Figma CEO Fields Shares Growth Opportunities in Design

Please welcome to the stage Dylan Field, Co founder and CEO of Figma, for conversation with Bloomberg’s Brody Ford. Hello, hello. I think the most iconic companies are those that create or define a product category. I think that is absolutely true of Figma, right? I think if any of us are using apps today using websites, maybe you don’t know it, but you have touched a Figma interface, right? And so I think that you have a mass, this kind of critical mass of users among the UI, the UX, the designers. The question I always wonder is, is who’s next? I mean, I imagine you got to start expanding into other types of people now that the designers already are kind of locked in on the product. And I love it. I mean, first of all, it’s very kind of you to describe it that way and great to be here with all of you and to see some familiar faces. When I think about our platform, I think about what’s not good enough yet. And when it comes to developers in particular, we have quite a ways to go. And the way I see the platform as a whole right now for Figma is how do you make it so that you go really easily from idea to design all the way to code and production? And if we can get that really good and make it so you can rapidly explore this idea maze and be able to visualise and then go up really deep through to different instantiations of your idea, refine them with direct manipulation, with prompting the future. Then I think that that’ll make it so that people are better able to develop software as a whole. And as I think by the developer part of that experience. We’ve launched Dev Mode in the past year and that’s already led to, I think really good results for our users and also for the company. We just had, you know, best quarter ever and it’s been really exciting to see the momentum there. But there’s still so much more we can do and I’m really excited for what’s ahead on that. Awesome. So famously right, Figma was set to become part of Adobe. Didn’t happen. Old news, been months, disappointing, but I’m sure it also opens up different doors. I mean, what opportunities are there for you now that you’re saying, OK, we’re independent, what’s our path really it’s it’s exactly what we’re just talking about. And I I think that we’re, if we zoom out, we’ve had this moment we’ve been in for a while already where, you know, what was it like 15 plus years ago? We’re all talking about software in the world, Yeah. And for those of us in tech, that feels like such a cliche at this point, you know, as we come up with new, new ones. Oh well, AIE software, whatever is the next thing to talk about from the media side and be extreme about the reality is we’re all going through digital transformation. The entire world is building so much more software, and there’s an exponential curve when it comes to how much software will exist in the world. And so I think the question of how do you help people build the best software possible is a really important one because that’s what I think we’ll end up making so that companies are competitive long term. Yeah, Yeah. So getting more people onto the app and being able to kind of have a hand in making the software and we all been through breakups. You know, it happens. We don’t usually get paid a billion dollars in it, Figma did. I mean where where do you spend that money? You hire people, you overseas, you make an acquisition. What are you thinking for it? Yeah, I mean I think that we’ve already been expanding internationally. We’ll continue to do so and we’re really excited about the opportunities there. We are excited and definitely have intent to to do more acquisitions, but I wouldn’t say there’s like some, you know, here’s the plan, but I I think it’s great to have the optionality there for the future. You said you’re thinking about more acquisitions. Is there a certain part of the portfolio you feel that you could accelerate? I think there’s so much as you think about the end to end process of building and shipping software that we can do better does not just be through acquisitions, it can also be through partnerships and there’s tons of stuff there that I think we can partner better with these two. But I’m really excited about digging in there. Awesome. I read a study recently that it was about 1/3 of illustrators and designers felt that their workflow, or rather you know, the amount of work they’re getting has been disrupted by AI. Maybe it’s lower rates, maybe it’s less work. I know a lot of folks in tech traditionally say, you know, well, in the end it’s going to increase demand supply curve, right? It’ll work out. But what is your message to those individual creatives who feel a little scared in this moment, a little disrupted? Yeah, I mean, I think that being on the other side of seeing what’s coming on the design generation side, I think it’s going to be really helpful for helping people create a first draft. I don’t think it’s going to be the final draft. I think it’ll bring more voices to the table. And I think what’s needed when you have more voice to the table is the best judgement possible. And I think whether you’re a creative, you’re a designer. And I think those are occupying increasingly different spaces in some ways too. I I believe that working with these tools make it so that you’re able to use them to explore more possibilities faster. But then having the judgement to lead the conversation for your organization, for your team to make it whether it’s the best experience or the best work product possible, that’s the thing that’s going to be most, we heard a little debate earlier, is the IPO window open? But we’ve seen Clay VO, we’ve seen Reddit, you you have that FGMA ticker ready to go. Look, I mean we obviously have explored the M and a path, you know we’re venture funded. So there’s sort of like one other path that makes sense. But no, nothing to share right now. Yeah. So I heard that recently you renewed your lease in San Francisco, long term lease, you know the doom loop headlines do well but it seems that a lot of start-ups are really reinvesting and staying in San Francisco. How do you see this current moment for the city and business? This is why I love talking with you because you’re like, yeah, let’s talk about optimism and I’m down for that. I I am a big believer in the future of SF still and you know whether it’s I’m not not saying that that doesn’t have problems but I think that it’s great to see people engaging people trying to improve the city. There’s of course we’re going to have different philosophies on it but I’m so stoked that that energy is there. Look at where IAI companies I mean you’ve had a ton of them today on stage. They’re all here. And that’s not to say that there won’t be many different centres of technology globally in the future. I totally believe that too, but I also believe that SF continues to revitalize and that’s why we renewed our lease long term. We also have offices elsewhere. We got New York, London, Berlin, Paris, Tokyo, Singapore. So Figma is truly global and we intend to make it even more global going forward. Nice. We had someone from California forever here earlier. Do you think building a new city in Solana County is good solution to the housing crisis? I, I like it, have absolutely no context on that entire conversation. So I won’t even pretend to be knowledgeable on a topic. I’ll go to the next one. Got to know your lane. Yeah. So I mean I think the disruption Figma had was related to M&A and regulatory. But startups, companies at any size can have these moments where you think you’re going a direction and you realize that, hey, we got to, we got to maybe re Centre a little bit. How is it for you leading a company and how is it for you personally kind of going through that mentally? Yeah, I think that the thing that is hardest is when there’s just complete ambiguity about what the future looks like and that demands a state of equanimity. Otherwise you just get in your head. And so for me, the mindset that I had to cultivate through that process was one of whatever happens, we’re going to be fine. And that was also the place that I had to lead from. And I think that on the other side of the process, once we had that certainty, I think for most of our team there was a deep sense of relief. And for those that didn’t feel that, we want to make sure that they knew too, that they didn’t, they weren’t trapped. And so for example we said look if you have been at Thingma a long time, maybe you’re tired or perhaps you joined us and you thought you’re joining Adobe, but actually you’re you’re joining this like hard charge and start up because we had a third of our employees joined during the deal period. It was a 16 year period and we’re a hyper growth company. So we said hey, here is you know if he wants to pay and we’re still on good terms and we had a little over 4% of our employee population take us up on that. And I think the other thing we said though where I said to the company was it’s going to be pretty intense going forward. So if you’re here, you’re signing up for that and you want hardcore mode, well, I mean we are in hardcore mode like we’re not in zero interest world in any corner. AI is changing the landscape. I mean this is an intense moment for all of Silicon Valley, all of technology, all of maybe capitalism. And so that’s a conversation we had with everybody. And I think those that stayed past that moment of what we call the detached program, they recognize that. And they’re all in and we’re building and now we’re building ahead. Would you recommend startups even without this disruption every so often saying maybe we should offer some buyouts for people who don’t want to be here? I I think it’s for us, it was tied to an event. Yeah. You know, if there was another event that was very clarifying and it was like we thought we were going this direction, now we’re going this direction. Let’s make sure everyone’s on board. That might be a situation where I’d consider it again, but I don’t see why that would occur. Yep. Fair. So do you think we get to a period where you know, with generative AI app design increasing personalization, at some point does it become like the YouTube algorithm or I open up Uber and it ends up looking very different from a person near me because you’re able to generate and tailor it in a different way? I think it’s a really interesting question. I am both long on generative interfaces as a way to explore LMS. Yeah, and I’m short on generative interfaces as the best way to design software. So it’s kind of a nuanced answer, but I’ll give some examples. So there are recent simulation efforts that are, I think, entirely new interface for LMS basically. And it’s like, if you can imagine what an Internet would look like as a way to use links and explore and give new context to LMS and from there get to interesting wild results and different hypotheticals and build context windows that lets you explore conversations a whole new way. That is cool. And that is totally different from your question. But it’s also generative interfaces. But like, I think that when you use an app, so much of it is how do you actually design the best experience for people to have consistency and look at? I think you’re going to have Snapchat on soon. How much of Snapchat is learned by someone showing someone else? I think a lot of technology has learned this way. You know, we’re social creatures. And I also think that the consistency and the ability for designers and for teams to hold a product in their head and then know exactly what that map of it is, is so important. So I’m still very long on the design of products and not all being customized for every single person. Maybe content less of the interface. Interesting. Thank you so much. Dylan Field, thank you so much for being here with us today. See you.