Founded: 2019
Founders: Karri Saarinen, Tuomas Artman
Industry: Developer Tools
Revenue: ~$10M ARR
Valuation: $278M
Issue tracking that doesn’t make you want to quit software engineering. Clean, fast, purposeful.
Linear took the frustrating experience of using Jira and completely reimagined it. Instead of a slow, cluttered interface designed by committee, they built something that feels native and responsive.
The team brought design thinking to developer tools. Every interaction is considered, every feature has a clear purpose. It’s proof that enterprise software doesn’t have to be painful to use.
They’ve shown that even in established categories, there’s room for products that simply work better. Linear didn’t compete on features - they competed on experience.
“We wanted to build the tool we wished existed when we were engineers at Uber and Coinbase.” - Karri Saarinen