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Comment by steve_adams_86 | Hacker News Reader

This feels awkwardly premature and dubious. I think "we're adding features to support better context modelling and execution with LLMs" would have sufficed.

I've thought of Linear as a careful, measured, thoughtful company in the past so this seems out of the blue, like there's some kind of existential crisis occurring over there.

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Linear is actually growing faster than it has in years (across revenue, new users, and engagement). But how people are using it has changed. They’re leaning much more heavily into agentic workflows. Ignoring that shift would be the real mistake, so we’re leaning into it.

I'm glad to hear Linear's doing well. It's still my favourite tool for the job.

I should have phrased my comment better. The post conveyed a sort of undue urgency to me that I found uncharacteristic and off-putting. I don't think Linear is actually having an existential crisis.

It's going to vary from person to person a lot. The people using more agentic workflows will think "finally, this will be great". People like me who don't have the AI kool-aid IV'd directly into their veins might be a bit more skeptical. Exaggerating for effect, here. I use AI plenty, but I want it to stay far away from my issue tracker. To me that's a sacred space that can't be polluted by LLM noise. I'm sure a lot of people will categorize me as a crusty boomer for that.

> like there's some kind of existential crisis occurring over there

If you're running a Saas, especially a SaaS whose market is developers, and you're NOT having an existential crisis in 2026, the only possible explanation is you're asleep or possibly already dead.

My first knee-jerk reaction was "this guy must not run a SaaS then." But I see that you do, so I'll pull back the reins a bit. I don't see this at all. Businesses are still buying the same way they've always bought, and businesses still don't want to build (and maintain) their own internal tooling as much as the talking heads say they do. At least in my neck of the woods.

Very much not asleep, and very much not dead.

ツ That was harsh. But true. Workflows are rapidly changing. Hard to adopt. Can we slow down-pause somewhere, so we can focus on building.

What would you do instead? The value of your core product has plummeted over night, you have to support a valuation above $1B, and your assets are good penetration into current generation companies and good reputation as a tastemaker saas

I can't speak to what I'd do instead because I don't work at Linear or have enough insight into the state of the market, their product, competitors, or where things seem to be going.

I just know the post gave me weird vibes.

Did the value actually plummet? All sentiment and reporting I see has generally been positive and I don't see direct evidence of a recent plunge.

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