Melanie Perkins, 36 years old and of Australian nationality, is the creator of Canva, a graphic design software that became famous for its simplicity and usability, allowing many people who had no experience in the field to design. Currently, this program is valued at more than 26 billion of dollars. However, to get to that point, Melanie had to hear no 100 times (and kitesurf).
As the magazine tells ForbesAfter being rejected by so many investors, she met the organizer of a group of capitalists in Perth, her hometown. This group that had the possibility of financing her startup had a hobby: kitesurfing. At that point, Perkins began training. “The risk was suffering physical harm, but the potential reward was finally founding my company. If you put your foot in the door a little, you have to maneuver to get through completely,” says the founder.
The origin of this democratizing design software was Fusion Books, an initiative by Perkins with his partner Cliff Obrecht (also co-founder of Canva) in 2007, which allowed students to design personalized agendas. Fusion Books started from an investment of all their savings along with a small loan while they were in college. There, Melanie gave classes of graphic design to pay for his studies in Communications, Psychology and Commerce.
The company faced, as we tell you in this note, the same challenge as many others. start-ups tech: after going on the market with a great free design that helped them attract users, they had to monetize it and face people’s resistance to paying. However, the features of its premium subscription seem to have caught on with 5 million of users.
Canva user growth over the years. Source: Canva Statistics.
