Interview : Karri Saarinen
Jan 6, 2016
Karri is from San Francisco, CA and is the co-founder of Linear. Previously, he was the principal designer & co-creator of design systems at Airbnb and a founding designer at Coinbase. He also co-founded Kippt (YC S12), Inc, and Rails Girls. His ideal co-founder is Jori Lallo. // UPDATED Bio
Be sure to follow him on Twitter.
What does an average day look like for you?
I've been living in San Francisco for the past 7 years. I tend to have a cup of coffee made by Aeropress.
What do you like to do outside of work? Do you have any hobbies or guilty pleasures?
I like to cook, travel, take photos and read books. My guilty pleasure is probably pc games (Fallout 4 and Team Fortress 2). I'm a old pc-gamer and really don't want to switch to consoles.
What is your ideal environment for productivity?
I don't have very specific needs but I usually prefer quiet, minimal and environments where there isn't too much overhead light or glare from the sun.
What apps do you & Jori use for design?
I've been using Photoshop for the past 13 years, but recently I jumped the Sketch-bandwagon.
Mac, Windows, or Linux?
Mac.
Rails Girls
What sparked the idea to create Rails Girls?
My co-founder Linda got excited about the technology and kind of wondered how it took her so long. We talked about how we could introduce more people, specially women, to see the creative side of technology. At that time I was a partner in this Rails agency, so I pitched the idea to our developers, and they liked it. So we decided to make a workshop where people could really build and design their first app feel what is like to create digital products.
How did you end up working with Linda?
I met Linda on a trip to San Francisco. We were on this trip where bunch of startup people from Finland went to visit SF and Silicon Valley. After that we became friends and she told me about her recent interest in technology.
Did you learn anything about the way some people learn?
One thing we always have to tell the coaches that people can have very different skill levels. Even something like understanding the toolset; text editor -- browser -- terminal, need to be addressed. You can imagine people trying to learn to code might have lot of issues on the way
What was your highest moment from these workshops?
I think there has been definitely several. Seeing all this people learn the jargon, like MySQL, JQuery, Mongo, Apache, and understanding what those things mean. What I'm most happy about though is that several people have actually went though this workshop and ended up getting a job as a programmer.
Are you still involved?
Not that much anymore. Me and Linda organized the first workshops, but realized that we can be doing this everywhere or it doesn't scale. So we ended up writing up everything we know and sharing it with the community and basically said that you can do it. After that, people have organized maybe over 250 events around the world.
Kippt
What sparked the idea to start Kippt?
Both me and Jori got the first iPad when it came out. Quite fast we realized that many times you found good articles online that you actually wanted to read on your iPad but pretty much the only way to send them to your iPad was to email them to yourself. So we decided to build an app for this.
What was the inspiration for the name?
It was some kind of combination of keep it + clip it, 5 letters and the domain was free.
What typeface did you use in the logo?
I used Interstate. It was one of the ones I had available and I think it looked good as lowercase. Originally I didn't think it that much since it was an hackathon project.
What framework did you use to build Kippt?
We used Django since Jori is a hardcore Python guy.
How did you end up working with Jori?
Funny enough, I also met with Jori on this trip where I met Linda. We also became friends. We were both on this Forrst.com website, and they had a friendly app hackathon that we decided to join and build the first version of Kippt.
Inc
What sparked the idea to create Inc?
For a long time we have thought about and seen people use Kippt inside companies. After a year or so working full-time on Kippt, we decided to try creating a Kippt kind of app just for companies.
What typeface did you use in the logo?
Proxima Nova
What framework did you use to build Inc?
We went with Django and backbone since we were familiar with it.
Coinbase
How did you and Jori get involved with Coinbase?
We met Brian from Coinbase at our Y Combinator batch, actually on the first day of YC. We went out to have lunch. Year after YC, Brian contacted us to come for lunch to give them some design advice. Went to have lunch with them and said that they needed someone to work on the design rather than advice, and said that I'd could probably create the something for them.
What are you guys working on at Coinbase?
When Coinbase acquired our company, I went on the work on the design side of things, creating the design foundation and team. Jori went to on work improving the the frontend side of things and ultimately rebuilt the Coinbase API platform, which is now one of the most popular bitcoin platforms out there.
How was the experience working at Coinbase?
It's been an interesting ride, it's never a dull day in bitcoin. However, this fall I decided to seek out new opportunities and ended up joining Airbnb as a Principal Designer. At Airbnb, I'm working on refining the product design direction for the design teams.
Airbnb
Y Combinator
Which one of your apps did you apply for YC?
We applied with Kippt.
What was your experience like at YC?
It was great. I think it's very interesting to see how different teams and people create these companies and how ambitious they are. Every week we would be amazed how much some of the teams managed to get done and aimed to the same.
What are some things you learned at YC?
They tell you to focus on the right things at the right time. You always need to ask yourself: "is this currently what I should be doing, is it growing the company or helping the customers?"
Who would you recommend YC to?
Nowadays, I'd recommend people to do YC when they have a product, bit traction and a vision what to do next. It's a great place to scale your company or product, but it can be challenging to figure out your product, team and business during the 3-months of YC. I always say that it doesn't hurt to apply and the application is actually also a good way to think about your company.
What / who had the most impact on who you are today?
When I was 16, I managed to get a summer job at a local web company as a designer & developer. The CEO took a chance on me when I had very little experience and overall the everyone company was really helpful and I think in those following couple of summers, I think I owe a lot of my career for what I learned there.
What animal best represents your personality?
I like cats and I'd describe myself one. I have my own way of doing things and it sometimes hard to make me do things if I don't believe in doing it. I also like to to sleep.
What advice would you give someone who wanted to create their own app?
First step is always to create it. It's good to start from your own need, because in the end if there is no one to use your app, at least you can use it.
Name one thing you look forward to seeing in the future (inventions, apps, etc)
I've been interested virtual reality since I was a kid, and now it seems we are finally making some progress. The devices and the software still need a lot of work but I'm excited about the future in this area.
Do you or Jori have any plans to launch a new app?
Not at the moment. We recently had to close Kippt, so that was kind of sad. In a way when you create something and people actually use it, you feel responsible for your users.