From Dropout to Design Mogul: How Dylan Field Built Figma Into a $70B Powerhouse
Dylan Field, once a college dropout, has now entered the elite ranks of tech billionaires after Figma’s explosive stock market debut. Like Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Field shares early ties with billionaire investor Peter Thiel. In 2012, Field was awarded the prestigious Thiel Fellowship—a $100,000 grant for young innovators willing to leave college behind. Originally a Brown University student, Field dropped out and partnered with Evan Wallace to start Figma, a web-based design platform that quickly gained traction for its real-time collaboration tools.
After a rocky start and early skepticism from investors, Figma launched publicly in 2016 and gained loyal users, including major companies like Uber and Microsoft. Despite an attempted $20 billion acquisition by Adobe in 2022, regulators blocked the deal in late 2023, allowing Figma to remain independent—and pocket a $1 billion breakup fee in the process.
Under Field’s leadership, Figma continued to innovate. The company expanded its product line with tools like FigJam and Dev Mode, and recently launched Figma Make, an AI-powered design-to-code feature. With its IPO surpassing expectations and Field’s net worth soaring above $6.6 billion, the once-humble Thiel Fellow is now shaping the future of creative software.
