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Karri Saarinen: Talks Leaving SF and Building a $400M Startup in San Diego's Backyard

Karri Saarinen: Talks Leaving SF and Building a $400M Startup in San Diego's Backyard

An exclusive interview with Karri Saarinen, a designer and founder who spent the last decade at fast-growing unicorn startups in Silicon Valley.

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Fred Grier
Oct 25, 2023
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Business San Diego
Business San Diego
Karri Saarinen: Talks Leaving SF and Building a $400M Startup in San Diego's Backyard
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Karri Saarinen, is one of three co-founders behind Silicon Valley’s widely-respected startup Linear, which has raised $35 million in funding led by Accel.

Karri Saarinen, is a well-known founder in San Francisco’s startup community, who worked as a designer at Airbnb and Coinbase, has raised $35 million in a Series B funding round led by Accel, valuing the company at $400 million.

Linear, a four-year-old startup, has built a beloved software tool, which is being used to build products by thousands of product teams tasked with scaling their startups into billion-dollar enterprises.

Saarinen, who rarely does interviews, agreed to chat about his company’s latest milestones. We discussed what it’s like living in America’s finest city, how he was able to raise capital from top investors and building relationships with Silicon Valley’s most influential leaders in technology while living 400-plus miles away from Palo Alto.

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