Figma founder Dylan Field joined his "dream school" Brown University but never completed college.
Software giant Adobe announced a plan to acquire design software startup Figma in an approximately $20 billion cash and stock deal earlier this week. The deal comes as a moment of reckoning for 30-year-old Dylan Field, a college dropout who is set to receive a massive fortune to the tune of $2 billion with his estimated ownership of 10% of Figma's stock.
Field founded Figma back in 2012 with his co-founder Evan Wallace. Born in 1992, the American founder joined his "dream school" Brown University but never completed college. He interned at LinkedIn and Flipboard while at Brown but had to drop out of college due to conditions in the prestigious Thiel Fellowship which he received along with a grant of $100,000 to work on Figma full-time.
Leaving the university, Field moved to San Francisco along with his co-founder Wallace, a senior at Brown. Field encountered several challenges. His parents were initially not supportive of the idea of leaving college. Inexperienced at management, he faced a potential exodus of disenchanted employees. “I was just not a very good manager when I started Figma. I was an intern before that, so I had a lot to learn,” he was quoted in an interview some years ago.
Similar challenges arose when he went out to get funding initially, as one prominent investor notably told him, "I don't think you know what you're doing yet."
Undeterred, he kept on and Figma grew, eventually counting among its clients names such as Microsoft, Uber, Zoom, Airbnb, GitHub and Square, Zoom. Figma was also used in US President Joe Biden's presidential campaign to manage all visual assets.
Field is also an angel investor as well as an NFT collector credited with a record sale. With Figma, he has won several accolades including being named in Forbes 30 under 30 list in 2015, INC Rising Star in 2019 and BI’s "10 people transforming the technology industry."
READ | Oppo, other Chinese smartphone firms plan to manufacture elsewhere after India crackdown: Report
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
 "College dropout set to become a billionaire after his company gets acquired by software giant Adobe")
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}