Melanie Perkins is the co-founder and CEO of Canva, a graphic design software that has revolutionized the design world. Born November 1, 1987, in Perth, Western Australia, Melanie has always been passionate about design and visual communication. Her entrepreneurial journey began when she was just 19 years old. She started a company called Fusion Books while studying at the University of Western Australia.
Melanie's Entrepreneurial Journey Before Canva
Melanie’s entrepreneurial journey began when she was just 19 years old and started a company called Fusion Books. Fusion Books was an online platform that allowed school students to create and design their yearbooks. Melanie Perkins’ experience with Fusion Books was a huge success. Fusion Books was an online platform she created that allowed school students to create and design their yearbooks. The company was successful and became the largest yearbook publisher in Australia and New Zealand.
Melanie’s experience with Fusion Books gave her valuable lessons about entrepreneurship, which she used later in her entrepreneurial journey when founding Canva. She learned important lessons about building a team, raising funds, and creating a product people loved. This experience helped her to develop her leadership skills. It gave her the confidence to pursue her vision for Canva, which has since become one of the most successful startups in Australia.
KIT
After Fusion Books, Melanie started a company called KIT. This online platform allowed businesses to create and manage their social media campaigns.
Melanie Perkins’ experience with her other startup KIT was also a significant milestone in her entrepreneurial journey.
KIT was an online platform allowing businesses to create and manage social media campaigns. The platform aimed to provide companies with an easy and effective way to connect with their customers through social media. Although KIT was less successful than Fusion Books, Melanie gained valuable experience in the tech industry. She learned what it takes to build a software company that can scale.
KIT’s success played an essential role in the genesis of Canva as Melanie and her co-founder Cliff Obrecht realized that the same product they were creating for businesses on KIT could be reimagined for everyone. Their vision was to build a graphic design tool that anyone could use, even with no design expertise, and which would democratize design by making it accessible and affordable for people across the world. With the lessons learned from KIT in building a software as a service business, Melanie and her team pivoted from social media management tool to a design software company, which would lead to the founding of Canva.
Overall, KIT significantly shaped Melanie’s entrepreneurial skills and prepared her for the challenges of founding Canva. KIT’s legacy lives on through the lessons that Melanie learned, the skills she gained, and the success of Canva as a leading graphic design platform.
The Start of Canva
Melanie started Canva in 2013 with her co-founder Cliff Obrecht. Canva was created to democratize design and make it accessible to everyone. The idea for Canva came to Melanie while she was teaching design at the University of Western Australia. She noticed that many of her students needed help with design software and found it difficult to create designs quickly. She realized that there was a need for a simple and intuitive design tool that anyone could use.
Obstacles Melanie Faced
Starting a company like Canva was not easy, and Melanie faced many obstacles along the way. One of the biggest hurdles was getting investors to believe in her vision. In the early days of Canva, Melanie and her team pitched their idea to more than 100 investors, and they were rejected by all of them. However, this setback did not deter Melanie. She persisted and eventually landed a $3 million investment from Australian venture capitalist Bill Tai, who believed in her vision for Canva.
Another obstacle that Melanie faced was building a team. In the early days of Canva, she struggled to find talented designers and developers who shared her vision. However, she convinced some of the best designers and developers to join her team. They helped her turn Canva into the success it is today.
Melanie Perkins is an inspirational entrepreneur who has revolutionized the design world with her company Canva. She had to overcome many obstacles along the way. Still, her persistence and vision have helped her turn Canva into one of the world’s most successful design software companies. Her journey is a testament to how anyone can achieve their dreams of becoming a successful entrepreneur with hard work and perseverance.
