Dylan Field

Dylan Field
Field in 2022
Dylan Field
Born	Template:Birth year and age
Nationality	American
Occupation	Technology entrepreneur, CEO
Known for	Co-founding Figma
Education	Brown University (dropped out)
Spouse(s)	Elena Nadolinski
Awards	Thiel Fellowship (2012), Forbes 30 Under 30 (2015), Fortune 40 Under 40 (2022)

Dylan Field (born 1992) is an American technology entrepreneur and the co-founder and chief executive officer of Figma, a web-based collaborative design and vector graphics editing platform. Field founded Figma in 2012 alongside Evan Wallace, a teaching assistant he had met while both were computer science students at Brown University. That same year, at the age of twenty, Field received a Thiel Fellowship—a $100,000 grant funded by Peter Thiel—on the condition that he leave college to work on his startup full-time. He relocated to San Francisco with Wallace, where they spent approximately four years developing the software before its first public release in 2016. Under Field's leadership, Figma grew into one of the most prominent design tools in the technology industry, attracting significant venture capital funding and achieving a valuation of $10 billion by 2021. In September 2022, Adobe announced its intention to acquire Figma for approximately $20 billion, though the deal was later abandoned amid regulatory scrutiny. Figma went public in 2025, and following its initial public offering, Field—who holds a 9% stake in the company—became a billionaire. He has been recognized on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, named an Inc. Rising Star, and included in the Fortune 40 Under 40.

Early Life

Dylan Field was born in 1992 and grew up in Sonoma County, California. Reports indicate that his earliest experiences with performance and presentation came through childhood involvement in theater, an activity that would later inform his comfort with public speaking and leadership.

Field developed an interest in computer science and technology at a young age. He enrolled at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, where he studied computer science. It was at Brown that Field met Evan Wallace, who was a teaching assistant in the computer science department. The two developed a shared interest in building browser-based design tools and began collaborating on what would eventually become Figma.

Before founding Figma, Field gained professional experience through an internship at LinkedIn. This early exposure to a major technology company provided Field with insight into the software industry and helped shape his entrepreneurial ambitions.

Education

Field attended Brown University, where he studied computer science. During his time at Brown, he connected with Evan Wallace, who would become his co-founder at Figma.

In 2012, Field was awarded a Thiel Fellowship, a program created by venture capitalist Peter Thiel that provides $100,000 to young people who agree to leave college to pursue entrepreneurial ventures. The fellowship required Field to drop out of Brown University, which he did to focus full-time on building Figma. Field did not complete his degree. He has since been noted as part of a lineage of technology executives who achieved significant success without finishing college, alongside figures such as Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Ellison, and Bill Gates.

Career

Founding of Figma (2012–2016)

In 2012, Field co-founded Figma with Evan Wallace. The two had met while studying computer science at Brown University, where Wallace served as a teaching assistant. Using the $100,000 from Field's Thiel Fellowship as initial capital, the pair relocated to San Francisco to begin building their product.

The founding thesis behind Figma was to create a design tool that operated entirely in the web browser, enabling real-time collaboration among designers and other stakeholders—an approach that Field and Wallace likened to what Google Docs had done for word processing. At the time, the dominant tools in the design industry were desktop-based applications such as Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, as well as newer entrants like Sketch. Field and Wallace envisioned a product that would break down barriers between team members by allowing multiple people to work on the same design file simultaneously.

The development process was extensive. Field and Wallace spent approximately four years building the underlying technology before Figma was ready for public release. A significant technical challenge was rendering complex vector graphics in the browser with performance comparable to native desktop applications. Wallace, who had expertise in computer graphics, focused heavily on the rendering engine, while Field oversaw product direction and business strategy.

Growth and Expansion (2016–2021)

Figma launched publicly in 2016, and the product quickly gained traction among designers and technology companies. The tool's browser-based, collaborative nature resonated with teams that were increasingly distributed and seeking more efficient workflows. Unlike traditional design software that required local installations and cumbersome file-sharing, Figma allowed anyone with a web browser to view and edit design files in real time.

Under Field's leadership as CEO, Figma attracted significant venture capital investment. The company raised multiple funding rounds from prominent investors, including Sequoia Capital. By August 2021, Figma had achieved a valuation of $10 billion, cementing its status as one of the most valuable private design software companies in the world. Forbes described Figma as "design's hottest startup" at the time.

Field's approach to building Figma emphasized product-led growth. Rather than relying heavily on traditional enterprise sales, the company encouraged individual designers and small teams to adopt the free tier of the product, with the expectation that usage would spread organically within organizations. This strategy proved effective, as Figma's user base expanded rapidly across major technology companies and beyond.

Proposed Adobe Acquisition (2022)

In September 2022, Adobe announced its intention to acquire Figma for approximately $20 billion, a figure that represented a substantial premium and drew significant attention across the technology and design industries. The deal, had it been completed, would have been one of the largest acquisitions in the software industry's history. The Wall Street Journal profiled Field in the wake of the announcement, describing him as "the Ivy League dropout who just sold his firm to Adobe for $20 billion."

However, the proposed acquisition encountered regulatory challenges. Antitrust authorities in both the United States and the European Union scrutinized the transaction over concerns that Adobe's purchase of Figma could reduce competition in the design software market. The deal was ultimately abandoned, and Figma continued to operate independently under Field's leadership.

Initial Public Offering and Public Company (2025)

Following the collapse of the Adobe deal, Figma pursued an independent path to the public markets. The company completed its initial public offering (IPO) in 2025. The IPO was a significant milestone for the company and for Field personally. Figma debuted on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol FIG.

Field, who holds a 9% stake in Figma, became a billionaire following the company's public listing. In the period surrounding the IPO, Field communicated to his team the importance of maintaining focus on product development rather than being distracted by stock market fluctuations. He told employees to ignore share price volatility, saying, "We don't control that number, we control the inputs."

In a December 2025 interview, Field stated that his primary focus remained on product development rather than the company's share price, saying, "I like the investors, but what keeps me up at night is thinking about product, not share price."

Artificial Intelligence Strategy

Under Field's leadership, Figma has increasingly incorporated artificial intelligence into its product offerings. At the Figma Conference in early 2026, Field articulated the company's approach to AI, emphasizing that the technology should be applied to solve practical, real-world problems rather than being deployed for its own sake. He discussed the company's ambitions to bridge the gap between design and prototype development using AI capabilities.

Field has also expressed views on AI's impact on the workforce. In January 2026, he stated that he has a "bias" toward hiring young workers because they are more likely to be "AI natives"—individuals who have grown up using AI tools and can integrate them naturally into their workflows.

In a November 2025 conversation with Meta chief technology officer Andrew Bosworth, Field discussed the intersection of design and emerging technologies, including AI and the future of digital interfaces.

Views on Design and Business

Field has spoken publicly about the role of design in modern business. In an October 2025 interview with Fast Company following Figma's IPO, he discussed why design has become increasingly central to business strategy in a software-driven economy. He argued that as more products and services become digital, the quality of design directly affects business outcomes, making design tools a critical part of the technology stack for companies of all sizes.

Personal Life

Dylan Field is married to Elena Nadolinski. He resides in the San Francisco Bay Area, where Figma is headquartered.

Field has spoken publicly about how his childhood experiences, including participation in theater, shaped his approach to leadership and public presentation.

In 2021, Field generated attention in the technology community for his interest in non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and CryptoPunks, discussing the emerging NFT space and the broader concept of the metaverse in a Forbes interview.

Recognition

Field has received numerous accolades for his work as an entrepreneur and technology executive:

• Thiel Fellowship (2012): At the age of twenty, Field was one of the recipients of the Thiel Fellowship, a $100,000 grant funded by Peter Thiel for young people who leave school to pursue entrepreneurial projects.

• Forbes 30 Under 30 (2015): Field was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, recognizing young leaders in the technology sector.

• Inc. Rising Stars (2019): Field and his co-founder Evan Wallace were named to Inc. magazine's list of Rising Stars, with Brown University's Department of Computer Science highlighting the achievement.

• Fortune 40 Under 40 (2022): Field was included in Fortune magazine's 40 Under 40 list, which profiles influential young business leaders.

• Business Insider Transformers: Business Insider recognized Field on its Transformers list, which highlights individuals reshaping their industries.

• Fast Company recognition: Field has been profiled by Fast Company for his contributions to the design and technology industries.

Legacy

Dylan Field's primary impact on the technology industry stems from his role in building Figma into one of the most influential design tools of the 2010s and 2020s. By creating a browser-based, collaborative design platform, Field and his co-founder Evan Wallace fundamentally changed the way design teams work together. Prior to Figma, design workflows were largely constrained by desktop applications that required local file management and made real-time collaboration difficult. Figma's approach—enabling multiple users to simultaneously edit the same design file in a web browser—introduced a paradigm shift in the industry, comparable to the impact that Google Docs had on word processing and document collaboration.

The proposed $20 billion acquisition by Adobe in 2022 underscored the significance of what Field and Wallace had built. The scale of the offer—and the subsequent regulatory scrutiny it attracted—reflected Figma's position as a major competitive force in the design software market.

Figma's successful IPO in 2025 further cemented the company's stature. As a public company traded on the New York Stock Exchange, Figma has become one of the most prominent design-focused technology companies in the market.

Field's trajectory—from Thiel Fellow and college dropout to billionaire CEO of a publicly traded company—has made him a frequently cited example in discussions about alternative paths to success in the technology industry. His story has been referenced alongside those of other prominent entrepreneurs who achieved significant business success without completing traditional higher education.

As Figma continues to integrate AI capabilities into its platform under Field's direction, the company's evolution reflects broader trends in the technology industry toward intelligent, collaborative tools that blur the boundaries between design, prototyping, and software development.