He Started His Company At 17, Now It's Worth Millions And Competes With Industry Unicorns

Vladimir Danila developed the idea for Linearity's graphic design platform, formerly called Vectornator, when he was just 17. Frustrated with the intricacies of Adobe Illustrator and other design platforms, Danila created a mobile-first app--after enough people asked where they could buy it, too--and it blew up overnight, he says. With no marketing, the app made $40,000 in sales almost immediately. He knew the product was worth something, but Danila says his lack of experience, at 17, made the beginnings complicated. "If you founded a company later on [in your career], you've seen at least how another organization looks from the inside," he says. "And if you're completely blank, then it's a lot of figuring out and asking people for advice." Now, with a range of graphic design tools aiming to make branding campaigns quick and easy to draw up, Linearity competes with Figma and claims to count staff from Apple, Disney and Microsoft among its 7 million users. Originally from Bucharest and educated in Duesseldorf, Danila leads a remote team of over 50 across 19 countries. Backed by leading venture capitalists like EQT Ventures and HV Capital, Linearity has raised over $35 million to develop its technology across mobile, desktop and web.

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