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)
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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
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My biggest takeaways (for paid newsletter subscribers): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/i/176082995/my-biggest-takeaways-from-this-conversation
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Where to find Melanie Perkins:
• X: https://x.com/melaniecanva
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melanieperkins/
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Where to find Lenny:
• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/
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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
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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/
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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
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Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.
To hear more, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com
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
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
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.
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!
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
Join 5,000+ SaaS founders: https://saasclub.io/email