A month later Adobe announced With the planned acquisition of Figma, the popular digital design startup, Figma CEO and co-founder Dylan Field sat down with our business reporter Ron Miller at Disrupt 2022 to discuss the deal. agreement and his motives for selling to Adobe, a company owned by Figma. marketing materials not always described in the most flamboyant terms.
“We were having a hard time – we were having a hard time – but then we started talking to Adobe and Adobe is a platform company, which is really impressive and the more time I spend with the people at There, the more trust we built, the more I could see: ‘Okay, wow. We’re in the same product development box as this right now,” says Dylan, certainly making his media trainers happy with his no. He noted that Figma today provides tools for conceptualizing and designing models, with plans to roll out additional tools to easily use those models and turn them into code.
“I’m starting to form the ‘creation is the new productivity’ argument, and we don’t have the resources to do it right now at Figma,” notes Dylan, giving the standard answer 99% of the time. Founders tend to give out when they sell to a larger competitor. “If we wanted to get started and make it possible to get into all these more productive areas, that would take a lot of time. “To be able to go ahead and do that in the Adobe scene, I think has been a big step for us, and I’m really excited about that.”
Sure, the fact that this deal – assuming it closes – will also generate generational wealth for Field is a small incentive, but for some reason the founders have always denied this.
When asked about any potential pressure from investors, Field denied that this played any role in the sale – especially since Figma continues to double revenue year over year.
“That is something that has never been considered here,” says Field. “That is: what is the best chance of achieving our vision? The company’s vision is to make design accessible to everyone. So design – not just interface design. That is creativity. That is productivity. That you know makes it so we can all be part of the ongoing digital revolution. The entire world economy is moving from physical to digital right now. We’ll leave behind a bunch of people or we’ll give everyone the tools. I feel a lot of pressure and I think it’s really important that we give all these people the tools really quickly.”
Figma’s PR team definitely put a smile on their faces after this reply.
I don’t think that’s necessarily how Adobe feels about the $82.49/month Creative Cloud subscription, which certainly not everyone can afford, but Field has emphasized over and over again that Figma will remain a company. independent company and has no plans to change its pricing plan. However, Adobe is paying $20 billion for Figma, so let’s see if that changes over time.
“What Adobe told us was that they wanted to learn from Figma,” he said. “And I think in general, they’re going to be ‘okay, how do you move to a more freemium model? How do you make it so you can really bottom? “However, Adobe doesn’t pay all that money for education. After all, a Coursera marketing course is a lot cheaper than $20 billion. Over time, the company has a responsibility to shareholders in this regard. increasing its revenue, so we’ll see how that plays out – always assuming the deal closes.
Field, for what it’s worth, thinks this is a very frustrating move by Adobe, whose XD Figam rival has never caught up with designers.
“They are trying to figure out: how do you make it so you can adapt the products they already have, but also to strengthen this new platform. And yes, I don’t think it’s risk-averse in any way.”
