How Pulley empowers high-growth companies like Linear with Scalable equity management tools
Linear Optimized Workflows and Reduced Costs with Pulley
10 hours
saved monthly
with Pulley’s robust equity management features
$600 saved
per hour
in legal fees compared to Linear’s previous solution
65 workflows completed
since Linear’s migration just 5 months ago
Linear switched with ease
Equity management becomes exponentially complex as you scale. We chose Pulley because they turned that complexity into simplicity – letting us focus on building our product, not managing our cap table.
Karri Saarinen
CEOÂ - Linear
About linear
Linear is a powerful project and issue-tracking system that streamlines workflows across the entire product development process.
Today, thousands of teams around the globe—from early-stage startups to public companies—use Linear to build their products. Linear helps them to focus on what they do best: Crafting software experiences that feel magical again.
Pulley’s Impact
As Linear grew, the company was in need of an equity management partner capable of handling increasingly sophisticated equity needs without sacrificing usability.
Pulley, with its intuitive user interface, extensive toolset, and team of experts, was able to support Linear after raising their $35M Series B for the next phase of their growth journey.
The Challenge - Growth
Linear needed a partner capable of handling sophisticated equity needs as it grew
As a company scales, its equity management needs evolve. Back-office admin tasks of hiring and retaining top talent, generating audit-ready 409A valuations, and managing a growing cap table can quickly become time-consuming and expensive for a high-growth company.
While Linear’s operations were expanding, its previous equity management platform made it difficult for the company to manage its equity needs without ongoing legal assistance.
Linear’s $35M Series B fundraising round in 2023 marked a pivotal moment.
With a growing shareholder base and increasing equity grants, the company needed a platform capable of handling sophisticated equity needs without sacrificing usability, introducing operational friction, or having to involve expensive outside counsel.
"Equity management becomes exponentially complex as you scale. We chose Pulley because they turned that complexity into simplicity – letting us focus on building our product, not managing our cap table."
The Solution - Pulley equity management
Pulley’s scalable and powerful equity management
As Linear was searching for a new equity management partner, Pulley stood out for its intuitive design, simplicity, and track record of supporting companies as they scale.
Hiring & Retention
Linear quickly began issuing employee equity grants and creating custom workflows, like the exercise request workflow for employees.
409As
Linear seamlessly completed a 409A valuation with a custom report, including the ability to retrieve the data in their preferred format.
Engagement
Over 90% of Linear’s stakeholders have actively engaged with their new portals, reflecting the simplicity of using the platform.Â
Pulley’s seamless onboarding process became a key differentiator, with the team handling every step, including:
Building Linear's cap table to match the existing one
Uploading incorporation and transaction documents
Adding stakeholder info and guiding each stakeholder transition
The transition to Pulley took only 1-2 hours of the Linear team’s time to retrieve data from its existing provider.
“Pulley did the work to transition us from our previous tool, it was very easy and seamless on our end.”
Advanced features
How Pulley supports companies to liquidity
Employee and Investor Liquidity
As companies stay private for longer, providing liquidity has become a primary concern for growth and late-stage companies. Both employees and investors seek opportunities to realize value from their equity before a traditional exit. This shift has made well-managed liquidity programs critical for attracting and retaining top talent.
Pulley partners with Nasdaq Private Market to provide advanced liquidity solutions, helping companies like Linear maintain control over stakeholder expectations and strengthen confidence in their long-term growth strategy.
Nasdaq Private Market & Pulley Data Integration and Partnership Benefits
Seamless liquidity events
Initiate tender offers directly from Pulley, with secure cap table data transmission to NPM.
Data security
Your cap table data is only shared with NPM when you initiate a tender offer.
Enhanced control
Manage secondary transfers, communicate restrictions, and maintain a unified message for shareholders and investors.
Expertise you can trust
NPM has facilitated over $55 billion in transaction volume across 750 company-sponsored liquidity programs since 2013.
Fundraising modeler
Equity ownership calculations grow more complex with each fundraising round. With multiple share classes, pro-rata rights, or option pool increases, most equity management providers can’t generate an accurate future ownership report.
Pulley is the only solution that can provide companies like Linear with a complete pro forma for their next institutional fundraising round based on different model scenarios and Linear’s own custom fundraising documents.
Employee hub
Scaling companies need an intuitive portal to manage employee equity needs—generating offer letters, issuing equity, and enabling employees to visualize and model compensation scenarios.
Pulley helps mature companies attract and retain talent with transparent equity tools and education—150,000 employees at companies like Linear use Pulley’s employee hub for equity compensation.
Custom reporting
As a company’s cap table expands, the data it may need to retrieve from its stakeholders and their equity ownership becomes more varied, with many possible combinations.
Linear needed a custom report to help them plan for equity refreshers. Pulley helped retrieve this data in a way that allowed Linear to obtain structured insights tailored to their needs.
The Impact - Equity management built for growth
Linear is now better equipped to manage its equity with scalable, custom solutions, built for growth.
"We take the tools we use very seriously—whether it's for building software or managing our company. Pulley offers a great balance: it’s easy to use, yet robust enough for our stage."
Linear’s transition to Pulley highlights the importance of choosing platforms that not only address today’s needs, but also align with future growth.
Pulley’s collaboration with Linear showcases its ability to serve larger, growing companies with scalable solutions tailored to meet their evolving needs. For companies experiencing rapid growth, Pulley isn’t just a tool—it’s a partner designed to grow with them.
