Karri Saarinen is the co-founder and CEO of Linear. He speaks with Harry Stebbings on 20VC about managing personal insecurity and the constantly shifting responsibilities of a startup CEO.
“It comes down to the CEO role that I feel like you can be insecure all the time because it never, that role is never the same. You can never be, I think that you can never be the best at it. The company is always changing. The team's changing. The, I don't know, the market is changing. Everything's always changing. So what you did maybe well in the past, and it was Good or well done. It's not enough anymore.”
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More from Karri Saarinen
Insight
Saarinen: Business success is a founder's only true protection against investor control
“The only real protection you can have as a startup founder in your business is to be successful. If you're not successful, there's a lot of ways investors can exert their control.”
Karri SaarinenOct 30, 2024▶ 0:05Karri Saarinen: How to Grow Capital Efficiently in a World of BS Growth | E1221 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Opinion
Saarinen Would Choose to Invest in Brian Chesky Over Brian Armstrong
“If I really had to choose, I would really choose Brian Chesky, because I think he's really this I don't know, power of nature that he can drive through anything. I think Brian Armstrong is as well. But I think like if you put Brian Chesky to do something, like…”
Karri SaarinenOct 30, 2024▶ 5:03Karri Saarinen: How to Grow Capital Efficiently in a World of BS Growth | E1221 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Saarinen: Maximizing startup valuation is dangerous and leads to demotivating down rounds
“So I'm not trying to aim, like get the highest valuation possible. I think it's dangerous and what we've seen in the past couple of years that it can lead to down rounds and those are really annoying or unmotivating to people.”
Karri SaarinenOct 30, 2024▶ 23:29Karri Saarinen: How to Grow Capital Efficiently in a World of BS Growth | E1221 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Karri Saarinen explicitly rejects the 'always be raising' mantra for founders
“I mean, I would say like absolutely not to be always raising.”
Karri SaarinenOct 30, 2024▶ 27:24Karri Saarinen: How to Grow Capital Efficiently in a World of BS Growth | E1221 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Disclosure
Saarinen Gives Prospective VCs Google Doc Homework to Evaluate Their Thinking
“I make a, Separate Google doc for each investor and say like, Hey, here's a memo. And here's a cool week at the end of the memo. There's some questions for you that I would like you to think about, and then they should write them down and then we should talk a…”
Karri SaarinenOct 30, 2024▶ 29:42Karri Saarinen: How to Grow Capital Efficiently in a World of BS Growth | E1221 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Saarinen: Profitability gives startup founders maximum leverage over VC investors
“Being profitable, gets you the highest leverage you can have in terms of when it comes to talking to investors, because it gives you the leverage of not needing them. That's his point in the essay too. And so that's always the highest leverage if you can walk …”
Karri SaarinenOct 30, 2024▶ 44:49Karri Saarinen: How to Grow Capital Efficiently in a World of BS Growth | E1221 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
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