Figma CEO’s Billion-Dollar Payday: Inside the Blockbuster IPO Windfall

Design giant Figma’s IPO isn’t just a liquidity event—it’s a golden parachute on steroids for its CEO.

The jackpot breakdown

While retail investors fight for scraps, Figma’s top exec stands to pocket billions in equity, bonuses, and performance triggers. The package includes restricted stock units that vest faster than a Silicon Valley startup burns cash.

Why Wall Street’s salivating

Bankers are already spinning this as ‘founder-friendly’—translation: another masterclass in wealth extraction before the lock-up expires. The board calls it ‘alignment.’ Traders call it easy money.

The fine print

Buried in the S-1: clawback provisions weaker than a free-tier Figma workspace. But hey—when the music’s playing, who reads the terms of service?

One thing’s certain: in the game of IPO roulette, the house always wins. Especially when the house is a Sand Hill Road VC firm.

Key Takeaways

• Figma CEO Dylan Field stands to be very wealthy if he can hit the marks outlined in his pay package.
• The design software maker's trading debut puts big awards within reach.
• Field could make $1.9 billion if Figma's stock price reaches the highest hurdle, or $130, within 10 years of its IPO.

Figma (FIG) is shooting the lights out on its trading debut. The latest big IPO stands to make co-founder and chief Dylan Field very rich.

The design software maker's shares recently traded around $108, a few bucks below intraday highs. (Its IPO priced at $33 per share, above an upwardly revised range of $30 to $32.) That first-day action puts Field's performance-based executive compensation awards well within reach.

Some 14.5 million shares in restricted stock units have been set aside as a stock price award, split across seven tranches, according to filings. If the shares' 60-day average price hits $60, the low end of targets, Field WOULD unlock $130 million worth. If the stock meets the highest hurdle, or $130, that package would grow to $1.9 billion. Field has 10 years to hit those marks.

That doesn't include the 22.5 million shares split between service- and market-based awards Figma granted Field in 2021, which can be unlocked sooner. There are 7.9 million shares of Class B common stock that Field can vest as part of his service-based package, which are worth roughly $670 million based on the the stock's $85 Thursday open.

There is also a CEO market reward that grants Field an additional 11.25 million shares separated into three tranches tied to laddered market-valuation targets of $15 billion, $20 billion, and $25 billion. And there's cash: Figma's board in 2024 raised Field's base salary to $500,000 from $450,000.

Field can thank Elon Musk and his richly-valued pay package at Tesla (TSLA) for raising the compensation ceiling for other CEOs. Though Musk's $56 billion compensation was rejected twice by courts, the chief of the EV maker launched an appeal in March to restore it.