Article · 5 min read

How Dylan Field cold-emailed his heroes to build Figma

Fortune Free Beginner

This is the Figma half of your short answer, told with the CEO's own account. Field cold emailed designers he admired and bought them coffee to get the first users of a tool nobody had heard of. A quick read that shows cold outreach to specific respected people is a legitimate way to start.

  • Field found early users by cold emailing designers he personally admired
  • He treated each reply as a chance to build a real relationship, not a transaction
  • A now huge company started with one founder emailing strangers one at a time
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The question it answers

  1. How did real successful startups actually land their first customers?

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