Asana vs Linear: Founders, CEOs and History
Asana was founded in 2008 by Dustin Moskovitz, Justin Rosenstein and is led by Dan Rogers. Linear was founded in 2019 by Karri Saarinen, Jori Lallo, Tuomas Artman and is led by Karri Saarinen.
Company facts
Founders
Asana
Dustin Moskovitz
Dustin Moskovitz is a US entrepreneur, a co-founder of Facebook, and the co-founder of Asana, which he ran as chief executive officer from 2008 until July 2025.
Justin Rosenstein
Justin Rosenstein is a US software engineer and entrepreneur who co-founded Asana with Dustin Moskovitz.
Linear
Karri Saarinen
Karri Saarinen is co-founder and CEO of Linear. A designer by background, he worked on design at Airbnb and Coinbase and earlier co-founded Kippt with Jori Lallo.
Jori Lallo
Jori Lallo is co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Linear. An engineer who previously worked at Coinbase and co-founded Kippt with Karri Saarinen, he oversees Linear's product direction.
Tuomas Artman
Tuomas Artman is co-founder and CTO of Linear. Before Linear he was an engineer at Uber working on mobile architecture, and he led the design of Linear's local-first sync engine.
CEOs and their tenures
Asana
- Dustin Moskovitz2008–2025
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Ran Asana for its first 17 years, from incorporation in December 2008 to a platform with more than 180,000 paying customers, and retains a majority of the company's voting power through its dual-class structure.
Source - Dan Rogers2025–present
Chief Executive Officer
Second chief executive in Asana's history, brought in to restart growth by rebuilding the platform around AI agents while holding the margin gains that produced non-GAAP operating income of $56.7 million in fiscal 2026.
Source
Linear
- Karri Saarinen2019–present
Co-founder & CEO
Saarinen was previously the first designer at Coinbase and Principal Designer at Airbnb, where he created Airbnb's influential Design Language System (DLS). His craft-first philosophy transformed modern developer tools.
Source - Tuomas Artman2019–2024
Co-Founder
Architected the ultra-fast synchronization engine and highly responsive local-first client database that set a new performance standard for modern issue tracking.
Source
Timeline: Asana and Linear side by side
2008Asana
Asana incorporated in Delaware: Dustin Moskovitz and Justin Rosenstein left Facebook and incorporated the company in Delaware on December 16, 2008, initially as Smiley Abstractions, Inc., renamed Asan…
2009Asana
$9 million Series A from Benchmark and Andreessen Horowitz: Asana raised a $9 million Series A round in November 2009 led by Benchmark, with Andreessen Horowitz participating and Benchmark's Matt Cohl…
2011Asana
Product opens to the public for free: After about three years of building a custom web framework called Luna and the Work Graph data model behind it, Asana opened its platform to the public at no char…
2012Asana
Paid plans and a public API: Asana began charging for the platform in April 2012 and released its API to third-party developers the same month, with Twitter and LinkedIn among the early companies runn…
2012Asana
$28 million raised to expand the team: Asana raised $28 million in July 2012 to build out engineering, support and sales as paid usage started to grow.
2016Asana
$50 million Series C led by Sam Altman: Asana raised $50 million in Series C funding led by Sam Altman, then president of Y Combinator, at a valuation of about $600 million.
2018Asana
Portfolios and the Asana Business tier: Asana launched Portfolios alongside a new Business plan in November 2018, giving executives a single view of progress and resourcing across many projects and pu…
2018Asana
$125 million raised at a $1.5 billion valuation: Asana raised $75 million in Series D funding led by Generation Investment Management and a further $50 million in November 2018 that valued the company…
2019Asana
Workload capacity planning ships: Asana released Workload in August 2019, letting managers see how individual team members were staffed across projects and rebalance assignments without leaving the pl…
2019Linear
Linear Orbit, Inc. is incorporated on January 10 by Karri Saarinen, Jori Lallo and Tuomas Artman; a waitlist opens in April.
2019Linear
Raises $4.2 million in a round led by Sequoia Capital.
2020Asana
Asana Goals links execution to strategy: Asana released Goals on July 15, 2020, a goal-tracking layer that connects company objectives to the projects and tasks underneath them so progress updates aut…
2020Asana
Direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange: Asana went public on September 30, 2020 through a direct listing rather than an IPO.
2020Linear
Opens publicly after its beta and raises a Series A led by Sequoia.
2021Linear
Becomes cash-flow positive.
2022Asana
Workforce cut by 9%: In November 2022 Asana cut about 9% of its global workforce in a restructuring aimed at operating costs after two years of rapid hiring during the remote-work boom.
2023Asana
Asana Intelligence brings generative AI into the Work Graph: Asana announced its first generative AI features in June 2023 and packaged them as Asana Intelligence on October 3, 2023, covering smart st…
2023Linear
Raises a $35 million Series B led by Accel at a valuation of about $400 million.
2024Asana
AI Studio opens agent building to non-developers: Asana launched AI Studio in October 2024, a no-code builder that lets teams embed AI agents in a workflow and deploy them inside Asana.
2025Asana
Dan Rogers succeeds Dustin Moskovitz as chief executive: Moskovitz announced his retirement as chief executive in March 2025.
2025Linear
Raises an $82 million Series C led by Accel at a $1.25 billion valuation, with about 80 employees and more than 15,000 customers; launches its agent platform.
2026Asana
StackAI acquired for $75 million: Asana completed its acquisition of StackAI, a no-code AI workflow platform, on May 28, 2026 for $75 million.
2026Asana
Repositioned as an operating system for human-agent teams: At its Work Innovation Summit in June 2026 Asana unveiled a product suite built so employees and AI agents work from the same plan, context a…
2026Asana
Dan Rogers named board chair: Effective September 25, 2026 Rogers added board chair to the chief executive role, Dustin Moskovitz moved to director, and Jerry Ting and Tom Berquist joined the board.
2026Linear
Passes $100 million in ARR and 40,000 paying companies; completes a $99 million tender offer at a $2.5 billion valuation.
Acquisitions
Linear
No verified acquisitions are listed.
Questions about Asana vs Linear
Who is the CEO of Asana, Inc. and Linear?
Asana, Inc. is led by Dan Rogers and Linear is led by Karri Saarinen. Both serve as the top executive responsible for the company's strategy, operations, and financial performance.
When was Asana, Inc. founded vs Linear?
Asana, Inc. was founded in 2008 — 11 years before Linear, which was founded in 2019. Asana, Inc.'s longer operating history gives it a deeper track record but also potentially more institutional inertia compared to the younger Linear.
How many employees does Asana, Inc. have compared to Linear?
Asana, Inc. employs approximately 1,767 people, while Linear employs approximately 280. Asana, Inc. has the larger workforce at 1,767 employees, compared to Linear's 280. A higher headcount does not necessarily imply greater efficiency — it often reflects differences in business model (e.g., manufacturing vs. software).
Where are Asana, Inc. and Linear headquartered?
Both Asana, Inc. and Linear are headquartered in United States, meaning they operate under the same primary regulatory and tax environment.
Who founded Asana, Inc. and Linear?
Asana, Inc. was founded by Dustin Moskovitz, Justin Rosenstein. Linear was founded by Karri Saarinen, Jori Lallo, Tuomas Artman.
Which company has a longer operating history — Asana, Inc. or Linear?
Asana, Inc. has been operating for approximately 18 years, making it the more established of the two companies. Linear has been in operation for around 7 years. A longer operating history often signals greater institutional resilience and brand recognition, though it can also mean slower adaptation to new market conditions.
Figures come from each company's filings and the sources linked beside them. Amounts reported in another currency are shown in US dollars at an approximate rate and marked with ~. Back to the Asana vs Linear overview