17 cool companies started by former employees

Linear

Karri Saarinen is the cofounder and CEO of Linear.

Linear


Company: Linear

Total funding: $17.2 million

Valuation: undisclosed

Investors: Bobby Goodlatte, Dick Costolo, Dylan Field, Emilie Choi, Gustaf Alströmer, Harry Stebbings, Index Ventures, Julia DeWahl, Patrick Collison, Sequoia Capital, and others

Why it’s cool: Linear’s app helps software developers organize their workflow. It provides smart and elegant tools for managing projects, tasks, and bugs, freeing up developers to “focus on the act of building instead of th ebust work around it,” Linear chief Karri Saarinen says.

Founders: Karri Saarinen, former head of design at Coinbase; Jori Lallo, former software engineer at Coinbase; and Tuomas Artman