Could be very interesting in terms of audience capture, helping Figma win over less experienced folks and fold them up into the more pro tools over time. But from what I hear, Figma isn’t that keen on buying products they can’t fold directly into their platform. They don’t like the portfolio approach, even if it unlocks some segment of the market.
But as the road to IPO progresses, you never know!
The not-being-a-portfolio approach seems sensible to me - it makes for a much smoother experience for the customer if everything is in one place, developed and maintained by the same team.
Still, if they really aim for the ultimate ecosystem for all things design - the biggest opportunity is in the lower-end of the market in my opinion. Canva's $2B ARR and $26B valuation proves it :)
As both company's gear up for the IPOs in 2025/6, it will be very interesting to see how it'll play out.
I don't think it will be a straight-out acquisition, but more of a merge in the style of Unity+Iron Source. It makes a complete sense to me to have 2 different platforms that can learn from each other, as they face very similar challenges.
Amazing and inspiring read! I am a developer at core and recently started to use Figma to visualize ideas and create simple doodly illustrations for my newsletter, I must say that I am very pleased with the results and how easy it to use. Now I started to use the newly acquired skills to create small derivative work for some prototypes.
Amazing take and so cool to hear directly from Kris!
You are too kind 🙏 Thanks for the words about the piece!
Thank you, and of course! Yours was a monster deep dive, and an excellent PLG breakdown.
Great one! Loved the "I am not a robot" example. Such a great way to explain abstraction.
Amazing read, Jaryd!
I've learned tons from this piece. I love ypur writing style... it's honestly better than Netflix 😅
Too kind man ❤️ thank you so much!
Amazing read Jaryd, thank you. A monster-merge with Canva might be SUPER interesting :)
Could be very interesting in terms of audience capture, helping Figma win over less experienced folks and fold them up into the more pro tools over time. But from what I hear, Figma isn’t that keen on buying products they can’t fold directly into their platform. They don’t like the portfolio approach, even if it unlocks some segment of the market.
But as the road to IPO progresses, you never know!
The not-being-a-portfolio approach seems sensible to me - it makes for a much smoother experience for the customer if everything is in one place, developed and maintained by the same team.
Still, if they really aim for the ultimate ecosystem for all things design - the biggest opportunity is in the lower-end of the market in my opinion. Canva's $2B ARR and $26B valuation proves it :)
As both company's gear up for the IPOs in 2025/6, it will be very interesting to see how it'll play out.
I don't think it will be a straight-out acquisition, but more of a merge in the style of Unity+Iron Source. It makes a complete sense to me to have 2 different platforms that can learn from each other, as they face very similar challenges.
A combined company will crash Adobe imo.
Very, very true.
p.s incase you missed my Canva deep dive: https://www.howtheygrow.co/p/how-canva-grows
Jaryd, super helpful! Key takeaway: improve my ability to reason at different levels of abstraction
Amazing and inspiring read! I am a developer at core and recently started to use Figma to visualize ideas and create simple doodly illustrations for my newsletter, I must say that I am very pleased with the results and how easy it to use. Now I started to use the newly acquired skills to create small derivative work for some prototypes.
Love to hear that. My friend is a dev too, and uses Figma as a solo builder for his startup ideas. Super accessible platform