Melanie Perkins, an acclaimed Australian technology entrepreneur, was born on May 13, 1987. She is most known for being the CEO and co-founder of Canva, one of the top platforms for graphic design software in the world. She is well known for being one of the youngest female executives in charge of a tech start-up with a market capitalization of more than $1 billion.
Perkins was born in Perth, Western Australia, to a Malaysian engineer father who is of Filipino and Sri Lankan ancestry, and an Australian teacher for a mother. She started her first business at the age of 14 and sold handmade scarves in neighborhood stores and markets while attending Sacred Heart College in Sorrento. This is where she first discovered her love for business.
Prior to co-founding Canva, Perkins and her business partner Cliff Obrecht faced several challenges, including rejection from more than 100 investors in Perth, their hometown. Their fortunes, however, altered in 2011 when they had dinner with renowned investor Bill Tai and pitched him their idea for Canva.
Even though they failed to obtain finance, they started attending Tai’s events for investors and startup founders regularly, where they eventually encountered Lars Rasmussen, co-founder of Google Maps, who showed interest in their idea. Before moving further, Rasmussen urged them to put together a talented tech team, which they did, leading to the ultimate launch of Canva and its subsequent success on a global scale.
What is Melanie Perkins’ motivation? Why did Melanie create Canva?
Canva was inspired by a problem that many people in the early 2000s were becoming frustrated with. In 2007, Melanie was teaching her university students how to design using InDesign and Photoshop, two applications that many people at the time were finding extremely difficult to master, let alone utilize.
Melanie had the idea to democratize design by building a platform that anybody could use without having a large budget or specialized design abilities. She thought the issue wasn’t that people couldn’t grasp the software, but rather the product itself.