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How the startup Figma and its service for designers came to be
American startup Figma was valued at $10 billion after it attracted $200 million in investments. Its product is the most in-demand for graphic designers – the service is designed for prototyping and developing interfaces. In addition, the platform allows for collaborative work. It is used by well-known companies such as Netflix, Zoom, Airbnb, and BMW. The startup was founded in 2016 by entrepreneurs Dylan Field and Evan Wallace.
The Figma service is a virtual space that allows designers to create images in real time. Complementing the product is the new FigJam platform, which is analogous to a whiteboard on which various flowcharts and diagrams can be placed. For now, it works in beta mode, but the developers have already added audio support so that users can interact with each other while working together.
Figma uses an original approach to create and improve its products. Dylan Field personally studies the comments and observations of customers, communicating directly with them to find them out. This is how a new feature appeared – the timer, which turned out to be highly demanded by customers.
Since hitting the market in 2016, the startup has managed to attract more than 1 million users. Last year, the company’s revenue more than doubled compared to 2020, reaching $75 million. The popularity of Figma’s services is evidenced by the fact that when the pandemic was wreaking havoc at the beginning and U.S. stores ran out of toilet paper, Kimberly-Clark used the startup’s platform to compile reorder forms. In addition, all of the visual content used during Joe Biden’s campaign was also developed using Figma tools.
Field got the idea for the service back in his high school days, when he was creating various bots and sites for friends. He met Wallace at Brown University. But Dylan didn’t want to graduate, he received a grant of $100,000 from the Peter Thiel Foundation, and decided to create his own project. Wallace joined him later, and together the young men tried out various ideas. They settled on an image-editing tool that would be accessible in a web browser, rather than as a separate application. The potential of this idea was evaluated by the venture company Index Ventures, and the first investment in the startup totaled $4 million. Field and Wallace were able to present their service only after several years, but it was well worth the wait. Now their platform is the most in-demand in its segment.