Karri Saarinen: How to Grow Capital Efficiently in a World of BS Growth | E1221

I've never been happy with a 20% dilution. I would rather see it at, like, 10% or less than that. The only, huh, real protection you can have as a startup founder in your business is to be successful. If you're not successful, there's a lot of ways investors can exert their control.

Ready to go?

(intro music plays)

Kari, I am so excited for this, dude. I've wanted to do this since we first started working together, so I'm thrilled that you joined me today. Thank you for joining me.

Thanks for having me.

Now, I was chatting to, uh, Miles at Accel beforehand, and he said, "You've just got to start with context." And so I didn't want to do like the, oh, how did you come to found Linear. Uh, he told me I had to ask about potato farming in Finland. Why?

(laughs)

(laughs)

Uh, I- I think i- this- this came to be, like, I think, like, Linear also came to be from- from, like, my frustration, so... So I think, like, my frustration living in, uh, U.S. or in California in the last decade is that potatoes here are not very good or there isn't that much of a variety of things. So when you go to a grocery store, you usually have four different kinds. You have the large one, the- the, um, golden one, the small one, and- and, like, a red one. And, like, growing up in Finland, that's not the case. Like, those are, like, the- the main categories, but then within these categories, you might have different kinds of varieties. And some of them are more, like, seasonal and- and some of them are more specific to a region in Finland where they're grown. So in, during summer in Finland, you go to a grocery store, there might be, like, five different kinds of, like, different varieties of the same kind of potato, like, the same category. And then, like, some of them m- might be picked this morning and they're, like, really fresh and the- the taste and the texture is very different. It's, they're, like, very buttery and the potato flavor is much more stronger. Like, e- even if you just boil them, you can taste a lot versus, like, if you boil normal potatoes, I- I think, like, you get on a grocery store, they don't generally taste that much anything. So I'm- I'm just sad that, like, there isn't good potatoes in- in the U.S., or at- at least haven't been able to find. So I, uh, like going to Finland in the summer to buy some of those potatoes, but I've been also, like, growing my own. We have a little cottage and it has a, it's, uh, some space to, like, farm things, so- so I've been, like, growing my own as well.

I've never met a potato nerd. (laughs)

(laughs)

That is the nerdiest description of potatoes I've ever heard. All I'll say is I hope you didn't use that when you were dating your- (laughs) your partner.