Figma is a fascinating company; the Figma design tool is used by designers at basically every company you can think of. And importantly, it runs on the web — it’s really easy to share Figma designs with other people and work on them together. That sounds obvious now, but it was a revolution in design when Figma launched in 2016, and it quickly grew into a serious player in the creative software world. So much so that Adobe tried to buy it out in 2022 for $20 billion, a deal that only just recently fell through because of regulatory concerns. So Dylan and I talked a lot about where Figma is now as an independent company. About 4 percent of Figma’s employees took a buyout offer after the deal fell through, so of course, we talked about how Figma is structured, where it’s going, and how Dylan’s decision-making has changed since the last time he was on the show in 2022. Beyond Adobe, the two big topics I wanted to talk to Dylan about were AI and the web. Like every big software company, Figma is investing heavily in AI. But it’s also in the unique position of serving the creative community — a community that has strong opinions on whether new generative software tools are taking jobs while also creating a deluge of low-quality work. You’ll hear Dylan make the bull case for generative AI. He argues that more empowering software should increase the demand for human creativity and let more people in, and let those people work better and faster. He’s optimistic that even in a world of C-plus AI-generated content, both creators and consumers will push great stuff to the top. This topic dovetailed nicely with another we dug into: the state of the web. Even though the web is under a lot of pressure right now due to AI and the dominance of big platforms, Dylan is still a believer in its potential. After all, Figma is a web app, and Dylan and I discussed how he’s looking at the landscape of software distribution in 2024, especially as European regulation like the Digital Markets Act has taken aim at app stores and mobile browser restrictions to try to create a more level playing field for developers.
Full interview : Figma CEO Dylan Field answers questions on the failed Adobe deal, competing with Adobe, the new multi-edit tool, building tools, AI, AGI, Dev Mode, etc.
