Focusing on Customer Needs: Karri's Journey from Finland to Linear, a Growing Software Product Management Solution

As the CEO and co-founder of Linear, I'm Karri, and my journey from designing websites at 16 to building a successful software company has taught me that focus, prioritization, and building something people want are key to driving growth and achieving success.

1. Karri is CEO and co-founder of Linear, which helps companies with product management and issue tracking.
2. The company has raised $52 million across Series B, A, and seed rounds.
3. Linear is focused on helping software companies build software and is growing fast with many new customers.
4. Karri started designing websites at age 16 and worked at a startup 15 years ago.
5. He learned the importance of focus and having a clear vision for a company early in his career.
6. At Coinbase, Karri worked on making crypto services more user-friendly and understandable.
7. At Airbnb, he learned about the importance of branding from founder Brian Chesky.
8. After four or five years, Karri started Linear to improve software management tools.
9. The existing tools were based on outdated thinking and not user-friendly.
10. Linear built its own sync engine and uses a local first architecture for faster actions.
11. They focused on creating a professional application rather than a website-like interface.
12. Karri emphasizes the importance of building something people want and focusing on the customer experience.
13. For Linear's MVP, they focused on basic functionality and simplicity, allowing for task management and assignment.
14. They used Product Hunt to gather early users and fix any issues reported during beta testing.
15. Karri stresses the importance of word-of-mouth marketing in building a strong brand.
16. Linear aims to help companies with planning and discovery, as well as execution.
17. The company has a strong individual contributor focus, empowering team members to shape the product.
18. Karri suggests focusing on what's important and avoiding distractions when building a startup.
19. He encourages founders to think about problems they want to spend ten years solving and ensure it's something that interests them.
20. Karri advises against spending too much time on business tasks, conferences, or networking in the early stages of a startup.

Source: EO via YouTube

❓ What do you think? What are the most important factors to consider when building a successful product, and how can entrepreneurs balance short-term needs with long-term vision? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments!