Dylan Field and the design tool Adobe couldn't buy
Figma's $20B deal with Adobe collapsed in December 2023 under regulatory pressure. The independent path that followed turned out to be the higher-variance outcome — and the more valuable one.
This week
The most important act of a founder this decade will not be building. It will be deciding what not to build. Restraint is the unwritten chapter of every great company — and the next four years will reward it more than any cycle in memory.
The feed
AI Chipmaker Cerebras Files for IPO A Test for Deep Tech Valuations
Cerebras Systems, an AI chipmaker known for its Wafer-Scale Engine, has filed for an IPO, setting a crucial test for deep tech valuations and the specialized AI hardware market.
X-energy Raises $1B, Targets IPO Amid AI Data Center Demand
Nuclear startup X-energy secured $1 billion in pre-IPO funding, led by Ares Management, to commercialize its advanced SMRs and meet the surging 24/7 energy demands of AI data centers.
How AI is Forging China's Multi-Billion-Dollar Micro-Drama Market
Generative AI is revolutionizing China's micro-drama industry, slashing production costs and accelerating content creation to fuel a market projected to hit $13.8 billion by 2027.
Peec Reaches $10M ARR with AI Search Tracking Growth
Berlin-based startup Peec rapidly scaled to $10M ARR by addressing the critical need for brands to track their visibility and reputation in the evolving AI search environment.
Dylan Field and the design tool Adobe couldn't buy
Figma's $20B deal with Adobe collapsed in December 2023 under regulatory pressure. The independent path that followed turned out to be the higher-variance outcome — and the more valuable one.
Founders desk
Plate 01Cover · Issue 47Lina Ouedraogo
Three exits over fourteen years. A method built on saying no — and the long interview to prove it.
Plate 02Dylan Field
Dropped out of UPenn on a Thiel Fellowship, spent six years building a design tool that ran in the browser, said no to Adobe's $20B all-cash offer when the regulators killed it, and IPO'd anyway.
Plate 03Mira Murati
Was the CTO who shipped GPT-4 and Sora. Left OpenAI at the peak of its public arc to start a research lab — Thinking Machines — that raised one of the largest seed rounds in history before it had a product.
Plate 04Aravind Srinivas
Left Berkeley, left OpenAI, and built the first AI-native search engine — Perplexity — that took Google's most defended product and treated it like a research problem.
By desk
Read with the people who build the next decade.
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