Iconiq’s Will Griffith Explains How His Firm Celebrated Figma’s Ipo And Why Investors Sold Shares

Will Griffith had only been 2 months successful his occupation arsenic a task investor for Iconiq erstwhile he met a 19-year-old assemblage dropout named Dylan Field. This would lead to 1 of his signature seed investments, successful a startup called Figma.

On Thursday, Figma went nationalist pinch nan banal popping from nan $33 IPO opening value to adjacent astatine $115.50 and a $47 cardinal marketplace cap. And Griffith could not beryllium much effusive successful his praise for nan company.

“You spell to 1 of these personification conferences and you’re like, there’s 15,000 group present and 5,000 person Figma tattoos,” Griffith smiled. From nan earliest days, nan founders of this institution that offers package for designers had “a fervent desire to triumph and present and redefine this ecosystem.”

Yet successful 2013 astatine that first meeting, co-founders Dylan Field and Evan Wallace were untested. And astatine that point, truthful was Iconiq. It was known past arsenic nan very secretive wealthiness guidance patient for galore of Silicon Valley’s richest tech moguls for illustration Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey.

Figma, however, already had a champion: Field had been an intern astatine LinkedIn nether its past CEO Jeff Weiner. Weiner was an angel investor (and bought much stock astatine later rounds, too) and introduced Field to Griffith.

“We sewage connected to Figma earlier we had an early fund, earlier we had immoderate task fund,” Griffith told TechCrunch. The investor remembers trekking retired to meet nan founders. “It was for illustration 2 guys and nan canine successful an flat successful Palo Alto, and they were moving connected these newfangled graphics and creation capacity successful a browser.”

The demo showed really ray could beryllium manipulated erstwhile editing a photograph successful a browser. At nan time, browser-based creation software, based connected WebGL, was revolutionary. Tech elephantine Adobe had nan graphics creation marketplace locked up pinch its desktop software. “I thought it was insane,” Griffith recalled.

The thought was truthful unproven Alexis Ohanian, who was investing retired of his past patient Initialized, passed connected Figma erstwhile he saw nan merchandise years later successful 2016, he noted successful a tweet this week. Ohanian called Figma a personnel of his “embarrassing miss-list.”

But Griffith wrote a check. Seed shares, by nan way, were priced astatine $0.0878 each, Figma disclosed successful its S-1A. And Griffin wrote much checks arsenic Figma raised further rounds. The institution raised a full of astir $332 cardinal successful task backing done 2024, PitchBook estimates. 

“We invested successful nan seed. We invested successful nan Series A. We invested further. We did immoderate secondary and we besides invested much meaningfully a twelvemonth ago,” Griffin said. 

Iconiq did not upwind up owning astatine slightest 5% of nan company, a barroom that would require Figma to publically disclose nan size of its stake. But it owns capable that nan IPO will beryllium celebrated astatine nan Iconiq offices.

“One of nan ways that we observe is we conjecture what nan closing time banal value is going to beryllium connected nan first day. It’s a prediction title astir nan firm,” Griffin said. “There are immoderate bully prizes and rewards.” If personification nails that number, they could upwind up pinch a patient rate prize aliases moreover thing for illustration a travel to Hawaii. 

As for nan overseas portion of this IPO, Griffen has immoderate insight. Most of nan banal sold was from investors’ stakes, including Field’s, alternatively than caller shares issued by nan company, nan institution said.

“I deliberation it’s very generous that existing investors are consenting to waste arsenic overmuch to create capable proviso for this IPO,” he said.

Figma’s fundamentals are truthful coagulated that nan IPO was 40 times oversubscribed, according to Bloomberg, meaning acold much investors wanted shares than nan proviso available.

That tin beryllium almost arsenic problematic arsenic investor disinterest, Griffin explained. The largest organization investors won’t fuss pinch an IPO wherever they can’t waste and acquisition hundreds of millions worthy of shares, he said. And if an IPO doesn’t float capable shares, prices of disposable shares could go artificially inflated, meaning nan institution won’t beryllium decently valued. Should prices diminution aft opening day, nan institution could beryllium artificially devalued arsenic well.

Figma’s existing shareholders didn’t really want to waste shares astatine $33, Griffin said. “We person been pinch this business since 2015, and we haven’t sold a share. And we are going to beryllium meaningful buyers successful nan IPO,” he said.

Still, Griffin emphasized that for Figma, IPO time is conscionable a milestone and not an end. “I met a young, 19-year-old Dylan, and we forged a partnership,” he said. He describes himself arsenic “proud” of seeing Field, Figma’s CEO, “continue to conscionable mature and grow, but person nan aforesaid vision, morals, authenticity.“

In nan meantime, he says he’ll beryllium spending Figma’s IPO time “meeting pinch nan adjacent procreation founders.”