Ilya Vakhutinsky, who was a fellow in the same class, said he hopes Field’s kindness and positivity infect his new employer. It’s an “awesome step for Adobe, but the design community is very skeptical,” said Vakhutinsky, who runs an in-home medical care provider called Careswitch.
Field remained friends with many of the fellowship alumni. Noor Siddiqui, a founder and chief executive officer of the health startup Orchid, said Field and his wife flew to Los Angeles to support her flash mob dance wedding proposal. “He’s a man of many talents,” Siddiqui said.
One area where he diverged from the fellowship was in crypto: He wasn’t into it at first, he has said. Field eventually came around. Last year, he sold a nonfungible token for 4,200 Ether, or $7.5 million, which at the time was a record price. His wife, Elena Nadolinski, is a founder and CEO of a web3 startup, Iron Fish. The two have a child together.
Figma thrived during the Covid-19 pandemic. Usage jumped as people sought new ways to collaborate outside of offices. The product is used by students and professionals to build video games, maps and presentations, along with software designers at companies including Airbnb Inc. and Google.
Carmel DeAmicis joined Figma as a writer when it had less than 20 employees. She said she turned down more stable job offers because of Field’s warm energy. She remembers other startups had party-heavy cultures, but Figma’s was family-oriented. She said Field’s mom was often there for key moments. DeAmicis left Figma last year but still attended a company happy hour Thursday night after the deal became public.
Evan Wallace, who started Figma with Field, also left the company last year. Field will continue to lead the Figma team, reporting to David Wadhwani, the president of Adobe’s digital media business. Figma will remain available as a standalone product.
“We’re confident that if you look at this in the long run, it’s going to be a big value for their shareholders and our shareholders as well,” Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen said in an interview.
Figma has grown even as other tech companies shrink because, according to Field, customers understand that if they “don’t do great work with design, they know they might lose. Adobe understands deeply what can be possible in this market.”
Field wasn’t always so complimentary. Last year, when Figma seemed destined for an initial public offering, Field tweeted: “Our goal is to be Figma not Adobe.”
What changed? According to Mamoon Hamid, a partner at the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins and a Figma board member: “The right company made an offer we couldn’t refuse.”
--With assistance from Ellen Huet and Sarah McBride.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.