The phenomenal journey of Melanie Perkins: Founder of Canva
amita-adminSuccess is not final failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill.
Melanie Perkins, the daughter of an Australian-born teacher and a Malaysian engineer of Filipino and Sri Lankan heritage, is the Co-Founder of Canva, a graphic design platform used to create social media graphics, presentations, posters, documents, and other visual content.
In September 2021, Canva successfully raised $200 million in fresh funding at a valuation of $40 billion, making it the most valuable company founded and fronted by a woman in the world.
“If you are determined and want it, you can just go for it.” Melanie Perkins.
The spirit of an entrepreneur
Melanie had an entrepreneurial spirit since her childhood. She started her first business around the markets of Perth, where she sold handmade scarves at the age of 14.
In 2006, Perkins tutored students in graphic design to support herself through university when she realized how difficult it was for complete beginners to use the major computer programs produced by Microsoft and Adobe.
“People would have to spend an entire semester learning where the buttons were, and that seemed completely ridiculous,” she explains.
It struck her that there was a market for something more user-friendly, but felt she lacked the business skills to make something big.
In 2007, two years after taking her first digital media class, Perkins and her boyfriend, Cliff Obrecht decided to create a user-friendly graphic design software that allowed schools and students to make their yearbooks. They named it Fusion Books and made their first sale to a French school in Sydney.
Their client list grew as they sold to 15 schools in their first, 30 in their second, and 80 in their third year of business.
The company functioned out of Perkins’ mom’s lounge, where they printed the physical yearbooks.
In five years, Fusion Books grew into the biggest platform of its kind in Australia, even expanding into New Zealand and France. Perkins bootstrapped the business, but they were running out of funds for expansion.
For Perkins, it was just the first step in what she called her “crazy, big dream” for a one-stop-shop design site- so she began chasing investors.
“Our goal was to take the entire design ecosystem, integrate it into one page, and then make it accessible to the whole world,” Perkins adds.
A few years later in 2010, while at a conference in Perth, Perkins received her first big break when a chance encounter with Silicon Valley investor, Bill Tai, saw him invite Perkins to San Francisco to pitch her idea. The legendary venture capitalist, clearly impressed, connected her with his contacts. She wanted to take assistance and help from venture capitalists, but no one agreed and believed in the idea.
Perkins faced more than 100 rejections as she sought finance for Canva.
“Every time we were rejected or had tricky questions we’d improve our pitch decks,” she says.
Tai, an avid kitesurfer, was keen for Perkins and Obrecht to get networking at MaiTai, his unique retreat for investors and kitesurfing enthusiasts. So she had to pick up the sport — fast!
Every time Tai would ask her how she was progressing in kitesurfing. It was not something she would try, but she still did.
“But yeah, decided to give it a go because when you don’t have any connections, you don’t have any network, you just kind of have to wedge your foot in the door and wiggle it all the way through,” she says.
Before long, the young couple was winning over major investors and building out Canva’s design platform with a fast-growing team of tech engineers.
But it was in 2012 that the business began in earnest. With the help of their tech advisor and the co-founder of Google Maps, Lars Rasmussen, Perkins and Obrecht found a tech co-founder in Cameron Adams and a tech developer in Dave Hearnden.
Months later, at the close of their first funding round, the company was oversubscribed. The initial $1.5 million investment was matched by the Australian government to retain the company to Aussie shores.
The following year, the site went live, allowing subscribers to create many online designs for free.
Since then, there has been no looking back.
Pitching tips by Melanie Perkins:
- Share your origin story: Perkins tells the Canva origin story concisely and consistently to partners and investors.
- Use feedback to refine your pitch: Instead of getting demoralized after every rejection, Perkins and her co-partners would take the opportunity to make their pitch even stronger or refine their strategy.
- Make each slide as simple as possible: Perkins recommends that each slide contain just one point as trying to include more than one message per slide results in confusion.
- Show it in pictures. “Don’t display a lot of text. Show it,” Perkins advises.
Canva: The name
The business was initially called Canvas Chef, to show how the software could offer all the ingredients needed (fonts, illustrations, photos) to design anything. That eventually fell out of favour with the co-founders, so when looking for a new name, one of the team’s engineers explained that “canvas” was pronounced “can-va” in French, and the rest is history.
Melanie: The Leader
Melanie believes that good communication is one of the most significant aspects to help the team make good decisions or achieve their goals. It is crucial to focus that everyone has as much context as possible.
Melanie explains that throughout the week, each team in her organization catches up on its daily progress. Every Friday, they do a company-wide stand-up – an opportunity to bring everyone together and share knowledge.
Their structure of small, empowered teams enables everyone to be agile and gives each team ownership over their work.
Melanie: The Philanthropist
One of the richest women in Australia, Perkins feels uncomfortable about people discussing her wealth, as she has always felt like its “custodian”.
She aims to ‘do the most good she can’.
Their major philanthropic move will be a pilot program with GiveDirectly, distributing $10 million via mobile payments to reach those in need in Southern Africa.
“We are very pleased to share the news that Cliff and I will be committing the vast majority of our equity (30% of Canva) to do good in the world, and plan to do this through the Canva Foundation,” Melanie adds.
Advice to the entrepreneurs
“Solve a real problem that many people experience. If you find a problem that people care about, then it will make every other aspect of running a business much easier.”
“If it wasn’t for those years of figuring things out on our own, learning the ropes of the business, and being deeply focused on our customer’s needs, I don’t think Canva would be anywhere near where it is today.”
Sources:
https://nextshark.com/melanie-perkins-fusion-yearbooks-canva
https://startuptalky.com/melanie-perkins-success-story/#Melanie_Perkins_-_Her_Journey_With_Canva
