Why Does Linear Reject the Minimum Viable Product?

Karri Saarinen rejects YC's MVP advice. Linear moved fast and still tried to build a good product, and trying to be good is how the company stays unique.

YC often tells founders to go do something fast and try it out, because smart people will figure something out. A lot of companies start with an idea that is not good, stumble onto something, and turn it into something good. He thinks the advice YC gives is probably right, and he does not personally believe it. Linear never did the MVP. He would not start a company he knows nothing about, like making soap. He would start a company in something he already knows and is interested in, where he has domain knowledge, then take a position on what he really believes and what the future of the category looks like.

There is a tendency on every team to start working on a problem, learn more about it, and notice more and more problems. The actual core problem was maybe pretty simple, but people learn too much and get lost in what the main problem is. Whenever people show a project, he pushes them to name the main workflow, use case, or problem they are trying to accomplish, because it is hard to optimize and hard to make decisions on designs without that focus.