82M Series C at $1.25B valuation. First unicorn from the Maria 01 community in Helsinki. 'Not much changes after a raise. We go back to building.'

## Achievements

- Co-founded and CEO of Linear — $1.25B valuation unicorn
- 20,000+ paid customers across 16 countries
- $100M+ ARR (2025)
- 140%+ net revenue retention
- Profitable since early days — net negative lifetime burn
- 66% of Forbes Top 50 AI companies run on Linear
- Co-founded Rails Girls nonprofit to get women into programming
- Built Kippt — reached 10,000 users, acquired by Coinbase
- Led Airbnb Design Language System and co-created Cereal typeface
- Created Lottie open-source animation library at Airbnb
- Google Material Design Award winner
- Built a 10,000-person waitlist with zero paid acquisition
- Raised $134M total while staying profitable throughout
- First unicorn from Maria 01 startup community in Helsinki, Finland
- 3.7× faster than Jira — the benchmark it refuses to chase

## Latest updates

- **June 2025** — $82M Series C closed. $1.25B valuation. First unicorn from Helsinki's Maria 01 community.
- **January 2026** — 118-person team, 20K+ paid customers, 140%+ net revenue retention, still profitable.
- **2025** — Featured in Sequoia Capital Spotlight profile on Linear's full origin story.
- **2024** — Published essays on design tool philosophy on karrisaarinen.com. Interviewed on Lenny's Newsletter and First Round Review podcast.
- **2023** — Series B with Accel at $400M valuation. $52M total raised to date.
- **2019–2023** — Grew from waitlist to 20K+ customers. Profitable throughout. Never blitzed.
- **2015–2018** — Led Airbnb Design Language System and Cereal typeface. Created Lottie. Earned Google Material Design Award.
- **2012** — Kippt accepted into YC Summer 2012. Moved to San Francisco permanently.
- **2019** — Resigned from Airbnb to co-found Linear with Jori Lallo and Tuomas Artman.

## Links

- Website: https://karrisaarinen.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karrisaarinen/
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/karrisaarinen

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/karri-saarinen
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-04-06