Behind Figma's bell - ringing: How did the CEO transform from a school - dropping 90s teenager into a billionaire in the AI circle?

Key Points

Dylan Field dropped out of school to start a business after receiving Peter Thiel's "20 Under 20" fellowship and co - founded Figma with his partner Evan Wallace.

Adobe initially regarded Figma as a threat. After launching its competing product XD, it twice attempted to eliminate the competition through acquisition. However, the $20 billion acquisition deal fell through due to antitrust regulations.

As Figma's stock price more than tripled during its initial public offering (IPO), Field's stake in the company was worth approximately $6.6 billion.

The launch of Figma Make marks Figma's strategic shift from a tool provider to an AI - powered creative platform.

Field is called "the most down - to - earth billionaire" by his peers and investors. He can listen to feedback and make adjustments. Even when the company faced setbacks, he maintained a 95% high loyalty rate among the team with his personal charm and leadership.

Recently, Figma completed its initial public offering (IPO), which not only skyrocketed the company's valuation but also became a long - awaited "capital feast" in Silicon Valley. After all, since the market hit a cold spell in 2022 due to inflation and rising interest rates, such a lively IPO event has been quite rare.

However, Dylan Field, the CEO of Figma, has always remained sober. In a recent interview, he said, "We have to constantly remind the team that the stock price is just a snapshot, and it could change in the next second."

Dylan Field caught the eye of "the godfather of Silicon Valley," Peter Thiel. During his school years, he received a venture investment, which led him to drop out of school and start his entrepreneurial journey. Mark Zuckerberg is one of the most well - known examples of "dropping out of school to become a tech billionaire." In 2004, Thiel's investment allowed Zuckerberg to leave Harvard University and head to Silicon Valley to build Facebook. Eight years later, when Facebook went public, 19 - year - old Field also received the Thiel Fellowship - a program that offers $100,000 to encourage young people to leave the classroom and start businesses.

Although both followed the script of dropping out of school to start a business, Field has created a completely different persona. "He's definitely the most down - to - earth billionaire I've ever met," said Joshua Browder, the founder of DoNotPay, a mobile AI - powered legal software, who also received the Thiel Fellowship. Mike Gibson, the former vice - president of the Thiel Foundation, compared Field with Steve Jobs: "He's the exact opposite of Jobs. Jobs' legend is full of a 'hardcore' spirit, while Field is completely different."

Actually, Field crossed the threshold of being a billionaire three years ago. At that time, Adobe offered $20 billion to acquire his web design tool, Figma. However, the deal was vetoed by the UK regulatory authorities, and Adobe ended up paying a $1 billion breakup fee.

Figma's Comeback: Transforming the Design Industry with $100,000

Field's legendary story began in 2011. Two hours before the deadline for the Thiel Fellowship application, Field, who was a junior at Brown University at the time, hastily filled out the application form and deliberately left out his SAT scores, reasoning that "it can't measure real ability and is easy to cheat on."

When answering the question "How to change the world," he boldly stated that he wanted to develop drone software. However, he and Evan Wallace, a teaching assistant at Brown University at that time, created a 3D ball that could roll on the web. When they rented an apartment together in Palo Alto with the $100,000 fellowship, they probably never imagined that this ball would roll into a multi - billion - dollar business empire.

At that time, Adobe announced the end of the development of its web graphics software, Fireworks - a product acquired from Macromedia that was strategically abandoned. "We thought it was our chance," Field later recalled in a podcast. In an interview in 2012, he was even more straightforward: "Our goal is to enable anyone to create. We want to build a free web design tool that everyone can use."

In 2013, when seeking financing, Field showed that famous 3D ball to John Lilly, a partner at Greylock Partners, at a Starbucks in Palo Alto, California. Field created a 3D sphere that could float on water and used it as an example to try to incorporate common functions such as image cutting, cropping, and color temperature adjustment into a consumer - level application, aiming to build a "Photoshop in the browser."

Although Lilly was amazed by Field's technical capabilities, he shook his head at the commercialization prospects. So, Field and Wallace adjusted their design approach and finally received seed - round financing from institutions such as Index Ventures. Figma assembled a small team in Palo Alto, but the progress was still slow - the early versions received poor user reviews, and Field, who wanted to be involved in every detail, became a bottleneck.

When Figma's product hit a wall in the Bay Area, the pressure began to mount. After Lilly led the Series A investment in 2014, the situation was quite dire by August of the following year. Danny Rimer, a partner at Index Ventures, recalled, "We had an honest meeting with the employees and directly told Field that 'things had reached a dead - end, and you have to adapt and change.' Fortunately, he really listened." This quality of being open to advice later proved to be a crucial turning point for Figma's breakthrough.

The turning point came with the arrival of Sho Kuwamoto (who later became the product manager at Figma). Four months after this veteran from Macromedia and Adobe joined the company, Figma launched its first free preview version. Field personally took on the role of customer service, sending test access permissions to potential users one by one on social media and actively reaching out to well - known designers.

Soon, companies like Coda and Uber became Figma's early customers. Designers were crazy about being able to share documents via links, no longer having to worry about version chaos and format compatibility issues. Additionally, since Figma operates on a cloud platform and provides the necessary computing infrastructure, users don't need a powerful GPU.

In September 2016, Figma finally opened its design editor to the public, and its real - time collaboration feature became a killer app. This software began to attract Microsoft's attention. However, there was also a problem. Microsoft was worried that Figma lacked a clear business model and might end up in the "graveyard" of startup companies. Jon Friedman, a design executive at Microsoft, visited Figma's headquarters and conveyed this message to Field. In response, Field quickly launched a paid plan in 2017.

By 2019, when Sequoia Capital led the Series C investment at a valuation of $440 million, Figma had become the new darling of the venture capital circle. "All the companies we've invested in use Figma to present prototypes in board meetings," said Andrew Reed, a partner at Sequoia. "This might be the project with the highest internal support rate."

Sequoia's investment portfolio includes well - known companies such as Apple, Google, LinkedIn, Zoom, and WhatsApp.

Rejecting Adobe's Acquisition Twice and Standing Up to Regulatory Authorities

When financial analysts started putting Figma on their watchlist, the situation became interesting. Adobe, a giant with a market value of $170 billion, not only listed Figma, which was valued at just over $2 billion, as a competitor but also urgently launched its competing product, XD.

The turning point came in 2020 - the pandemic suddenly shut down offices around the world, and Figma's real - time collaboration feature went from being "useful" to a "necessity" overnight. Field wrote on Twitter, "All we could think about was how to help remote teams regain the smoothness of the design process." So, in 2021, Figma launched its digital whiteboard, FigJam, completing its first product line expansion.

During this period, Adobe's acquisition efforts became more and more intense. In 2020, Scott Belsky, an Adobe executive, first extended an olive branch to Figma. At the beginning of 2021, Shantanu Narayen, the CEO of Adobe, stepped in person. Field rejected the offers twice and even set a goal on Twitter: "We want to build Figma, not become part of Adobe."

In the same year, Figma's valuation soared to over $10 billion, seemingly giving it the confidence to challenge Adobe.

However, in 2022, when the Federal Reserve suddenly raised interest rates, tech stocks took a nosedive. Investors fled high - growth tech stocks and turned to companies with more predictable profits. Sequoia Capital began to urge the companies it invested in to tighten their belts. Just at this delicate moment, Belsky returned with David Wadhwani, the head of Adobe's digital media business.

Apparently, Field seemed to "soften" this time. Adobe issued a statement saying, "Mr. Field has indicated his willingness to explore the possible terms of Adobe's acquisition of Figma, and the two parties will continue to discuss the potential benefits of cooperation."

Meanwhile, the whiteboard in Field's office was filled with thoughts about AI - a variable that hadn't received enough attention at that time but later became the key to changing the game.

When Adobe offered $20 billion, Field was caught in the anxiety of the AI wave. "AI is like a monster expanding exponentially," he recalled his dilemma at the time. "It could shrink the design market by 90% or expand it tenfold. Instead of going it alone, it's better to lean on a big tree (Adobe)." In September 2022, the two sides finalized the acquisition agreement, and Field would report to the head of Adobe's digital media business.

However, this seemingly perfect alliance hit a regulatory wall. The UK regulatory authorities ruled that the deal "could stifle innovation and cause Figma and other digital tool companies to lose their competitiveness, making it impossible for them to provide new and better products to customers." This suddenly made Adobe a target for antitrust scrutiny.

During the months - long regulatory tug - of - war, Field was forced to become a "master of time management" - he had to lead the team to rush for new products during the day and deal with the interrogations of global regulatory authorities at night. Adobe had vowed to finalize the deal in 2023, but it dragged on until the end of the year. The regulatory authorities' proposed rectification plan was like asking a ballet dancer to dance in shackles, and the two sides could only stare at each other in helplessness.

"Those months were like a roller - coaster ride," Field later recalled. "In the morning, the lawyer would say 'it's a done deal,' and in the afternoon, the EU would throw in a new condition." It wasn't until a Sunday in December 2023 that a 10 - minute phone call put an end to this $20 - billion "tech alliance."

When the statement was released the next day, Field's official and restrained statement of "deeply disappointed" masked his true feelings. His friend, Shishir Mehrotra, the CEO of Grammarly, could see clearly: "The wrinkles at the corners of his eyes were filled with exhaustion, as if he had suddenly aged several years."

Although Figma wasn't acquired by Adobe, it wasn't out of the woods yet. The plummeting net revenue retention rate (NDR) in the prospectus, from 159% to 122%, was a cause for concern - although the company blamed the economic downturn and the year - on - year data interference of FigJam, anyone with a discerning eye knew that during the year of the acquisition uncertainty, customers were bound to waver. Interestingly, when Field announced that he would give employees an "independence bonus" (making up for the equity difference based on a $10 - billion valuation), 95% of the employees chose to stay, a loyalty rate that is a miracle in Silicon Valley.

The most dramatic part is that while Adobe was still hurting from the $1 billion breakup fee, Figma's NDR had quietly rebounded to 132%. Perhaps, as an investor privately joked, "This aborted acquisition turned out to be the best stress test for Figma."

A High - Stakes Gamble in the AI Era: King or Latecomer?

When Figma decided to go it alone, everyone was asking the same question: Can this company, famous for its design tools, carve out a path in the AI wave?

At the user conference in May 2025, Field provided an answer - Figma Make. This new tool, based on the Anthropic Claude 3.7 Sonnet large - language model, claims to enable designers to turn sketches into runnable prototypes with just a few sentences. However, during the on - site demonstration by product manager Holly Li, the AI suddenly malfunctioned: the background mist of the music player mysteriously disappeared, and the song names became a blur. The audience fell silent until she switched to a pre - prepared "perfect version" to barely salvage the situation.

"The model acts up occasionally," Li said with a smile, but the investors in the audience might not be able to laugh. After all, competitors are already far ahead - Lovable's AI design generation is seamless, Miro's Uizard can generate designs with one click, and Vercel's v0 can even synchronously iterate code and design. Brent Stewart, an analyst at Gartner, said bluntly, "Figma is still the king in the design tool field, but it looks like a latecomer in the AI race."

Sharper doubts come from within. Andrew Chan, a former engineer at Figma, publicly wrote, "The question isn't whether Figma can do well in AI, but whether it can replicate the success of its design tools."

Nadia Eldeib, the CEO of the startup CodeYam, was even more critical after testing: "Figma Make seems to be in a very early stage right now."

But these criticisms are precisely Field's weapons. He often reads user complaints himself and tags the team to solve the problems. He didn't even take a break on the day of Figma's IPO until he saw that the stock price was set $1 above the expected range.

A creative director from Maryland mentioned Figma in a recent post, asking if anyone had found a way to import Figma Make designs into the main design editor. Field replied, "We're working in that direction and are very excited about the potential it will unlock! Please continue to provide feedback on Figma Make!" (Text/Exclusive compilation by Jin Lu for Tencent Technology, Edited by Helen)

This article is from Tencent Technology, Compiled by Jin Lu, Edited by Helen, Published by 36Kr with authorization.