Dylan Field is an American technology professional and co-founder of the internet-based vector graphics editing software startup Figma. In 2012, Field and Evan Wallace, whom he had met while studying computer science at Brown University, established Figma. Dylan Field was awarded a Thiel Fellowship in 2012, a $100,000 grant contingent upon his quitting school and starting a full-time job with the startup.
Wallace and Field relocated to San Francisco, where they worked together for four years to get the software ready for its initial general release in 2016. Field was included on the Forbes 30 under 30 list in 2015. According to estimates, he held 10% of Figma’s equity, which was worth $20 billion when Adobe acquired the company in 2022.
About the Company
Figma is an online tool for collaborative interface design that also has offline functionality made possible by desktop programs for Windows and macOS. With a number of vector graphics editors and prototyping tools, Figma’s feature set concentrates on user interface and interaction design with a strong emphasis on real-time collaboration. Real-time viewing and interaction with Figma prototypes on smartphones and tablets are made possible by the Figma smartphone app for iOS and Android.
Early Life
Dylan Field was raised in Penngrove, California. His mother was a resources specialist educator at Thomas Page Elementary School, while his father was a respiratory specialist at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital. Field excelled at arithmetic as a child and began studying algebra at the age of six. From a young age, Field was fascinated by computer science and took part in FIRST Robotics.
Field completed his high school education at Technology High School, a STEM magnet school located on the Sonoma State University campus. Field created machines and websites for buddies in high school. Danah Boyd, a social media researcher with whom he collaborated, ended up writing one of Field’s recommendation letters for college.
Field joined Brown University in 2009 to study computer science there. Field was an active participant in Brown’s department of computer science. He co-chaired the department’s undergraduate group beginning in late 2011 and organized a hackathon in 2011 wherein 150 students took part.
Success Story
In exchange for dedicating a break from college, Field received $100,000 after being selected as a Thiel Fellow in 2012. In 2011, the Thiel Fellowship program got going. The Thiel Fellowship was created at the time with the intention of choosing 20 “creative and driven young individuals” under the age of twenty each year. Each recipient received $100,000 to work on their proposals as start-up businesses during the two years they were out of college.
Together with Evan Wallace, who joined Dylan after earning his computer science degree that spring, Field co-founded Figma in the summer of 2012. Figma’s original goal was to make it possible for anyone to be creative by developing free, straightforward, in-browser tools. Before deciding on internet graphics editor software, Field and Wallace tested out several concepts, such as drone software and a meme generator.
The initial focus of the business was hazily defined as “a technology venture that will allow people to artistically express themselves online” in an opinion piece by The Brown Daily Herald. According to that article, the company’s initial concepts centered on the creation of 3D content, while later concepts emphasized photoshop work and object segmentation. Late in 2015, Figma released its initial beta version. Later that year, it made its first product available to the general public.
Figma raised venture capital in April 2020, valuing the corporation at $2 billion. Figma had already signed on Microsoft, GitHub, Airbnb, Square, Uber, and Zoom as clients. Adobe announced on September 15, 2022, that it had reached an agreement to buy Figma for roughly 20 billion dollars in cash and equity.
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