9x kid who dropped out of school and started a $20 billion tech company
Dylann Field lived a reclusive life and was largely unknown until he was sold for $20 billion this week.
Four years ago, Dylan Field lived in a one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco. Now he buys a dollar for coffee on his way to work. follow up WSJ, Shy and easily blended into crowds, Field finds himself alone at networking events organized by the city’s venture capital firms.
September 15 Field design software company FIMA is sold to competitor Adobe for up to $20 billion. Born in 1992, the man has become one of the most talked about people in the tech world over the past two days.
Figma, which Field co-founded with former Brown University classmate Evan Wallace, is seeing faster-than-usual valuations in Silicon Valley. At the beginning of 2018, the company was valued at 115 million. After a funding round late last year, the price rose to $10 billion. USD.
Dylan Field in front of the Figma office. See: Cowardly
Fisma’s demise has been eye-opening given the tech companies’ steady decline of late.
Investors and people familiar with the matter say Field still holds a large stake in Figma alongside big venture capital firms like Sequoia Capital and Greylock Partners. If the deal goes through, he’ll be a billionaire.
Field grew up in Sonoma County, California. His family bought him a computer when he was three years old and he taught himself to use it, later teaching both his parents.
Dylan Field wasn’t an exceptional student until he joined the robotics team in high school, and threatened to drop out until he took college-level training courses. He failed at UC Berkeley and enrolled at Brown University.
In its first year, it was included in a scholarship program run by billionaire Peter Thiel. This project provides $100,000 in unconditional funding if the applicant agrees to drop out of school to pursue business goals. Field proposed developing software that would turn drones into traffic controllers and recognize drivers. He was accepted and left the university. The unmanned enterprise did not achieve good results, but the other idea became popular.
Dylan Field and Evan Wallace founded Figma as a graphical editing platform that allows users to create projects together. It took four years from concept to production of the first product.
“Figma’s office is in a crowded bar,” says Badrul Faruqi, one of the company’s first employees. The noise is unbearable after 3 p.m. every Friday,” he said. They don’t usually work overnight. Field once said he needed to hire an executive to improve his style.
Image has thrived during the Covid-19 era with clients such as Uber and Block. Their advantage is a browser engine that works on multiple platforms, rather than being limited to a single device or operating system like their competitors.
Wallace left the company late last year, and Field said his colleague is also tired of his job and wants to try new projects.
FIMA is preparing for a public sale this year. But Field believes Adobe’s offering is better than the risk of an IPO during a market downturn, though many have expressed concerns that the tech giant could swallow the company.
Dylan Field is still adjusting to his new position. “I don’t know, someone is telling me,” Fields said when asked if he was a Silicon Valley guy.
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