Figma Goes Public: Thirteen Unforgettable Years with Dylan Field
by Danny Rimer
In 2011, I met an 18-year-old intern at Flipboard, one of our portfolio companies. He’d been doing customer research—talking to users and trying to help the team gain product insight. His analysis was good, but what stood out to me was his energy. He was genuinely curious, bubbling with ideas, and clearly lit up by the potential of building something people might love.
A year later, I was chatting with Jeff Weiner at LinkedIn about the next crop of great founders who might eventually take the mantle of some of the world’s best franchises like Microsoft Office and Adobe Studio. At one point, Jeff said, “I have this incredible intern I’m trying to hold onto, but the kid wants to start his own company. It sounds interesting. You should talk to him.” That intern, of course, was Dylan Field.
A week later, Dylan and his co-founder Evan Wallace came to Index’s San Francisco office and pitched us on Figma. Their vision was wide-ranging and ambitious—collaborative creative tools, built entirely in the browser. They still weren’t exactly sure what the product would be, but listening to Dylan talk, I knew he was someone who would pour his heart and soul into bringing it to life. And Evan, as a co-founder, seemed to have superior technical chops. For me, that was enough. We wrote them a check.
