Dylan Field - The Growing Importance of Design – [Founder’s Field Guide, EP.14]

**Patrick O'Shaughnessy** (0:00)
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Hello and welcome everyone. I'm Patrick O'Shaughnessy and this is Founder's Field Guide. Founder's Field Guide is a series of conversations with founders, CEOs and operators building great businesses.
I believe we are all builders in our own way and this series is dedicated to stories and lessons from builders of all types. You can find more episodes at investorfieldguide.com.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:06)
Patrick O'Shaughnessy is the CEO of O'Shaughnessy Asset Management. All opinions expressed by Patrick and podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of O'Shaughnessy Asset Management. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions.
Clients of O'Shaughnessy Asset Management may maintain positions in the securities discussed in this podcast.

**Patrick O'Shaughnessy** (1:31)
My guest today is Dylan Field, the co-founder and CEO of Figma, a collaborative online design tool which has taken the world by storm. With the most recent valuation more than two billion and backers like Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia, Kleiner Perkins and Greylock, Figma has become one of the most successful companies building tools for creators.
In our conversation, we dive deep into the principles Figma is built on, describe how they created multiplayer for design tools and the growing importance of design in all businesses. I hope you enjoy this great conversation with Dylan Field.
So Dylan, I thought a fun place to begin this conversation would be with your application to the Thiel Fellowship back in 2011 I had a lot of fun reading that application just earlier today. I saved it for this morning in preparation for our chat. My first question is what it felt like to apply. What was your impression of the fellowship and the emotional decision to apply to something very distinct and unique like that?

**Dylan Field** (2:26)
Wow, it really took me back. It was 2011 when I applied.
Looking back at that time, I had talked with my now co-founder about potentially starting a company.
And I thought maybe this has a 1% chance of going through, but if it does, I should probably think about this Thiel Fellowship thing. It was sort of like a shot in the dark more than anything else I think at that point. There's definitely an intention there. I was excited by the idea, but at the same time I wasn't definitely not 100% when I submitted the application about starting a company. Fast forwarding, as I went through the Thiel Fellowship interview process, because at that point it was multiple stages, I grew more and more convinced that I wanna start a company. And in particular, I wanted to do it with Evan, my co-founder, who I think is one of the most brilliant and humble people in the world. I felt like I would learn so much from him if I went and started a company with him. I'd learn way more than any other context I could put myself into.

**Patrick O'Shaughnessy** (3:23)
What makes him so good?

**Dylan Field** (3:24)
Oh man, I've asked myself that many times. I think that he has a unnatural ability to focus and to be curious and level up his skills.
And if you do that, he started coding when I think he was in elementary school or middle school. So he got an early start. I think his middle school nickname was CJ for computer Jesus.
I never let him live down. And I think that if you focus on that just 10 hours a day, continually advance your skills for decades, the compounding results are really incredible. He constantly pushes himself to learn new skills. And that means that he's at the sort of bleeding edge of everything, often far ahead of the industry in his thinking.

**Patrick O'Shaughnessy** (4:15)
What stands out the most about your memory of the Thiel interview process, the Thiel Fellowship interview process that you've mentioned as multiple rounds?