To Silicon Valley, Dylan Field’s crowning moment came in September when software giant Adobe agreed to pay $20 billion for Figma, the startup he co-founded in 2012—among the biggest deals ever for a private tech company. To millions of devoted users, his real triumph is Figma’s software, which simplifies visual-design collaboration on the web. They just hope the acquisition won’t ruin it. Field has a classic Valley tale: he dropped out of Brown after winning a “20-Under-20” fellowship from Peter Thiel, then raised over $3.8 million in seed financing at 21.
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