The CEO of Figma sent cold emails and bought coffee to convince former colleagues of LinkedIn and Flipboard to use its product before its success of $ 68 billion

The CEO now 33 years old was only 19 years old when he founded the online design tool in 2012 – and the aspiring technological entrepreneur fired on any loose thread that he could find to convince others to use it.

“Really, the first users of Figma, a large part was a cold email and network people,” recently revealed Field at Y Combinator’s IA Startup School. “So, the people with whom I had done an internship … and from that, there were people I could contact who could tell me to speak.”

Field had abandoned the Ivy League School, Brown University, and had taken the prestigious Peter Thiel scholarship, granting it $ 100,000 to launch its start-up. But if it was not for his nine-month-old research assistant position in Microsoft, a four-month data analysis course in Linkedin, and two courses at the Flipboard aggregation software company, he may not have a base to operate his business.

Field did not stop at his ex -assists and gain steam behind a screen – he also scratched the internet for the best technological talents. If they agreed to hear his dream of Figma, he took them to the cafe and sang his praises of their influence. Surprisingly, in a world of creeping ghosts, many people have bait.

“I just looked at online, like” Who are the designers who, I think, could be very useful to us and I respect their work? ” If they answer my email and let me buy them a coffee, it will just be a personal moment for me because they are my hero, “recalls Field. “And many of them have replied. It is a bit wild that people respond to cold emails, but they do.”

Fortune contacted Figma to comment.

Millionaires and leaders of Google and Squarespace who put themselves there

The CEO of Figma is not the only one to admit having stretched out the higher business levels to obtain help from blue – and find its success.

Capitalist in venture capital and multimillionaire Rashun Williams, now host of the emblematic investment program Shark tank, found success by using a strategy which he calls “sneak in the party”. With few growing commercial opportunities in the south of Chicago, he fits into any event, starting each conversation with “Listen to me”. Williams said Fortune: “I don’t mind cold to call people. I don’t mind stop during conferences.”

The framework of Google Sameer Samat also did not succeed by sitting on the sidelines – it started its dazzling increase in technology by reducing the courage to make one of the biggest names in its industry: the co -founder of Google Sergey Brin.

At the time, Samat was in their twenties, trying to go to the world of start-ups, when a co-founder of his Mohomine company weighed by leaving the company for higher education. Uncertain how to convince them to stay, he sent an email to strand at 3 am, hoping for a few words of wisdom. A minute later, Brin replied and invited Samat and all his team to Google headquarters, interviews them on the spot. Brin offered a job in Samat, but the now executive refused the opportunity to constitute his business.

Even the CMO of $ 7.2 billion in Squarespace business calls employers calling for the “hack of life to avoid long interview processes”. Years before his success in technology, Kinjil Mathur has spent his summers as students who burst from telephone directories to find the contacts of companies and professionals in his city. She would go to the business registration section and launched cold companies to wonder about internships – according to her, she would even be ready to work for free.

“I was ready to work for free, I was ready to work every hour they needed, even in the evening and on weekends. I did not focus on travel,” said Mathur Fortune. “You really have to be ready for anything, every hour, any salary, any type of job – stay really open.”