Linear

Linear makes software for planning and tracking product work. Karri Saarinen, Tuomas Artman and Jori Lallo founded the company in 2019. The three had earlier worked at Airbnb, Uber and Coinbase. Linear is based in San Francisco, with staff spread across North America and Europe.

Teams use Linear to log bugs and tasks, plan work in short cycles, track larger projects and set product roadmaps. The app is known for being fast and for its keyboard shortcuts. It links to GitHub and GitLab, so issues update as code changes, and it connects to Slack, Figma and support tools. Linear also adds AI agents that can triage, write and work on issues.

Its customers range from small startups to large software companies. Many teams move to Linear from older tools such as Jira. The company has a small team for its size and is known for slow, careful hiring. It has raised a few funding rounds and remains privately held.