Dylan Field
Background
Dylan Field studied computer science at Brown University, where he served as an undergraduate research assistant in computer graphics and completed internships at O'Reilly Media, Flipboard, and LinkedIn. In 2012, Field was awarded the prestigious Thiel Fellowship, which granted him $100,000 to drop out of Brown and start a company.
Role at Figma, Inc.
Dylan Field is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Figma, Inc. In 2012, alongside Brown classmate Evan Wallace, Field founded Figma with the audacious vision of bringing professional graphics editing to the web browser. Under Field's patient, visionary leadership, Figma spent four years in stealth mode perfecting its WebGL rendering engine before launching publicly in 2016. Field scaled Figma into a global monopoly in digital product design, generating over $700 million in annual revenue. In 2022, he negotiated the historic $20 billion acquisition agreement with Adobe, and when global antitrust regulators blocked the deal in 2023, Field masterfully steered Figma through the aftermath, collecting a $1.0 billion breakup fee, executing a tender offer at a $12.5 billion valuation, and positioning Figma for an independent IPO. Field's resilience was put to the ultimate test during the fifteen-month regulatory battle following Adobe's $20 billion acquisition offer. Maintaining exceptional focus across Figma's product and engineering teams despite intense global media scrutiny, Field continued shipping major innovations—including FigJam widgets and Dev Mode. When the transaction collapsed under antitrust pressure, Field transformed the setback into a resounding victory, deploying the $1.0 billion cash termination fee to accelerate AI development and expand international operations, cementing his reputation as one of the preeminent enterprise software leaders of his generation.