Death by a Thousand Cuts: Canva, Figma, Riverside and the Slow Bleed of Adobe

This episode dives into a question creative teams have started asking out loud: “Is Adobe dead?” Not in the literal, balance-sheet sense—Adobe is still a giant—but in the sense that really matters now: default status, cultural relevance, and ownership of the everyday creative workflow. The conversation starts with that moment on a Canva call when a client bluntly asks whether Adobe is over, and uses it as the entry point to dissect how the company that became a verb is increasingly the second choice. From there, the episode breaks down the three big cuts that redefined the landscape: Canva, Figma, and Riverside.fm. Canva didn’t beat Photoshop and Illustrator on feature depth; it beat Adobe on distribution, friction, and templates. Figma didn’t just add collaboration as a feature; it rebuilt design as a multiplayer, browser-native, team sport—and forced Adobe into a $20B panic bid regulators eventually blocked. Riverside did to remote production what those tools did to design: it removed pain, automated the promo layer, and turned high-quality podcast and video workflows into something anyone could scale. The lens then zooms out to show the broader siege: CapCut owning mobile-native, viral editing; Descript letting people edit video the way they edit documents; AI-native tools attacking After Effects-style work with text-to-video, instant rotoscoping, and automated compositing. What emerges is not a story of one rival crushing Adobe, but of dozens of specialized tools each stealing a slice of habit, budget, and mindshare—one workflow at a time. The episode closes on the cultural diagnosis. Adobe’s business model and internal incentives still lean toward bundles, enterprise sales, and protecting legacy revenue, while the challengers build for the human first, procurement last. Listeners walk away with four hard lessons: product is marketing, speed beats legacy, workflow beats feature depth, and culture is code. The real long-term risk is not that people ask “Is Adobe dead?” It’s that an entire generation grows up asking “Adobe who?” CHAPTERS (00:00) Is Adobe dead? Framing the question (02:25) Cut #1 – Canva and the end of design gatekeeping (05:24) Templates, utility design, and browser-native distribution (06:16) Cut #2 – Figma and the rise of multiplayer design (08:40) Students, free tiers, and the generational shift in tools (09:35) Adobe’s $20B Figma bid and regulatory block (11:04) Cut #3 – Riverside and the remote studio in a browser (13:47) Local recording, AI Magic Clips, and PLG in media workflows (16:08) The wider siege: stock signals, CapCut, and mobile-native editing (18:16) Descript and editing video like a Google Doc (19:13) AI video tools vs. After Effects: 8 hours down to 8 seconds (20:26) Pitch, Notion, and the erosion of InDesign’s territory (21:17) Who Adobe really builds for: pros, procurement, and ARR (22:43) The culture gap: lawyers and accountants vs. product and users (23:46) Lesson 1–2: Product is marketing; speed beats legacy (24:35) Lesson 3–4: Workflow wins; culture is code (26:22) Adobe’s slow bleed and the risk of becoming “Adobe who?” Connect with Michael Wildes ⁠mikewildes.com⁠ LinkedIn: ⁠Michael Wildes⁠ X: ⁠@Captainwildes⁠ YouTube: ⁠@MichaelMJWildes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices