With Figma IPO, Dylan Field Bounces Back From Adobe Fiasco

The main Department of Justice building, across from the National Archives in Washington, was the kind of brooding edifice Dylan Field had walked through a lot in 2023 as he tried to convince governments around the world to let him sell Figma, the design software startup that had been his life, to Adobe for $20 billion.

He made a final attempt to win over the Justice Department in a December meeting that year in the building’s third-floor conference room. At the time, Field thought he still had a chance. The government lawyers in the room had a different perspective on the deal. “Every enforcement person who saw it said it was doomed,” one former official said.

It was. A few days later, Field and Adobe announced the deal was dead. Privately, the deal’s demise was a “gut punch” to Field, said a friend. He had grown to believe his company was a pawn in a much larger political battle that had nearly eliminated large M&A in tech. In a blog post, Field added an optimistic note that Figma’s best days were still ahead.

So far, his prediction is proving accurate. Within the next few weeks, Field, 33, who wouldn’t comment for this story, will lead this company through the most-anticipated IPO Wall Street has seen this year. That will make him the highest-profile founder in years to decide to take his company public. A who’s who of Silicon Valley has eagerly awaited this moment, including such investors as Kleiner Perkins, Greylock Partners and Sequoia Capital. If Figma shares soar, that could help reopen the market for an enormous backlog of startups eager to go public, making its debut one of the most significant of the decade.