The 33-year-old who is about to become a billionaire
Field, 33, the design software company's co-founder, will own about 11 per cent of San Francisco-based Figma. That's worth $US1.6 billion ($2.5 billion) at $US30 a share, the low end of the price range signalled in a Monday filing, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He also controls all the votes for co-founder Evan Wallace's 27 million shares, worth about $US800 million at that price.
A spokesperson for Figma declined to comment. The IPO, which has drawn orders for almost 40 times the available shares, is expected to start trading on Thursday in New York.
The pair started Figma in 2012 after Field dropped out of Brown University and accepted a Thiel Fellowship, which pays students to leave college and begin a business. Their vision was to bring collaborative design tools to the internet. The company's growth exploded among both designers and developers, with customers including Microsoft, Netflix and Zoom Communications, according to the firm's website.
In 2022, Adobe tried to buy the startup for $US20 billion, which would have given Field a $US2 billion fortune. The deal was cancelled a year later along with any personal gains for Field.
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But Field's net worth is set to grow thanks to millions of restricted stock units vesting in conjunction with the IPO, as well as a 2025 pay deal that moves the goal posts — and the potential rewards — higher.
Moon-shot money
Approved last month, the new package sets aside 14.5 million shares for a performance-based plan that would award seven tranches of stock. The first tranche — 2.2 million shares that would be worth $US130 million — would kick in once Figma's 60-day average stock price tops $US60. If the shares hit the highest hurdle of $US130, the total package would be worth about $US1.9 billion, according to Bloomberg calculations. The rewards won't be immediate as any vested shares will be released over a seven-year period, according to a regulatory filing.
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