Figma: Dylan Field

How I Built This · 16 Jun 2025 · 1h 14m

What this episode covers

Dylan Field, co-founder and CEO of Figma, recounts building the collaborative design platform with Evan Wallace after winning a Thiel Fellowship in 2012. He details the company's evolution from a vague WebGL experiment to a $20 billion Adobe acquisition target that was blocked by regulators, and its subsequent pivot to AI and IPO preparation. Field discusses critical leadership challenges, including his initial inability to manage a growing team and the pivotal moment when Microsoft forced Figma to adopt a pricing model.

Mentioned

Companies
Adobe, LinkedIn, Flipboard, InVision, Microsoft, Notion, Uber, Airbnb, Netflix, Greylock, Mozilla
Products
Figma, Adobe XD, Zoom
Tools
WebGL
Also
Thiel Fellowship, Santa Rosa Junior College, Brown University, Department of Justice, European Commission

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