🎨 Brand Voice Builder

Voice Spec Sheet: Karri Saarinen / Linear

The One-Paragraph Summary

A voice spec is a reverse-engineered set of rules that captures how a specific writer actually sounds on the page. Karri writes like a builder who has already had the argument in his head and is now telling you the conclusion. His sentences are short (avg 11.4 words across samples), often fragments, and structured as a thesis followed by the evidence that earned it — not a warm-up followed by a reveal. He quietly positions Linear against incumbents without naming them as villains, uses the first-person plural ("we ship weekly") to signal discipline rather than togetherness, and reaches for one concrete number or comparison in nearly every paragraph. He almost never uses marketing adjectives. When he's moved, he gets shorter, not louder.

Voice Fingerprint (The Measurable Stuff)

The 5 Signature Moves (Do More of These)

1. The Quiet Villain. Names the competitor or category dismissively, then moves on without dwelling. Quote: "Jira, Asana, the graveyard of others." Why it works: credibility through specificity without turning into a grudge post. Template: "[Category] — [named incumbent], [named incumbent], [dismissive plural] — [what they all get wrong]."

2. The Earned Conclusion. States the belief first, then the evidence that earned it. Quote: "software is made by small teams who care, and the tool should disappear into the work." Why it works: reads as conviction, not pitch. Template: "[Thesis]. [Concrete evidence]. [Consequence]."

3. The One Number Rule. Drops a specific metric or duration to anchor abstract claims. Quotes: "We ship weekly," "eight months," "up 40%." Why it works: each number makes the surrounding sentences land. Rule: never publish a paragraph about a product without at least one number.

4. The Dogfood Receipt. Casually mentions that Linear uses Linear, or the team does the thing they're selling. Quote: "We use Linear to build Linear." Why it works: proof without bragging.

5. The Permission to Leave. Closes with an exit, not a CTA. Quote: "If you hate it, turn it off. We won't be offended." Why it works: inverts the anxious marketer's posture. Template: "[Try it]. [How to undo]. [Low-stakes sign-off]."

The 4 Tics (Do Less of These Before They Become a Caricature)

1. The em-dash aside. Karri uses em-dashes well, but at scale, writers imitating him stack 3-4 per paragraph and the voice collapses into a tic. Cap: one em-dash aside per 150 words.

2. The "we" that flexes. "We ship weekly" is earned; "We believe in craft" is LinkedIn sludge. Don't copy the grammar without copying the specificity.

3. "Not X — Y" construction. Quote: "Not a sprint — sprints are…" Powerful once, performative at three uses in a piece. Limit: one per post.

4. The punchy fragment. "No bureaucracy. No status meetings." When imitators do this, it reads like a bad trailer. Only use fragments when the full sentence would dilute a conclusion you've already earned.

What This Writer Would Never Say

• *"Delighted to announce"* — he announces by describing the thing, not his feelings about it.
• *"Game-changing," "revolutionary," "best-in-class"* — no marketing adjectives, ever.
• *"What do you think?"* — he never asks the reader to validate him.
• *"Our amazing team"* — team praise is implied through "we," never stated.
• *"At [Company], we believe…"* — the corporate throat-clear. He starts with the belief.
• Emoji in long-form. Exclamation points outside of a rare genuine moment.
• Any sentence longer than 30 words.

Mode Switching: When Voice Changes

Two modes detected across samples:

• Long-form (about page, product launch): More narrative, uses origin-story "I," em-dashes, 3-4 sentence paragraphs. Still no adjectives.
• Short-form (Twitter): Single-idea, thesis-plus-evidence, often one compound sentence. No "we" — short-form Karri is observational, not institutional. Trigger: platform length.

Which rules matter most for writing in this voice?

1. Short sentences, specific numbers. If you nail nothing else, nail this. Avg sentence under 13 words; at least one number per 150 words.

2. Thesis first, evidence second. Never warm up. State the belief, then earn it.

3. No marketing adjectives, ever. Strip every "powerful," "seamless," "intuitive" before hitting publish. If the sentence collapses without the adjective, rewrite the sentence.

How should a new writer practice this voice?

The 25-minute exercise:

1. (5 min) Pick any Linear feature. Write a 100-word launch post the way you'd normally write it.

2. (10 min) Edit using only three rules: (a) cut every adjective, (b) add at least one specific number, (c) break any sentence over 18 words into two.

3. (5 min) Add a Signature Move: either a Quiet Villain line or a Permission to Leave closer.

4. (5 min) Read it aloud. If any sentence sounds like a press release, delete it.

Ready-to-Use AI System Prompt

You are writing as Karri Saarinen, co-founder of Linear, for an audience of engineers and startup founders. Follow these rules without exception:

1. Average sentence length under 13 words. Hard cap at 30.
2. Every 150 words must contain at least one specific number, duration, or comparison.
3. No marketing adjectives. Banned: powerful, seamless, intuitive, delightful, amazing, game-changing, revolutionary, best-in-class, world-class.
4. Structure: thesis first, evidence second. Never warm up.
5. Use "we" for institutional claims, "I" only for origin stories. Never "I" for opinions.
6. Em-dashes allowed for asides, max one per 150 words.
7. No questions to the reader. No exclamation points. No emoji in long-form.
8. When closing a product post, offer an exit ("if you hate it, turn it off"), not a CTA.
9. If naming competitors, do it once, dismissively, then move on.
10. If a sentence could appear in any company's blog post, delete it.

Before returning the draft, audit it against these rules and list any you broke.

Key Takeaways

• The voice is conviction-plus-evidence, not warmth. Karri sounds like someone who already won the internal argument.
• Numbers do the emotional work that adjectives would do in a weaker voice. "40%" and "eight months" are load-bearing.
• Negative space defines the voice. What he refuses to say (marketing adjectives, questions, exclamation points) matters more than any single signature move.
• The most imitable move is the Permission to Leave. It's the one rule that instantly makes any marketing copy sound more like Linear.
• Don't stack the tics. Three em-dashes, two "not X — Y" constructions, and four fragments in one post is not "writing like Karri" — it's wearing a Karri costume.