Canva

Melanie Perkins

Turned down by investors more than a hundred times, from Perth.

Proof that neither location nor consensus is the constraint people assume it is.

1. Start with the narrow version.

   Before Canva there was Fusion Books, design software for school yearbooks. A small beachhead proved the idea and funded the learning.

2. A hundred rejections is data about investors.

   She was turned down repeatedly and kept going. Persistence past consensus is the story here.

3. Teach yourself the missing skill.

   She learned to pitch, to sell and to raise because the company needed it. Founders acquire the skill the company lacks.

4. Being outside the centre is survivable.

   Perth is a long way from any tech hub. The distance shaped the company and did not prevent it.

5. Make the hard thing feel easy.

   Canva's insight was that professional design tools were too difficult for most people who needed design. Simplification was the product.

6. Go where the users already are.

   Early growth came through schools and teams instead of individual designers. Distribution through existing groups beats one-by-one.

7. Free has to be useful.

   The free tier is not a crippled demo. People who get value first pay later without being cornered.

8. Long-term ownership shapes decisions.

   She has been explicit about intentions for the company's wealth over decades. Stated long horizons change what you optimise for.

9. Design the company for people who are not you.

   Canva's users are mostly not designers. Building for people unlike yourself requires deliberate structure.

10. Two-step plans are allowed.

    She talked publicly about a plan with a first and a second act. Sequencing an ambition makes it fundable.