Canva’s 35-year-old Australian founder, Melanie Perkins, had a goal to democratise design and make it available to everyone. But she faced difficulties along the way. Perkins offered her idea to 100 venture capitalists despite having no contacts in Silicon Valley, and she was rejected on each and every occasion. But she remained persistent.
Canva’s 35-year-old Australian founder, Melanie Perkins, had a goal to democratise design and make it available to everyone. But she faced difficulties along the way. Perkins offered her idea to 100 venture capitalists despite having no contacts in Silicon Valley, and she was rejected on each and every occasion. But she remained persistent.
Perkins persevered with her idea in the face of rejection time and time again because she believed that everyone should have the capacity to design, regardless of their financial situation or abilities and expertise.
In the present day, Canva is the most valuable startup established and run by a woman, with a current valuation of $26 billion. With millions of users creating everything from social media visuals to formal presentations, the platform has continued to grow.
When Perkins was instructing graphic design to students at an Australian university in Perth in 2007, the idea for Canva first emerged. She was dissatisfied with the complexity and cost of graphic design tools and set out to develop an internet platform that would make graphic design incredibly easy for everyone. She co-founded Fusion Books, an online company that designs school yearbooks, with her co-founder and future husband Cliff Obrecht in order to test her concept.
Although Perkins lacked funds, Fusion Books was a smashing success and the first step towards realising her aim of building a fully integrated platform for designers.
Her early efforts were discouraging until she met renowned VC Bill Tai, who gave her the opportunity to pitch her idea in San Francisco. Tai was a keen kitesurfer, so Perkins grasped the chance to get in touch with him. At MaiTai, one of his retreats, Tai regularly sponsored gatherings that brought together like-minded investors and kitesurfers, and Perkins exploited the activity to forge relationships in the financial sector. Perkins had to conquer her fear of the deep sea in order to win Tai over, which wasn’t a simple task, and she also had to impress Tai.
Perkins describes the situation as being one of risk and reward: “Risk: serious damage; reward: start company.” “If you get your foot in the door just a little bit, you have to kind of wedge it all the way in,” she continues as an entrepreneur.
Because of Perkins’ network and persuasive abilities, Canva quickly caught the interest of investors. Perkins realised it was time to start Phase 2 of her dream project and put a team together to make it a reality as investments began to come in.
Canva now employs more than 2,000 people and is breaking into new markets like China, Dubai, and the Philippines. Its success can be due to Perkins’s unwavering commitment to building a platform that allows everyone, regardless of design expertise, to express their ideas.
The design platform is currently competing against Microsoft Corp. and Google, a division of Alphabet Inc. The addition of artificial intelligence (AI) features is Canva’s latest move in an effort to lift the ante and win over more customers. With the help of the new AI tools, designers will be able to automate tedious activities like image resizing and font selection, freeing up more time for the creative process.
Venture Financing Inclusivity
It is no secret that venture capital funding has a diversity issue. 80% of venture capital investment is often allocated to white guys. This discourages innovation and places restrictions on those communities who could find it difficult to develop their businesses owing to a lack of funding. Equity crowdfunding is an exception to this rule, since it has seen significantly more proportional rates of fundraising depending on representation. Anyone may invest in businesses thanks to websites like StartEngine and Wefunder, including StartEngine itself. This means that firms are not limited to receiving investments solely from venture capital and can raise money from their local communities.
