Key Takeaways
- Melanie Perkins founded Canva after seeing students struggle with complex design tools.
- Her journey began with Fusion Books, a small yearbook startup run from her mother’s living room.
- Over 100 investors rejected her before she secured funding through perseverance and networking.
- Canva’s mission centers on design democratization – making creativity accessible to all.
- Perkins leads with empathy, proving kindness and ambition can coexist in business leadership.
Melanie Perkins’ journey didn’t begin in a boardroom – it began in Perth, where a young student and avid kitesurfer learned early that balance, resilience, and boldness would define her life. Rejected by countless investors and told her vision was too ambitious, she pushed forward anyway.
What started as a door closed became one of the most inspiring startup stories of our time: a founder who refused to let “no” decide her destiny and instead built a company that reimagined design for the world.
The Seed of an Idea
Melanie Perkins was just a 19-year-old student at the University of Western Australia when she noticed something odd.
Her classmates in design struggled – not with ideas, but with software.
“People would have to spend an entire semester learning where the buttons were,” she once recalled. “That seemed completely ridiculous.”
One night, sitting at her mother’s kitchen table in Perth, she sketched a simple thought: What if design were as easy as dragging and dropping?
That single question – equal parts frustration and curiosity – would ignite one of the most remarkable startup journeys in modern tech.
From Rejection to Reinvention
Perkins didn’t start with Canva.
Her first venture was far more humble – Fusion Books, a platform that allowed students to design their own school yearbooks online.
She and her boyfriend (now husband) Cliff Obrecht ran the tiny operation from her mum’s living room. They handled everything: customer service, printing, and even trips to the post office.
It wasn’t glamorous – but it worked. Schools loved the simplicity, and orders started coming in from all over Australia.
That small success validated a much bigger dream: if teenagers could create beautiful layouts without a design degree, anyone could.
But the idea of building a universal design platform – something web-based, intuitive, and collaborative – was far beyond what two twenty-somethings from Perth could finance or code alone.
So, Perkins began pitching.
And pitching.
And pitching.
Over 100 venture capital firms turned her down.
Some said the market was too crowded. Others said she was too inexperienced. Most didn’t understand how a design platform from Australia could ever compete with Adobe or Microsoft.
But Melanie kept going.
That persistence finally paid off when a former Silicon Valley investor, Bill Tai, agreed to meet her – after she cold-emailed him. He was intrigued enough to invite her to a kitesurfing retreat for founders and investors in Silicon Valley.
Melanie couldn’t kitesurf. But she showed up anyway.
There, she met tech veterans who believed in her vision, including Cameron Adams, a former Google engineer who would soon join as Canva’s third co-founder and Chief Product Officer.
That combination – Melanie’s product vision, Cliff’s operations grit, and Cameron’s technical mastery – became Canva’s founding DNA.
Building Canva: Simplicity as Revolution
By 2013, Canva launched its beta.
The concept was audaciously simple: a free, drag-and-drop tool that made design accessible to anyone.
While most startups bragged about disruption, Canva focused on empowerment. It wasn’t about dethroning Adobe; it was about inviting everyone into the world of design – from small business owners to teachers to marketers.
Their early growth was explosive. Users from around the world created logos, posters, resumes, and presentations – often within minutes of signing up.
By 2015, Canva had millions of users and was growing faster than any Australian tech startup before it.
Melanie’s success was rooted in a team culture she built with intention. Despite the industry’s insistence that strong leadership requires ruthlessness, she proved that kindness and determination can coexist. Her approach showed that you don’t need to harden to lead – you simply need to lead with clarity, conviction, and respect.
At Canva’s Sydney headquarters, kindness wasn’t a buzzword – it was part of the business model. Employees described a culture where empathy and experimentation coexisted, where mistakes were seen as lessons, and where humility wasn’t weakness but wisdom.
Leading a Billion-Dollar Movement
Today, Canva is valued in the tens of billions and used by more than 170 million people across 190 countries.
From students designing school projects to Fortune 500 companies managing brand assets, Canva has become the default language of visual communication.
Yet, Perkins remains grounded.
She still talks about Canva not as a “company,” but as a “mission.”
The mission? To empower the world to design.
When she and Cliff joined The Giving Pledge, committing the majority of their wealth to charity, it wasn’t a surprise. They had always seen Canva as a tool for inclusion – financially, socially, and creatively.
Her focus now extends to education and sustainability. Canva for Education offers free tools to classrooms worldwide, while Canva’s design platform now supports nonprofits in raising awareness through visuals.
As Melanie puts it: “Design isn’t just about beauty – it’s about accessibility. Everyone should have the tools to communicate their ideas.”
FAQs
1. Who is Melanie Perkins?
Melanie Perkins is the Co-founder and CEO of Canva, a global online design platform used by millions worldwide.
2. How did she start Canva?
Perkins began with Fusion Books, a small yearbook startup, before expanding her idea into Canva to simplify design for everyone.
3. What challenges did she face early on?
She was rejected by over 100 investors before securing funding, largely because she was a young founder outside Silicon Valley.
4. What is Canva’s mission?
Canva’s mission is to empower the world to design by making creative tools accessible, intuitive, and collaborative.
5. What’s next for Melanie Perkins?
Perkins continues to lead Canva’s global expansion, focusing on education, accessibility, and sustainable impact.
Sources:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melanie_Perkins
- https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/09/canva-how-melanie-perkins-built-a-3point2-billion-dollar-design-start-up.html
- https://finance.yahoo.com/news/100-vc-rejections-led-26-150012207.html
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2019/12/11/inside-canva-profitable-3-billion-startup-phenom/
Photo credit: Web Summit / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 2.0 (link)
