Saarinen: Linear focused on speed to win startup early adopters
Karri Saarinen · Brand Design Tips From Linear Founder Karri Saarinen · Y Combinator · Jul 25, 2025 · at 34:18
Linear co-founder and CEO Karri Saarinen discusses how Linear identified speed as its wedge feature to attract startups before expanding to enterprise features.
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“Two things. One is like the speed was one of the main problems we heard from a lot of people we talked to, that they just don't like the tools because they're slow. And it makes sense. Like a linear is kind of like this very, it's like almost like an email client. Like you use it a lot and it's like annoying if it's slow, but I do think like you probably know, it's like who cares most about speed? Like startups do.”
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