Figma’s CEO sent cold emails and bought coffee to convince former LinkedIn and Flipboard coworkers to use his product before its $68 billion success

The 33-year-old CEO is now nineteen years old when he established the online design tool in 2012-and the ambitional technology businessman withdrew any loose thread he could find to persuade others to use it.

“In fact, the first user in Figma, many of which were cold via e -mail and people in the network,” Field recently revealed at the AI starting school for Y Combinator. “So, the people I have been trained with … and from that, there were people I could communicate with that could tell me others to talk to them.”

Field had left the Ivy Legue School at Brown University, took the prestigious Peter Thil Fellowship, and gave him $ 100,000 to launch its start. But if it is not a nine -month search for a nine -month search in Microsoft, and training data analyzes for four months in LinkedIn, and two training in the Aggregation Software Flipboard, maybe he may not have collected a base to operate his business.

Field did not stop when summoning the cold for its former housing and gaining steam behind the screen-as it scraped the Internet to get the best technical talent. If they agreed to hear his dream in a skull, he would take them out to coffee and praise his praise from their influence. Surprisingly, in a world of widespread shades, many people took the taste.

“I just looked on the Internet, like, who are the designers who think it can be really useful to us and respect their work?” If they answer my email and allow me to buy coffee, it will be just a personal moment for me, because they are my hero, “he remembers.” Many of them answered. It is a kind of wilderness that people respond to cold emails, but they do it. ”

luck I arrived at Figma for comment.

Gogle and Squarespace executives and Squarespace

Figma CEO is not the only one who admits to reach the higher levels of business to get the help of blue – and finds it already.

investment capitalist and Millions of Rashun Williams, and he is now a host at the iconic investment fair Shark tank, He found success by employing a strategy that he called “infiltration into the party”. With a few commercial opportunities that originated in Southside in Chicago, he was glorifying himself at any event, and every conversation started with “Hear Me Out”. Williams said luck: “I do not mind the cold contact people. There is no objection to withdrawing in conferences.”

Google Samer Samat, CEO of Google Samer Samat, has also not succeeded by sitting on the margin-its rise in technology began by breaking the courage to one of the cold names in one of the biggest names in his industry: Google Cofterer Sergey Brin.

At that time, Samat was in his twenties, trying to make him in the starting world, when one of his founder in his company, Muhmin weighing the business of the Graduate School of Studies. Not sure how to persuade them to stay, send an email to BRIN at 3 am, hoping to get some words of wisdom. Just one minute later, Brene answered and called Samat and his team completely to the Google headquarters, where they conducted an interview with them immediately. Brin Samat offered a job, but the Foundation has now rejected the opportunity to build his company.

Even CMO, $ 7.2 billion, calls SquaresPace to cold employers “penetration of life to avoid long interview operations.” Years before her success in TECH, Kinjil Mathur spent her summer as a university student to discuss phone books to find companies and professionals in her city. She would go to the company’s lists department, and began calling cold companies inquiring about internal training-until she was ready to work for free.

“I was ready to work for free, I was ready to work in any hours they needed, even in evening and weekends. I didn’t focus on traveling,” luck. “You really have to be ready to do anything, any hours, wages, and any kind of function – it remains really open.”

Submit 2025 Fortune Global 500The final ranking of the largest companies in the world. Explore this year’s list.