TGIF and congrats to Dylan Field and the entire Figma team on their +250% day-one “debut” yesterday. In addition to giving the IPO market a shot in the arm, you’ve given your team, shareholders, and this creator (and happy Figma user) a chance to celebrate your belief that “Design is everyone’s business.”
“As more companies realize that design, craft and point of view are core differentiators, we will see more experimentation, expression and creativity.” - Dylan Field’s IPO Founder Letter
Speaking of craft, point of view, and creative expression…the poem below is from my series on the “corporate lifecycle.” My nine years on an equities sales desk were mostly about storytelling. And nothing captivates the imagination more than a bestselling origin story. Here’s Dylan’s story as told by an early investor and mentor on the eve of the Adobe deal that didn’t materialize. At that point, he likely never could have imagined yesterday’s raise, living proof of Figma’s vision to “eliminate the gap between imagination and reality.”
Image designed with the help of ChatGPT 4.0 - but idea is pure HMC :)
I’m trying something new this week. The oldest poems were spoken, not read. So I bought a podcasting mic and matching headphones. The jury’s still out with the family, but let me know what you think.
Initial Public Offering
A debutante ball,
opening bell recordings clang,
cheers, crowded high fives
from the Juliet balcony
loom larger than life on TV.
Her second birthright is claimed,
born again,
after plans and projections,
bankers bidding to do her bidding,
Belle of the ball.
She is reduced to a few letters
to be traded
in hands and digits,
flashing across the tape,
her image on jumbotrons in Times Square.
New life and capital flows
into windows that open
to shed light,
and release the long inhale
of a corporate corset.
Beans are counted,
moved from here to there
to balance a forecast,
expectations ahead and behind her,
earnings rhythm hums every quarter.
Later, those who never built or sold for her,
will pull and rip at her white satin gown,
at what made her possible,
grown by so few
believers at the start.
Like Cinderella,
she is cast aside
as momentum turns,
her value
undervalued.
Heather M. Coughlin (2024)
workLIT Memo: I first stepped onto the Goldman Sachs equities trading floor as a summer associate, gunning for a job offer. I spent a decade at the firm, surviving two cycles and falling in love with the markets, but that “summer of ‘99” was (at the time) a high-water mark for IPOs. I remember the day Red Hat went public as a lowly intern hoping to catch a (red) hat as dozens were tossed into the air by exuberant sales traders.
Less than a year later, shortly after the now-infamous IPO of Pets.com, I visited the floor of the NYSE on a class field trip. Seeing the balcony up close for the first time was disappointing as (spoiler alert) it’s only a few feet off the floor. What proved much more interesting was the ill-fated timing of our visit with the second biggest single-day drop in stock market history, the first “pop” of the internet bubble.
Over my tenure at the firm, I sold countless IPOs, secondaries, and “stories” spanning every sector. I listened carefully as Founders and bankers painted a picture with numbers (and language) that made investors want to own a piece of the next chapter, and then made them my own.
I think I still remember every ticker, and I believe there was poetry in those stories.
Yes, I said poetry.
Love this one Heather. Inside view from you. Outside view for most. Difference is drastic. The views intersect and the feelings to each that see it are different.
Love this, so much more to things than the headline or the ticker symbol letters!