As of January 2024, Canva’s design platform attracted around 170 million monthly global users from 190 countries. BUT it was not too long ago that now 36-year-old Canva founder Melanie Perkins was rejected by 100 VCs.
Just like some of the best companies today, Canva took awhile to get to an inflection point: between the first idea in 2006, to launching 2013, that was a span of 7 good years.
Today, Canva is a $26 billion design startup is ready to take on Microsoft and Google and compared to other behemoths; and people have created over 3 billion designs since.
This week, we are taking a deep dive into Melanie Perkin’s story of building the online designing empire Canva.
TIMESTAMPS / KEY TAKEAWAYS
0:00 - Intro
02:13 - Canva: from being rejected by over 100 VCs to a $26 billion design startup
05:00 - Lesson #1: Solve the problem you know intimately first: don’t be afraid to niche down, in the beginning
07:34 - Lesson #2: Good things take time—stay grounded, lean and persistent
11:19 - Lesson #3: Focus on what you can change, not what you can’t
15:07 - LESSON #4: Get comfortable going against the grain
17:44 - Lesson #5: You can do it all, but not all at once
21:17 - 3 Actionable Questions for You
About Melanie Perkins
Melanie Perkins is an Australian billionaire technology entrepreneur, who is the CEO and co-founder of Canva.
Perkins is one of the youngest female CEOs of a tech start-up valued over A$1 billion. As of May 2021, Perkins was one of Australia's richest women.
Credit/Source:
Canva makes staff instant millionaires after $3.6b share sale
https://thenightly.com.au/business/canva-makes-staff-instant-millionaires-after-36b-share-sale-c-14205704
Guy Kawasaki's Remarkable People: Melanie Perkins: CEO of Canva
https://guykawasaki.com/melanie-perkins-canva-ceo/
Carmine Gallo and Canva CEO, Melanie Perkins
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xysjW_wZgxM
Sunrise Australia Day 1 - Melanie Perkins Keynote
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXtGE811GCw
Melanie Perkins of Canva on Dealing with Rejection
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e31uR1WhrEQ
Melanie Perkins - Canva - Founder stories from The Sunrise
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1uyh2IRWWM
How Canva CEO Melanie Perkins turned her small Australian college startup into global unicorn | E939
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TBSg79Gf0M
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