How Figma’s billionaire CEO Dylan Field hustled with cold emails and coffee to build a $68 billion empire

Dylan Field wasn't sitting in a comfortable office or attending flashy networking events when he was 19 years old. Instead, he was sending cold emails, buying coffee for his tech heroes, and relying on every connection he could make. Those humble beginnings eventually led to Figma's $68 billion success story. Field's approach demonstrates that sometimes old-school hustle outperforms fancy business strategies.

Starting at the young age of 19 with a Thiel Fellowship, Field's scrappy outreach helped turn his design tool into a global phenomenon, demonstrating that persistence still pays off in the tech world, as quoted in a report by Fortune.

How did Dylan Field get his first Figma users?

Apparently, a few bold messages and coffee chats changed the course of his life. Dylan Field was a determined 19-year-old with a bold idea and a laptop before Figma became a design powerhouse worth $68 billion. Field knew he had to make the most of every chance he got because he had dropped out of Brown University to join the prestigious Peter Thiel Fellowship, which gave him $100,000 to work on his startup.

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Dylan Field sent cold emails to people he already knew from his internships at Microsoft, LinkedIn, Flipboard, and O'Reilly Media. It was simple but worked. He got in touch with old coworkers and asked them to try out his design tool, which wasn't out yet, and give him feedback, as quoted in a report by Fortune.

"Really, the first users of Figma were a lot of cold emails and people in my network," Field said at Y Combinator's AI Startup School. These first connections were the building blocks of Figma's early growth.

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Can cold emails really lead to big opportunities in tech?

Field didn't just stop with old contacts. He looked online for designers he liked and wanted to work with them. He would invite them for coffee if they replied. He wouldn't just try to sell them his product; he would also want to get to know them as a real fan of their work, as quoted in a report by Fortune.

"I just went online and thought, 'Who are the designers that I think could really help us?'" If they answer my email and let me buy them coffee, it’s like a personal moment for me,” Field said. To his surprise, a lot of people answered, and those meetings became very important steps in his life.

Who else has had success by reaching out boldly?

Field's story is not at all unusual. Many leaders in the field have made similar jumps. Rashaun Williams, who is now a venture capitalist and host of Shark Tank, made connections by "sneaking into the party." He didn't have many chances as a child, but he would go up to strangers at events and say, "Hear me out," and make lasting business connections.

Sameer Samat, who now works for Google, sent an email to Google cofounder Sergey Brin at 3 a.m. when his startup was having problems. Brin replied within minutes, inviting everyone on his team to Google HQ, as quoted in a report by Fortune.

Kinjil Mathur, who is now the CMO of Squarespace, spent her college summers cold-calling businesses from the phone book and offering to work for free. This experience helped her later run a $7.2 billion company.

Figma's success shows that hard work and determination will always be in style, no matter how much technology changes. Even though cold emails, coffee chats, and real outreach may seem old-fashioned, they are still great ways to get into competitive fields.

FAQs

How did Dylan Field establish Figma?
Field, 19, gained his first users through cold emails, coffee meetups, and his internship network, aided by a $100,000 Thiel Fellowship grant.

Do cold emails still work today?
Yes. Field's story, and others like it, demonstrate that genuine outreach and persistence can still lead to unexpected opportunities in technology.