The quiet reinvention of a $42b business, with Canva’s Cameron Adams
In the last year, Canva redefined itself from the ground up. Co-founder and Chief Product Officer Cameron Adams joins Rapid Response live from the Cannes Lions festival to explain why the so-called SaaSpocalypse never kept him up at night, how Canva shifted from a design company to an AI company without losing what made it great, and why being only 1% of the way there is actually the most exciting place to be. Adams also shares the specific steps anyone can take to get real impact from AI tools rather than just falling down the rabbit hole, and makes the case that in a world of commoditized models, your organization's unfair advantage is the only thing that matters.
Eager for more of Cam? Take a moment to listen and download his own podcast, Prompted!
Visit the Rapid Response website here: https://www.rapidresponseshow.com/
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Canva's CEO on its big pivot to AI enterprise software
The last time Canva CEO Melanie Perkins was on Decoder, the company was starting a big push into enterprise. Now, she's leading it through a total reinvention, going, in Canva's words, "from a design platform with AI tools to an AI platform with design tools."
But there's a lot of competition in that AI enterprise space. Not only is Canva competing with design software like the Adobe Creative Suite, but also it's competing with AI companies, like Anthropic and Meta, that are launching their own AI design platforms. So we talked a lot about whether Canva really is the right platform to bring the whole workspace together.
Read the full interview transcript on The Verge.
Links:
Canva AI 2.0 goes all in on prompt-powered design tools | The Verge
The creative software industry has declared war on Adobe | The Verge
Anthropic launches Claude Design | TechCrunch
Canva is now in the coding and spreadsheet business | The Verge
Melanie Perkins thinks the world needs more alternatives to Adobe | Decoder (2024)
Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder!
Credits:
Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and edited by Ursa Wright. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.
The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
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The woman behind Canva shares how she built a $42B company from nothing | Melanie Perkins
Melanie Perkins is CEO and co-founder of Canva, currently valued at over $42 billion, generating over $3 billion in annual revenue, with more than 240 million monthly active users and, incredibly, eight consecutive years of profitability. But the journey was far from smooth. Melanie was rejected by over 100 investors during her first fundraising round, her team spent two years without being able to ship a new feature during a technical rewrite, and the company pivoted early from a yearbook publishing platform to become the design powerhouse it is today. Through it all, she maintained what she calls “column B” thinking: building toward a dream future rather than just using the bricks around you.
We discuss:
1. How “column B” thinking helped Melanie build Canva, by starting with an impossible vision rather than existing constraints
2. The power of setting “crazy big goals”
3. How Canva survived a painful two-year period without shipping any new features while rewriting their codebase
4. How Melanie pushed through 100 investor rejections, and how she used each rejection to strengthen her pitch
5. Canva’s “two-step plan”: build one of the world’s most valuable companies, then do the most good possible
6. Melanie’s vision for 2050 and why she believes imagination is the first step toward a better world
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—
Transcript: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-making-of-canva
—
My biggest takeaways (for paid newsletter subscribers): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/i/176082995/my-biggest-takeaways-from-this-conversation
—
Where to find Melanie Perkins:
• X: https://x.com/melaniecanva
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melanieperkins/
—
Where to find Lenny:
• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/
—
In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Introduction to Melanie Perkins and Canva
(04:44) Building a “column B” company
(06:36) Operationalizing big visions
(13:13) Crazy big goals and celebrations
(22:00) Challenges and setbacks in Canva’s journey
(26:30) Fundraising and investor rejections
(29:36) Leadership and growth lessons
(34:38) Canva’s goal-driven structure
(35:46) Balancing work and personal life
(38:02) Community-driven product development
(40:37) The two-step plan for global impact
(45:04) Canva’s biggest launch yet
(48:10) How Canva approaches product expansion
(52:37) AI integration in Canva
(53:56) AI corner
(55:22) Melanie’s vision for 2050 and beyond
(01:00:07) Lightning round and final thoughts
—
Referenced:
• Canva: https://www.canva.com/
• Brian Chesky’s new playbook: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/brian-cheskys-contrarian-approach
• Building high-performing teams | Melissa Tan (Webflow, Dropbox, Canva): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/building-high-performing-teams-melissa
• UserTesting: https://www.usertesting.com/
• Figma: https://www.figma.com/
• Adobe: https://www.adobe.com/
• Calm: https://www.calm.com/
• Gandhi’s quote about happiness: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/mahatma_gandhi_105593
• Help us improve Canva: https://www.canva.com/help/get-in-touch/general-feedback/
—
Recommended books:
• Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration: https://www.amazon.com/Creativity-Inc-Expanded-Overcoming-Inspiration/dp/0593594649/
• The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses: https://www.amazon.com/Lean-Startup-Entrepreneurs-Continuous-Innovation/dp/0307887898/
• The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact: https://www.amazon.com/Power-Moments-Certain-Experiences-Extraordinary/dp/1501147765
• Designing the Obvious: A Common Sense Approach to Web and Mobile Application Design: https://www.amazon.com/Designing-Obvious-Common-Approach-Application/dp/0321749855
—
Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.
Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.
To hear more, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com
Canva’s Danny Wu on Giving 230 Million Users Superpowers With AI - Ep. 265
Danny Wu, Head of AI Products at Canva, explains how AI is transforming visual communication from a tool for professionals into superpowers for everyone. With over 18 billion uses of their AI features, Canva demonstrates how machine learning evolved from content search to generative design tools that let anyone create on-demand visuals. Plus, hear how they're prioritizing user consent and transparency while scaling AI across 230 million users. Learn more at ai-podcast.nvidia.com
SaaStr 810: AI and the Bottom Line, How Canva Turns Freemium into Conversions with Canva's CCO Rob Giglio
SaaStr 810: AI and the Bottom Line, How Canva Turns Freemium into Conversions with Canva's CCO Rob Giglio
Join John Gleason, founder and managing partner at Success Venture Partners, as he interviews Rob Giglio, Chief Customer Officer at Canva. Rob shares his extensive experience leading customer success, sales, and go-to-market functions at top companies like HubSpot, DocuSign, and Adobe. In this episode, Rob delves into his strategic approach to scaling Canva's enterprise business while maintaining the company's unique customer-centric culture. He also discusses the integration of AI to enhance customer experiences and how value-driven customer journeys underpin Canva's growth. Perfect for aspiring CCOs and anyone interested in the intersection of customer success and sales. 00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome 00:29 Rob's Role and Responsibilities at Canva 03:11 Career Journey and Mentorship 07:17 Building Enterprise at Canva 14:20 Customer-Centric Approach 21:42 AI Integration at Canva 24:36 Conclusion and Final Thoughts ---- This episode of the SaaStr podcast is sponsored by: get.tech
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Don't compromise. Get a clean, sharp .tech domain that instantly says: this is a tech startup.
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----
Hey everybody, SaaStr AI's next stop takes us to London on December 2nd and 3rd! It's Christmas with SaaStr and 2,000 of the best SaaS and AI leaders. The biggest names will be there. The best networking. Early adopter tickets are selling faster than we expected. So don't wait. With only 5 months until the event, we expect this year's SaaStr London event to sell out to capacity. Use my code jason20pod for exclusive savings. Get your tickets now at podcast.saastrlondon.com or use code jason20pod at checkout. SaaStr AI London – where SaaS Meets AI in London. See you there.
Canva’s $35B design biz is quietly taking over the workplace, with co-founder & COO Cliff Obrecht
For over a decade, Canva has made design and publishing more accessible than ever. Now, the company is wrestling with how to harness AI while staying true to its mission of empowering individual creators. Co-founder and COO Cliff Obrecht joins Rapid Response to reveal how Canva is navigating this shift—and why the stakes are so high when it comes to AI-adoption in the creative industry. He opens up about leading the company alongside his wife and co-founder Melanie Perkins, their decision to give away $100 million to causes in Malawi, and what it means to scale without compromising values. Obrecht also shares Canva’s role in the future of technology and how marketing could define the business’s next chapter.
Visit the Rapid Response website here: https://www.rapidresponseshow.com/
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Rapid Response: Why Apple defies gravity and AI is God, with Guy Kawasaki, host of Remarkable People
Apple defies gravity, and AI is Divine. That’s how Guy Kawasaki, who worked closely with Steve Jobs and is now chief evangelist at Canva and host of the podcast Remarkable People, describes the state of tech now. Guy argues that Jobs would thrive in today’s business climate, muses about Tim Cook’s limitations, and explains what he means when he says “AI is God.” Plus unconventional advice about what it means to be remarkable in modern life, and why entrepreneurship is like surfing in the ocean.
For more info, visit: www.rapidresponseshow.com
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Designing the Future: Inside Canva's AI Strategy with John Milinovich, GenAI Product Lead at Canva
Nathan explores the world of AI-powered design with John Milinovich, Head of Generative AI Product at Canva. In this episode of The Cognitive Revolution, we dive into Canva's innovative approach to AI integration, from task automation to human augmentation. Join us for an insightful discussion about fine-tuning foundation models, AI's impact on architecture, and practical tips for AI product development at scale.
Check out Canva: https://www.canva.com
Be notified early when Turpentine's drops new publication: https://www.turpentine.co/exclusiveaccess
SPONSORS:
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RECOMMENDED PODCAST:
Unpack Pricing - Dive into the dark arts of SaaS pricing with Metronome CEO Scott Woody and tech leaders. Learn how strategic pricing drives explosive revenue growth in today's biggest companies like Snowflake, Cockroach Labs, Dropbox and more.
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1765716600
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/38DK3W1Fq1xxQalhDSueFg
CHAPTERS:
(00:00:00) Teaser
(00:01:13) Sponsors: SelectQuote
(00:02:26) About the Episode
(00:04:33) Introduction - Creativity vs Design
(00:08:39) AI-Assisted Experiences
(00:10:25) Automation & Augmentation
(00:15:27) Pixels to Objects to Concepts
(00:17:58) Sponsors: Incogni | Shopify
(00:20:40) Concept-Level Interfaces
(00:23:35) The Future of Design
(00:29:39) Human Element in Design
(00:32:49) AI Talking to AI
(00:35:52) Sponsors: Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) | Brave
(00:38:04) Purpose-Specific AI Experiences
(00:45:29) GPT-4 Image Editing
(00:51:17) Graduated Approach to Launch
(00:55:09) Fine-Tuning GPT-4
(00:59:10) Cost & Latency
(01:01:29) Hiring AI Engineers
(01:05:02) Engineering Best Practices
(01:09:00) Inspiration in the AI Space
(01:18:28) The Gen AI Application Layer
(01:24:26) Outro
SOCIAL LINKS:
Website: https://www.cognitiverevolution.ai
Twitter (Podcast): https://x.com/cogrev_podcast
Twitter (Nathan): https://x.com/labenz
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanlabenz/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@CognitiveRevolutionPodcast
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/the-cognitive-revolution-ai-builders-researchers-and/id1669813431
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6yHyok3M3BjqzR0VB5MSyk
20Product: How Canva Builds Products: Lessons Learned, What Works? What Flopped? The Top 5 Product Lessons in Scaling to 185M Monthly Active Users with Canva Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer, Cameron Adams
Cameron Adams is Chief Product Officer and co-founder of Canva where he is responsible for heading up the design and product teams. Since launching in 2013, Canva's global community has grown to over 185 million monthly users in over 190 countries. In 2021, Canva was valued at $40 billion, following a $200m funding round. This saw it become one of the most valuable private software companies in the world. Prior to joining Canva, Cameron found himself working closely with Lars and Jens Rasmussen (co-founders of Google Maps) to realise the design vision for Google Wave.
In Today's Episode with Cameron Adams:
1. From Accidental Joining to Most Valuable Private Company:
How did Cameron go from working on Google wave with Lars Rasmussen to co-founding Canva with Mel and Cliff?
What was the single closest near-death experience in the life of Canva?
Why did Canva fail as a social network? What did Cameron learn from that?
2. How to Create Users that Truly Love Your Products:
What have been Canva's biggest lessons on what it takes to do world class onboarding?
What is Cameron biggest advice to founders on how to create moments of delight in your product?
Is simplicity always best in product? What, when made more complex, is better for the user?
3. Scaling Canva into the Enterprise:
What are the biggest product changes that are required to move into enterprise?
What does Cam know about moving up market that he wishes he had known when he started?
What are the biggest product and design mistakes founders make when making the transition from PLG to enterprise sales?
4. AI Changes Everything: More Money or Better Products Only
Who will win the foundation model layer landscape? What will it be in 10 years?
Will companies actually make more revenue from having AI in products or will it just create better products?
How does Canva's implementation of AI in their products impact the margins of their products?
Canva CEO Melanie Perkins is happy to provide designers alternatives to Adobe
Canva got its start more than a decade ago as a different form of disruptive tech for creatives. It’s a web-based platform that makes design tools cheaper and accessible for individuals, schools, and businesses from tiny to enterprise. Melanie has big goals to grow the company — and try to do good in the process.
Links:
Canva tackled digital design — and now the office suite is next | The Verge
Canva Inks Deals With Warner Music Group, Merlin | Variety
Canva founders join Bill Gates’ Giving Pledge to give away most of their fortune | Sydney Morning Herald
Canva partnership tackling extreme poverty in Malawi one year on | GiveDirectly
Canva’s Two-Step Plan: Celebrating 10 years of impact | Canva
Adobe’s new terms of service aren’t the problem — it’s the trust | The Verge
‘The general perception is: Adobe is an evil company that will do whatever it takes to F its users.’ | The Verge
Why Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen thinks AI is the future | The Verge
Canva corporate 'Hamilton' cringe rap presentation goes viral | YouTube
Transcript:
https://www.theverge.com/e/23955121
Credits:
Decoder is a production of The Verge, and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
Our producers are Kate Cox and Nick Statt. Our editor is Callie Wright. Our supervising producer is Liam James.
The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Inside Canva: Coaches not managers, giving away your Legos, and running profitably | Cameron Adams (co-founder and CPO)
Cameron Adams is the co-founder and chief product officer of Canva. Canva is one of the world’s most valuable private software companies, used by 95% of Fortune 500 companies. Since its launch in 2013, Canva has grown to over 150 million monthly users in more than 190 countries, generating $2.3 billion in annual revenue. Prior to Canva, Cameron ran a design consultancy, worked at Google on Google Wave, and founded the email startup Fluent. He is also an author of five web design books and a regular speaker at global conferences. In our conversation, we discuss:
• Why they spent a year building their minimum viable product (MVP) before launch
• Why Canva has no managers, and their unique approach to coaching and performance reviews
• Why they encourage employees to “give away their Legos”
• Insights into Canva’s SEO growth strategy
• Their three-pillar framework for integrating AI into their product
• Stories from the early days
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Find the transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/inside-canva-with-cameron-adams
—
Where to find Cameron Adams:
• X: https://twitter.com/themaninblue
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/themaninblue
• Website: https://themaninblue.com/
—
Where to find Lenny:
• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/
—
In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Cameron’s background
(02:00) Reflecting on the success of Canva
(04:50) Reflecting on hard times
(10:01) Canva’s product-obsessed culture
(12:02) Why they prioritize internal promotions and hires
(13:56) What makes Canva unique
(16:31) The concept of giving away your Legos
(21:44) Why Canva has no managers
(24:29) Product management at Canva
(27:56) Reflections on working with a married couple
(30:37) Why they spent a year building their MVP before launch
(33:49) Advice for building an MVP
(41:23) Canva’s onboarding transformation
(44:25) Canva’s SEO strategy
(50:37) The success of Canva’s freemium strategy
(54:24) Integrating AI into Canva’s product
(01:01:50) Where to find Cameron
—
Referenced:
• Canva: https://www.canva.com/
• Melanie Perkins on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melanieperkins
• Cliff Obrecht on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cliff-obrecht-79ba9920
• Jennie Rogerson, Head of People, LinkedIn post about “season opener” events: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jennierogerson_season-opener-is-one-of-my-favourite-events-activity-7006815614556135424-73bD/
• Game of Thrones on HBO: https://www.hbo.com/game-of-thrones
• Woodstock: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodstock
• ‘Give Away Your Legos’ and Other Commandments for Scaling Startups: https://review.firstround.com/give-away-your-legos-and-other-commandments-for-scaling-startups/
• Minimum viable product (MVP): https://www.productboard.com/glossary/minimum-viable-product-mvp
• Canva’s SEO Strategy Is Elite: https://thegrowthplaybook.substack.com/p/canvas-seo-strategy-is-elite
• The SEO Strategy That Led Canva to a $40 Billion Valuation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INyGKt6LAqM
• Andrianes Pinantoan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrianes/
• Canva Create: https://www.canva.com/canva-create/
—
Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.
—
Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe
Be an evangelist for authenticity, with tech veteran Guy Kawasaki
With his trademark wit and wisdom, Guy Kawasaki shares lessons from his trailblazing journeys in tech and investing. He was “software evangelist” at Apple when the company launched its revolutionary Macintosh line. He went on to lead his own wide-ranging ventures, and today has reprised his role as “evangelist” at the graphic design platform Canva. Guy has also written 16 books and hosts the “Remarkable People” podcast, which is now a book of the same name. He offers valuable insights on fostering a growth mindset, embracing change, and harnessing the power of AI to supercharge innovation.
Read a transcript of this episode: https://mastersofscale.com
Subscribe to the Masters of Scale weekly newsletter: https://mastersofscale.com/subscribe
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
(Bonus) Guy Kawasaki On His New Book And Learning From Steve Jobs
Guy Kawasaki shares key insights on how to have a successful career, found in his new book: Think Remarkable. Also, some fun Apple and Steve Jobs story, such as: what kind of a***ole boss WAS Steve Jobs, exactly. The kind you want, Guy says.
Buy the book: Think Remarkable
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Building One: How Cameron Adams Built Canva
Introducing Building One, a new show from LinkedIn chief product officer Tomer Cohen. Canva co-founder and chief product officer Cameron Adams is the first guest, and in this episode shares his story of how he built his career and eventually Canva. Ahead of this episode, Cohen introduces the show via a brief interview with Alex Kantrowitz. If you like the show, you can subscribe on your podcast app of choice.
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20VC: Canva Co-Founder, Cliff Obrecht on The Journey From 100 VC Rejections to a $40BN Company, Why Good Enough is Not Good Enough, The Secret to Hiring Non-Obvious Talent and Relationships to Money and Why They Are Giving Away Billions
Cliff Obrecht is the Co-Founder & COO @ Canva, the free-to-use online graphic design tool that makes it easy for anyone to design anything from presentations to videos and social media. Cliff and Mel have scaled Canva to over 60 million monthly users, 2,000 employees, and 500,000 teams from companies like Intel and Zoom using Canva. During this incredible growth journey, they have raised over $580M with their last round valuing the company at over $40BN.
In Today's Episode with Cliff Obrecht
1.) From Teacher to Billionaire Tech Founder:
How did Keith make his way into the world of tech with his founding of FusionBooks? What did the process with FusionBooks teach him about how to run Canva?
How did the early fundraising days for Canva go? Why does Cliff think they got over 100 no's?
What are Cliff's biggest pieces of advice for founders today, not in Silicon Valley, looking to raise from Silicon Valley VCs?
2.) Scaling to $40BN: The Biggest Lessons:
What does Cliff mean when he says the secret to successful hiring is looking for "distance traveled"? How does he determine this in the interview process?
What have been some of the single biggest lessons in what it takes to acquire the best talent?
What are some of the biggest mistakes Cliff has made in talent acquisition? How has his process changed as a result?
What do Canva do to get the best operators as advisors in the company? How do they compensate these advisors? What does Cliff advise founders on how to do the same?
3.) The Art of Deal-Making:
How does Cliff think through what makes a "good deal"? How does he approach negotiation?
What are the biggest mistakes founders make when negotiating and doing deals?
What have been Cliff's biggest lessons on successful investor relations over the years?
How does Cliff and Canva approach acquisitions? What do they look for? What is their process? Why do most tech companies approach acquisitions the wrong way?
4.) Cliff Obrecht: Money, Fatherhood and Marriage:
How does Cliff analyze his relationship to money today? How much money is enough? How has his relationship to money changed over time?
Why have Cliff and Mel given away over $10BN to their foundation? Why is philanthropy so hard to do effectively?
Why would Cliff hate for his children to be brought up in excess wealth?
What does "great fatherhood" mean to Cliff? What are the most challenging aspects of parenting?
What are the secrets to a happy marriage? How does co-founding a company with your other half work well? How does it work poorly?
CMO Canva, Zach Kitschke: From Employee Number 5 To $40 Billion Valuation
Canva CMO Zach Kitschke was the company’s fifth employee, joining right before the product launched to the public — or, that was the plan anyway. Emerging technologies like HTML5 and negative feedback from early testers delayed the debut of the design startup, but in the 10 years since its launch Canva has become one of the most successful companies to ever come out of Australia. “One of our values is to set crazy big goals and make them happen,” Zach says.
In this episode, Zach and Joubin discuss Zach’s first job in small-town bureaucracy, how he got introduced to Canva before the company was hiring anyone, helping teammates achieve their potential, “culture carriers,” the pressure of comparing your companies to others, Canva’s “underwhelming” launch night and finding product-market fit, the four pillars of success in Canva’s culture, localization as a growth strategy, predictable anxiety, the hypergrowth gap, and “the two-step plan.”
In this episode, we cover:
What Canva does, and where the idea came from (08:08)
Zach’s first impressions of Canva co-founders Mel Perkins and Cliff Obrecht (12:49)
Making bets on unproven people in an organization (16:41)
Setting “crazy big goals” and readying Canva v1 for launch (21:17)
The pre-launch inferiority complex (27:30)
An important cold email from the Huffington Post (33:59)
Wearing many hats in a startup and building company culture (36:17)
Learning on the job and managing a hypergrowth company (45:23)
How does Canva’s growth compare to what Zach expected? (51:09)
Canva’s unique approach to work-life balance, and Mel and Cliff’s philanthropic “two-step plan” (59:23)
Links:
Connect with ZachTwitter
LinkedIn
Connect with JoubinTwitter
LinkedIn
Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com
Learn more about Kleiner Perkins
This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm
The secret power of onboarding, w/Canva's Melanie Perkins
Onboarding isn't just about employees. The often overlooked step-by-step process — to join a product or company — lays the foundation for everything that follows. No one knows this better than Melanie Perkins, co-founder and CEO of Canva. From the moment she started the Australia-based graphic design platform, she knew she had to engage newcomers with simplicity and speed. It took a series of steps: onboard users to her product, one-by-one; onboard investors to help her build; onboard employees in a way that would pass along her values and her vision. Then onboard new investors, new features, new partners, new markets with the same care and ease-of-use — but at scale. With more than 40 million monthly active users and 3 billion designs created, Canva is proof for the magic of onboarding. Cameos: Ron White (Memory Expert).
Read a transcript of this episode: https://mastersofscale.com
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SaaStr 516: Lessons Learned in Scaling with Canva's CMO Zach Kitschke and SaaStr CEO and Founder, Jason Lemkin
Zach joined Canva in 2013 as one of Canva's earliest employees and has worked across product management, communications and human resources before establishing the global marketing function. Eight years later 50 million people are now using Canva every month and the company recently approached $1 Billion in Revenue. In this podcast, Zach and Jason dive into the initial growth marketing strategies and framework behind Canva's exponential growth as a start-up, the strategies for targeting and growing into the enterprise, and how to build out a global marketing function.
Full video: https://youtu.be/CEoam_9sHt0
Blog post: https://www.saastr.com/lessons-learned-scaling-canva-to-1-billion-with-zach-kitschke/
Canva: Melanie Perkins (2019)
When she was just 19 years old, Melanie Perkins dreamt of transforming the graphic design and publishing industries. But she started small, launching a site to make yearbook design simpler and more collaborative. Her success with that first venture—and an unexpected meeting with a VC investor—eventually landed her the backing to pursue her original idea, and the chance to take on software industry titans like Adobe and Microsoft. Today, Melanie's online design platform Canva is valued at $6 billion, joining the list of Australia's "unicorn" companies.
For more information on the HIBT Fellowship visit:
https://npr.org/fellowsSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
The secret power of onboarding, w/Canva's Melanie Perkins
Onboarding isn't just about employees. The often overlooked step-by-step process – to join a product or company – lays the foundation for everything that follows. No one knows this better than Melanie Perkins, co-founder and CEO of Canva. From the moment she started the Australia-based graphic design platform, she knew she had to engage newcomers with simplicity and speed. It took a series of steps: onboard users to her product, one-by-one; onboard investors to help her build; onboard employees in a way that would pass along her values and her vision. Then onboard new investors, new features, new partners, new markets with the same care and ease-of-use – but at scale. With more than 40 million monthly active users and 3 billion designs created, Canva is proof for the magic of onboarding. Cameos: Ron White (Memory Expert).
Read a transcript of this episode at https://mastersofscale.com
Subscribe to the Masters of Scale weekly newsletter at https://mastersofscale.com/subscribe
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
How I Built Resilience: Live with Melanie Perkins and Bill Creelman
This week, the online design platform Canva closed a new round of funding, bringing the company's valuation to $6 billion. Founder Melanie Perkins is also focused on helping her employees work from home, while supporting more than 30 million users worldwide. Also: Spindrift can't sell its sparkling water in many restaurants that are closed because of COVID-19, but founder Bill Creelman has seen a significant uptick in grocery store and e-commerce sales. These conversations are excerpts from our How I Built Resilience series, where Guy talks online with founders and entrepreneurs about how they're navigating turbulent times.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Canva: Melanie Perkins
When she was just 19 years old, Melanie Perkins dreamt of transforming the graphic design and publishing industries. But she started small, launching a site to make yearbook design simpler and more collaborative. Her success with that first venture — and an unexpected meeting with a VC investor — eventually landed her the backing to pursue her original idea, and the chance to take on software industry titans like Adobe and Microsoft. Today, Melanie's online design platform Canva is valued at over $1 billion, joining the list of Australia's "unicorn" companies. PLUS for our postscript "How You Built That," how Tristan Corriveau collected used bars of soap from a hotel and recycled them into liquid soap with The One Gallon Soap Company.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
20VC: Start Niche, Move Broader & Become Profitable Quickly with Melanie Perkins, Founder & CEO @ Canva
Melanie Perkins, Founder & CEO at Canva the disruptive online platform allowing anyone to create professional quality designs. They have over 10m users from 179 countries and have funding from our friends at Shasta, Felicis and upcoming guests Blackbird Ventures and Airtree in Australia. Prior to Canva, Melanie was the Fusion Yearbooks which she grew to be the largest Yearbook publisher in Australia.
In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How did Melanie come to found Canva, what was the a-ha moment for her?
2.) How has Melanie looked to scale the team whilst maintaining the same core startup values and company ethos? What are the strategies at play here?
3.) What does it take to grow in international markets? Where were the benefits of founding Canva in the isolated tech ecosystem of Perth??
4.) What did Melanie look for in her investors? As a newbie to the VC scene how did she approach the fundraising process and what would she like to improve on?
5.) How can products that have both a free and a paid model offer enough in the free version to entice users, whilst retain enough for the paid to justify the price?
Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:
Melanie's Fave Book: Designing The Obvious
As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Melanie on Twitter here! If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here! The Twenty Minute VC is brought to you by Leesa, the Warby Parker or TOMS shoes of the mattress industry. Lees have done away with the terrible mattress showroom buying experience by creating a luxury premium foam mattress that is order completely online and ships for free to your doorstep. The 10 inch mattress comes in all sizes and is engineered with 3 unique foam layers for a universal, adaptive feel, including 2 inches of memory foam and 2 inches of a really cool latex foam called Avena, design to keep you cool. All Leesa mattresses are 100% US or UK made and for every 10 mattresses they sell, they donate one to a shelter. Go to Leesa.com/VC and enter the promo code VC75 to get $75 off!
20 VC 001: Guy Kawasaki of Apple, Motorola and AllTop.com
Welcome to the 1st episode of The Twenty Minute VC, on today's show we have Guy Kawasaki, Guy is the Founding Partner of Garage Technology Ventures, a seed & early stage venture capital fund investing in extraordinary entrepreneurs with unique technologies. Previously, he was Chief Evangelist of Apple Inc and an advisor to the Motorala Business Unit of Google. Guy is also the author of many best selling books including the recent best seller, The Art of Social Media: Power Tips for Power Users.
In this episode we delve into:
Why Guy made the transition into the VC industry?
What is the most important aspect for a startup to have?
What drives Guy insane about startup founders today?
What books Guy gives to aspiring entrepreneurs?
What software & apps Guy cannot live without?
We then finish on a quick fire round where we discover Guy's thoughts on the future of Amazon, Tesla and whether we really are in the midst of a tech bubble.
All of the products mentioned in todays show can be found at www.thetwentyminutevc.com
If you love the show, please do leave a review on the iTunes store and don't forget to subscribe!
Starting a SaaS: How Canva Hit 800K Users in Year One
Melanie Perkins spent seven years turning a university side project into one of the fastest-growing design platforms ever built. Starting a SaaS from scratch, she bootstrapped a yearbook tool called Fusion Books, then used those lessons to launch Canva - which hit 800,000 users and 5.5 million designs in its first year.
Melanie reveals how starting a SaaS with blogger outreach created a viral loop, why she spent a full year finding the right technical co-founder, and how Guy Kawasaki joined after a single tweet. This is a SaaS startup guide for anyone launching a SaaS business from zero.
🔑 Key Lessons
🚀 Starting a SaaS begins with a painful problem: Canva grew to 800,000 users because design tools were genuinely difficult. Melanie built a product so simple that users naturally told others about it.
🎯 Target users who amplify your growth: Canva deliberately targeted bloggers first because they needed to design daily and had large audiences. Each new blogger became an unpaid evangelist.
📉 Bootstrap before you fundraise: Melanie spent five years bootstrapping Fusion Books before raising $6 million for Canva. That experience in starting a SaaS from scratch taught her how to start a SaaS the right way.
🛠️ Start niche, then go wide: Canva began as Fusion Books serving school yearbooks in Australia. Melanie proved the technology in a narrow, profitable market first, then expanded to mass consumer design.
💰 Lower price barriers to unlock new markets: Canva introduced a patented $1 stock image license when competitors charged $10 to $50 per image. This made professional imagery accessible to everyday creators.
🧠 Wait for the right team instead of hiring fast: Melanie spent a full year finding technical co-founder Cameron Adams. That patience built a team of 40 in Canva's first year.
Chapters
Introduction
Melanie's background and the Canva story
Favorite success quotes from Seth Godin and Steve Jobs
Life before Canva and early entrepreneurship
Starting Fusion Books at university
How Fusion Books became the blueprint for Canva
Ownership and growth of Fusion Books
The decision to build Canva and the San Francisco journey
From Fusion Books to Canva's broader market
Targeting bloggers as the first users
Blogger outreach as the early growth engine
Lessons from trying hundreds of approaches
Why Canva raised VC funding after bootstrapping
Organic community growth and word-of-mouth
Scaling challenges from 10 to 40 people
Revenue model and the $1 stock image license
Building a contributor community of photographers
How Guy Kawasaki joined Canva
Future vision and upcoming product launches
Lightning round
Final thoughts on persistence and commitment
Resources
Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/12
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