Guest: Dylan Field
Host: Elad Gil
Started Figma at 20, Thiel Fellow
Did some great tech internships
Cofounder Evan was TA at Brown, most brilliant person he knew
Knew he could learn a lot from Evan even if it was a failure
Got Thiel Fellow – $100K over 2 years – enabled him to focus on Figma – no dilution, helped with network
YC is good for enterprise – sell B2B, get initial customers
// Elad – early YC Demo Days – only 10-15 angels in audience – had program to help educate angels
Useful to ask “why now” when you start a company
For Figma, in 2012, WebGL arrived, initially experimented with computational photography, then went into design
Thought it would only take 1 year, but took 2 – could have moved faster if they hired faster
Microsoft told them they had to start charging so they could spread it internally (at Microsoft) – knew then they had product market fit
Customer wrote 12 page document telling them what they should go build – another moment of product market fit – the market was there, was trying to pull product out of them
Never managed before Figma, it was tough as they scaled
Bringing first manager was catalytic – meant he could learn from the manager
// Elad: Bill Gates would hire COO, learn from him, then fire him and hire another one, learn from him, etc
Interesting areas
-people move in herds a lot – right now people excited about AI
-look for different under explored areas
-lots of good ideas out there – more important is find personal passion, if you’re 3 years into an idea you hate, you’ll burn out, happened with his friends
Thought he was late to crypto, but people tell him now he was early
Got emails in 2009 talking about bitcoin
In Thiel Fellowship – people were very excited about it (first bubble in 2013-ish)
Got more interested in Ethereum’s technology
Wife started crypto company Ironfish
They talked about crypto collectibles at time (digital items fascinated him)
He really liked to play NeoPets – virtual economy – felt exact same as Ethereum and NFTs
Buy things you’ll want to keep forever – only sold 2 NFTs in his life
Problems in crypto
-privacy very important – holding crypto is big security risk
-scalability taking off now
-regulation desperately needed – lack of it is blocking crypto’s advancement – especially in the US, crypto will move elsewhere if we don’t solve regulation
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Every industry will be touched by AI
Pace is staggering
Completely new tooling method
Already world changing tech even if it stops improving
AGI is difficult to define – AI will make fundamental research contributions
By 2030, there will be AI co-author for pure math research journal
New version of Turing test – multiplayer AI – bunch of humans and AIs
// Elad – already happened with Cicero the strategy game
How will AI impact education
AI tutors and therapists will happen – but make it local not cloud based
Colleges are scared of ChatGPT – but if it’s copying essays and hurting education, isn’t that a deeper issue? You can already hire someone to write essays
University is multiple components – mating system, credentialing system, social club
As AI proliferates, credentialing decreases in value, social club aspect increases in value
// Elad – similar to what internet did to media – mid-tier outlets got hurt, big brands thrive
Wants online universities that are better than YouTube, more structured, more social
Don’t ignore power of a well-written cold email
Communities that were on Twitter are now going private
But find those communities, learn norms, be helpful
// Elad – help open source communities
Thiel Fellowship
Haven’t seen similar programs
Even Thiel applications, sometimes it’s hard to fill a class (of fellows)
Not enough people who are risk on, willing to drop out and commit
Doesn’t believe standardized testing is correlated with IQ as much as most of Silicon Valley thinks
Access to tutors, prep programs – equity component to this
// Elad – people who drop out to do startups, you gain an additional cycle of technology (eg, a few years of school, plus a few years of the first job), which is powerful experience
Still very focused on Figma
Interested in data visualization / doesn’t feel it’s done quite right
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My friend and I started a crypto podcast called Two Degens. We talk about markets and share interesting links and sometimes invite guests. You can listen to it here.