Endless Dream
Melanie Perkins didn’t set out to rewrite the rules of design, but she ended up changing the game. Starting with handmade scarves as a teenager in Perth, Australia, Melanie turned her early creativity into a global design powerhouse—Canva. Today, Canva is empowering everyone, from students to enterprises, to design with confidence. Let’s dive into how one woman with big ideas turned frustration into innovation and bootstrapped her way into building one of the most popular platforms in the world.
High School Hustles
Melanie's entrepreneurial spark flared early. Growing up in Perth, she attended high school with 1,400 other students, participated in figure skating and debates, and helped her mom, a teacher, with yearbooks. Then came scarves.
At just 14 years old, Melanie made and sold scarves by nervously cold-calling boutique owners. They paid her only when the scarves sold, through something called "consignment." She'd cut fabric, curl the edges, and convince others to take a chance on her designs. This teen hustle brought her confidence—and taught her how to handle rejection.
Lessons from Scarf-Making
Don’t wait for perfect skills—start where you are.
Cold calls might be scary, but they’re worth it.
Convince others by believing in your own work first.
College: Doodling Between Degrees
Melanie pursued not one, but four college majors—communications, psychology, marketing, and management. Despite her wide focus, she wasn’t quite sure what she wanted to do. While at the University of Western Australia, she taught design tools like Dreamweaver and Photoshop at the campus’ multimedia center.
Observation? Design software was clunky, confusing, and made people feel dumb. It took an entire semester just to learn the basics. She knew there had to be a better way.
Meanwhile, she met Cliff Obrecht, a fellow student who would become her co-founder...and eventually her husband. Between classes and teaching, the couple backpacked through India and Africa, learning to tackle challenges like getting train tickets in chaotic stations. Those adventures were the foundation of their teamwork.
Fusion Books: A Seed is Planted
In 2007, Melanie and Cliff launched their first business, Fusion Books, from her mom's living room. The idea was brilliantly simple: let schools design yearbooks using an easy, online drag-and-drop tool. Teachers, already overwhelmed with their day jobs, needed a tool that was intuitive, collaborative, and fast.
So they got to work. With a $50,000 loan from Melanie’s mom and $5,000 from a tax rebate for marketing, they hired developers to build the platform. Melanie sketched wireframes (she didn’t even know they were called that) while juggling promotion and sales. The first order came from Sydney—a $100 check they debated framing out of pride before cashing it.
Their first office? Yep, still her mom’s living room. It wasn’t just desks. They had printers running day and night, pallets of paper being delivered, and a press that her mom babysat while Melanie and Cliff stepped out.
By 2011, Fusion Books had grown to serve 300 schools, a 25x increase in just three years. But Melanie saw a bigger opportunity. Yearbooks were just the start.
From Perth to Silicon Valley
Melanie believed design tools shouldn’t just be for professionals. Everyone deserved access. With visions of the "future of publishing" in her head, she flew to Silicon Valley in search of investment.
But raising funds wasn’t easy. Investors didn’t think the world needed a design tool for non-designers. She pitched over 100 investors, refining her deck with each rejection. She added slides to answer tough questions—like sizing up the market or clarifying Canva’s value. It was a grind.
During those months, Melanie wrote herself a note:
"You're extremely tired...but there's no doubt you will succeed. You'll find the team, the investment, and build the company you've always wanted."
She was right. Eventually, she connected with Lars Rasmussen (co-creator of Google Maps), who introduced her to technical talent. That’s when she met Cameron Adams, the designer and developer they'd been searching for. After some convincing, Cameron agreed to co-found Canva.
Launching Canva: Making Creativity Easy
In 2013, Canva launched with a simple mission: empower everyone to design. The platform offered drag-and-drop tools, tons of templates, and pre-loaded design elements.
But there was a hurdle: users didn’t believe they were creative! People were scared to touch buttons or “mess things up.” So the Canva team gamified onboarding with design “challenges.” Dragging a hat onto a monkey or changing a color helped users gain confidence.
The approach worked. Early users, especially social media marketers, loved Canva. By 2015, Canva had 1 million monthly active users.
What Made Canva Different?
Templates: Users didn’t have to start from scratch.
Drag-and-Drop: No design degree required.
Library: It launched with 1 million assets (now over 100 million).
Fun: It made creativity feel approachable, not intimidating.
Global Growth and Education
From day one, Canva had a global user base. Today, 59% of its users are in non-English speaking markets. The platform’s translation into over 100 languages—Arabic, Hebrew, and Urdu included—allowed it to reach millions.
Canva also focused on education. Today, 80 million students and teachers use Canva to learn and create. Ministries of Education, like Indonesia’s, have adopted it nationwide. It’s free for classrooms—a move that’s building lifelong Canva users while bridging the gap in design literacy worldwide.
Presentations, Enterprises, and AI
In 2020, Canva introduced a game-changing feature: presentations. It wasn’t just about slides—it added playful touches, like shortcuts to drop confetti or other effects. Today, Canva has over 75 million active users creating presentations, with over 2.5 billion already made.
Meanwhile, enterprise clients like Salesforce, Reddit, and Expedia started using Canva at scale, boosting efficiency by cutting design production times. The company also began adding AI tools, like Magic Write in Docs or automatically sorting sticky notes into themes. AI isn’t just a buzzword at Canva—it’s baked into making design faster and smarter.
Big Wins with AI
Background Remover: Hours of work, gone with one click.
Magic Sort: Auto-organizes your workspace in seconds.
Collaborative Design: Faster and simpler for teams.
The Bigger Vision
Canva’s roadmap is ambitious. Their “two-step plan” is simple:
Build one of the world’s most valuable companies.
Do the best they can—globally.
The second step has become a core focus. Beyond designing tools for creativity, Canva is launching programs that send direct cash aid to people in extreme poverty. Melanie’s goal is to give everyone—not just students or businesses—the opportunity to thrive.
Final Thoughts
Melanie Perkins started with scarves but created a global design revolution. Canva makes creativity accessible, empowers individuals and businesses, and keeps growing with innovations like AI and powerful enterprise features.
Canva isn’t just about designing—it's helping the world communicate better. Whether you’re making your first poster in school or running campaigns for a Fortune 500 company, it’s clear Melanie’s mission is still at the heart of it: empower everyone to design.
What’s next? Knowing Melanie and her team, the sky’s the limit.