“If it was all about building wealth, that would be the most uninspiring thing I can imagine”
–
Melanie Perkins
Have you ever wondered what is the history of the very popular platform in our country that we often use in our daily life to create designs, namely – Canva? Today we will tell you where the idea for creating this tool came from.
Melanie Perkins is a 36-year-old tech entrepreneur from Australia and one of the CEOs of the free-to-use platform.
The Idea
Perkins founded the company in 2013 with the goal of making design as accessible and easy to the audience as possible. With a few clicks, anyone can quickly create a presentation, logo, resume, business card or social media post.
“Our goal was to integrate the entire design ecosystem into one page and then make it available to the whole world,” commented the founder.
How does it all begin?
Interestingly, even at the age of 19, she understood that platforms like Microsoft and Adobe offer design tools that are extremely difficult to work with. It takes months for trainees to get used to working with these tools.
Melanie realized she could make an income teaching design to students, doing everything she could to make the process as easy as possible.
Together with his partner, Cliff Obrecht, they decided to start a small business creating yearbooks for schools. They call it Fusion Books.
“My mom’s living room became my office, and my friend became my business partner, and we started enabling schools to create their yearbooks quickly and easily,” explains Perkins.
This business remains active to this day. This turns out to be the first successful step of the young girl. Then she embarks on the bigger challenge of searching for investors.
Fate meets the young lady with Bill Tye, an investor from Silicon Valley, who invites Perkins to present his idea in San Francisco. The meeting was a success because he was impressed with her idea and began connecting her with other potential investors.
A curious fact is that making contacts does not seem so easy for the young founder. Bill Tye happens to be an avid kitesurfer and wants to introduce Perkins and Obrecht to his place for investors and kitesurfing enthusiasts.
Therefore, the young couple has to start practicing this sport in order to have the chance to create some business contacts.
The new adventure with kitesurfing, however, reflected favorably, because Perkins and Obrecht found investors and managed to build the design platform “Canva”.
A year later, the site allows users to create their own designs online for free.
Entrepreneurial spirit with a noble heart
In 2021, the value of the entire company is estimated at 40 billion dollars, Forbes writes.
Perkins and Obrecht each own 18% of the company. They make a noble decision, sharing that they are transferring 80% of their shares to the foundation for charitable causes they founded “CANVA FOUNDATION LIMITED”.
In addition, the platform attracts 60 million users per month. 500,000 of those are from companies like Intel and Zoom, which pay to use the freemium software the platform offers. Also “Canva” is used in 190 countries around the world in over 100 languages.
Melanie Perkins’ Plan for Success
“If it was all about building wealth, that would be the most uninspiring thing I can imagine,” says Melanie Perkins.
The strategy for success that the young lady shares with everyone consists of two points. First, build one of the most valuable companies in the world, and second: Do as much good as possible for the world.
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