Believe it or not, Dylan Field tells me over Zoom this week, when he began Figma he was solely fascinated by one factor: making cool design instruments. In was 2012, and Field and co-founder Evan Wallace had the concept of constructing design software program for the net browser — making the design course of reside, interactive, and collaborative — in methods it hadn’t actually been in software program earlier than.

The concept was a lot simpler to think about than it was to construct. Figma was constructing in stealth mode for 3 years earlier than its first public preview, however the exhausting technical work paid off. Figma was successful with designers virtually instantly, because the real-time collaboration it enabled made design processes — notably software program design processes — far more environment friendly than they’d earlier than.

The firm’s person base grew accordingly, and by this yr Figma was out-competing design big Adobe amongst design groups at Microsoft and different firms. And so it was not notably shocking when Adobe said this month that it intends to acquire Figma, protecting it as an autonomous unit inside the firm, with Field remaining as CEO.

What was extra shocking, maybe, was the $20 billion Adobe supplied: 40 occasions Figma’s present annual income run fee, and one of many largest startup acquisitions ever. Investors have been skeptical about the deal; Adobe’s inventory worth is down sharply because the acquisition was introduced, whether or not on account of sticker shock or fears that Lina Khan’s Federal Trade Commission will block the deal on the speculation that it’s anticompetitive. (She has sued to dam a lot smaller and arguably less consequential offers than this one.)

I last wrote about Figma here in April 2021, as the corporate launched its FigJam digital whiteboard and Field navigated his crew right into a hybrid in-person and distant office. When information of the acquisition hit, I puzzled how Field deliberate to navigate the whole lot that’s now in entrance of him: antitrust points, protecting management of his product street map, and no matter DALL-E and different AI instruments may imply for the way forward for design.

Highlights of our dialog observe; this interview has been edited for readability and size.

Casey Newton: Are you uninterested in speaking about this acquisition but?

Dylan Field: I’m simply drained typically (laughs).

So any time a beloved device will get purchased, customers fear that this might be the start of the tip, or at the very least of a gradual decline. What’s your case that Figma can maintain innovating inside an even bigger firm?

First of all, autonomy. Second of all, I’m not going wherever. Figmates are caught with me.

And I’m actually enthusiastic about what’s forward — I feel that is our alternative to love press the gasoline much more. We’re at present taking part in within the product improvement world; we’re fairly enthusiastic about what we will do to speed up on productiveness use instances.

People are actually wanting extra artistic belongings: So like, for instance, 3D video, imaging, vector illustration. These are all issues that persons are requesting within the context of product design. And the power to then take these and go into artistic use instances too, and construct artistic instruments which are web-first, browser-first, collaborative — I’m fairly enthusiastic about that. And so I really feel like this will probably be an unlock for us. And make it in order that not solely can we do what we wanna do sooner, however do extra of it as nicely.

I nonetheless consider Figma as largely a product design device; I haven’t thought of it as a lot of a productiveness device. What do you hope to do there? And what do you hope is the last word final result for Figma inside Adobe?

I put it within the weblog publish for the acquisition announcement, however the unique imaginative and prescient assertion for Figma was to eliminate the gap between imagination and reality. We’ve talked about that earlier than. You had been like, “a little corny, Dylan!”

[I don’t remember saying this but can’t deny it sounds like something I would say — Ed.]

I feel it’s sort of returned to that — a return to this concept of, how do you are taking stuff inside your mind, and get it on the display screen, and do this throughout a wide range of mediums?

On the productiveness aspect, there’s loads that’s going to be attainable there. Creativity and productiveness are beginning to merge extra. I feel it is a basic development: a number of instruments have gotten simpler to make use of, and extra folks have entry to them. That’s a great factor. So it’s pure for folks to need to make their displays, their white boarding, and their paperwork higher designed. And even have all types of artistic belongings. How will we make it so that they’re ready to try this? And allow them to make stuff and do issues that usually would take 12 hours in two minutes?

In equity to me, I don’t assume I might have known as your mission assertion corny had I used DALL-E earlier than then. But now I reside on this world the place I simply sort what I would like the illustration for my e-newsletter to be, after which I’ve it inside seconds.

This stuff has been on my thoughts, although, as a result of now you can simply type of converse design into existence in a method that you simply weren’t in a position to earlier than. How are you fascinated by AI in what you’re doing?

I feel that we’ll should determine it out, and what meaning for our platform.

I feel there’s only a ton of chance right here — it looks like sort of the early 90s of the web in a method that I feel could be very thrilling. And I additionally put this within the weblog publish: I really feel a deep sense of accountability to determine one of the best ways for creatives to make the most of this productively. And for it to be a collaboration between AI and people versus… one thing else.

And I feel that this may supercharge creativity. It can actually assist folks categorical themselves. But it’s going to be a number of change. And I feel that it’ll be not simply in artistic instruments, not simply in design instruments or productiveness instruments — it’ll be in all places. All of software program. I feel that it that is going to be a extremely fascinating and thrilling subsequent 5 years.

Shifting gears: Lately we’ve seen the FTC categorical quite a lot of skepticism about large acquisitions, arguing that they cut back competitors and will result in worth will increase or different harms for shoppers. What’s your case that is good for the market?

First of all, we’re gonna give our customers a ton extra performance, and I feel that it’ll be actually good for our prospects. There’s not a worth enhance right here — we’re doing the whole lot we will to maintain costs the identical, even in an inflationary setting.

And, we’re protecting it free for training. That’s been a vital factor that we’ve talked about with Adobe, and so they’ve been all in on.

I feel that is actually good for ecosystem, truthfully. We’ll present that over time. We’ll should make it possible for we we present our prospects and the neighborhood that we’re gonna proceed to not simply innovate, however innovate rapidly, and choose up the tempo and do greater than we have now executed prior to now, And that’s a problem, however it’s one I’m down to join.

Finally, have there been any tales concerning the acquisition that outraged you, that you simply wish to reply as soon as and for all proper now?

(Laughs) You know, I feel the quantity of misinformation over something that turns into an occasion is excessive. I already knew that you must most likely shouldn’t imagine the whole lot you learn on-line. But being a part of an occasion like this undoubtedly bolstered that for me. It’s been fascinating to have that correction.