The woman behind Canva shares how she built a $42B company from nothing | Melanie Perkins
Timestamps are as accurate as they can be but may be slightly off. We encourage you to listen to the full context.
Podcast Summary
Melanie Perkins, co-CEO and co-founder of Canva, shares her journey building one of the world's most valuable companies through "column B" thinking—starting with an impossible vision rather than existing constraints. (04:44) After being rejected by over 100 investors, Canva has grown to a $42 billion valuation with over 240 million monthly active users and eight consecutive years of profitability. (00:00) The conversation explores Canva's "two-step plan" (build one of the world's most valuable companies, then do the most good possible), their approach to setting "crazy big goals," and how they survived a painful two-year period without shipping features during a technical rewrite. (26:28)
- Main Theme: Building transformational companies requires starting with an ambitious future vision and working backwards, rather than limiting yourself to current constraints and resources.
Speakers
Melanie Perkins
Co-CEO and co-founder of Canva, currently valued at over $42 billion with more than 240 million monthly active users. She has led the company to eight consecutive years of profitability and over $3 billion in annual revenue. Melanie was rejected by over 100 investors during her first fundraising round and previously co-founded Fusion Books, a yearbook publishing platform in Australia that became the foundation for Canva's vision.
Lenny Rachitsky
Host of Lenny's Podcast and author of Lenny's Newsletter, focused on product management, growth, and building successful tech companies. He interviews top founders and product leaders to share insights about company building and scaling.
Key Takeaways
Column B Thinking: Build from Vision, Not Constraints
Melanie advocates for "column B" thinking—starting with the magical future you want to create rather than just stacking the "bricks around you." (05:38) This approach helped Canva envision design becoming online, collaborative, and simple years before it was technically feasible. The key is spending time imagining what wild success looks like in ten years, then creating a ladder with small, incremental steps toward that vision. Most people don't spend enough time in this visionary thinking because they get distracted by daily operational tasks like email and Slack.
Turn Rejection into Refinement
When rejected by over 100 investors, Melanie used each rejection as feedback to strengthen her pitch deck. (27:12) Investors would say the market wasn't big enough, so she added slides showing market size. They'd claim Canva was the same as competitors, so she created slides highlighting the gap they would fill. This iterative approach transformed chaos into clarity, making her 2012 pitch deck so strong it still captures what Canva does today. The key is treating rejection as data points for improvement rather than personal failures.
Crazy Big Goals with Microscopic Steps
Canva's mission pillars break down into specific, measurable goals: "empower everyone to design anything with every ingredient in every language on every device." (16:57) They started with social media designs and presentations, then systematically added docs, websites, whiteboards, and video. For languages, they went from English to Spanish to 20 languages to 100+ languages with full localization. The power of crazy big goals is they make you feel inadequate, motivating intense effort to will them into existence.
Community-Driven Product Development
Canva receives over one million feature requests annually from their community, which they systematically tally and deliver to product teams. (38:24) This year alone, they "closed the loop" on over 200 community requests, from small features like gradient text to major products like spreadsheets. They complement this with extensive user testing, with Melanie personally conducting hundreds of user tests online where people are more frank about feedback. This dual approach balances building toward their future vision while serving immediate customer needs.
The Two-Step Plan for Global Impact
Canva operates on a "two-step plan": build one of the world's most valuable companies, then do the most good possible. (40:44) Rather than sequential steps, Melanie realized step one can fuel step two and vice versa. They took the 1% Pledge early on, giving 1% of time, money, equity, and profitability. Melanie and her co-founder committed 30% of their Canva equity to the Canva Foundation, which has donated $50 million to GiveDirectly and pledged another $100 million over four years to help people in extreme poverty meet basic human needs.
Statistics & Facts
- Canva has over 240 million monthly active users and generates over $3 billion in annual revenue, with eight consecutive years of profitability. (01:30) The company is currently valued at over $42 billion, making it one of the hottest private tech companies in the world.
- Canva's design tab is used 170 million times per month, while their elements tab is used 900 million times per month. (46:06) Additionally, 100 million people create presentations in Canva each month, representing a generational shift in how people approach design work.
- The company receives over one million feature requests from their community annually and has closed the loop on more than 200 community requests this year alone. (38:24) Through their education and nonprofit programs, Canva gives away $1.5 billion worth of product annually and operates in over 100 languages worldwide.
