How Canva CEO Melanie Perkins turned her small Australian college startup into global unicorn | E939

Canva CEO & Co-Founder Melanie Perkins shares insights from growing her Australian college startup into a global unicorn with over one billion designs & 15m monthly active users, breaking into Silicon Valley, landing the first investment from Mary Meeker's Bond, & realizing her vision to be one of the world's most valuable companies, doing the most good one can do
A HUGE Thanks to our generous Patreon supporters: Stefan Samne, Niall Dennehy, Tom Meagher, Justin Gough, Abdel Bioud, Carlos Aguilar, Podcast Notes, Mike Jonas, Tasneem, Vin Dowling, Stefano Vettorazzi, Mikael Pawlo, Luke Mroz, Tim-Kress Spatz, Dith Na, Jeremy Davidson, Clayton Memele & Tolu!!!
/ twistartups
Show notes:
0:49 - Jason introduces Melanie Perkins.
2:35 - Melanie tells Canva's origin story.
10:24 - Jason thanks sponsor EquityZen. Go to equityzen.com/twist to get started for half the minimum investment ($10k).
12:38 - Melanie describes her Twitter habits.
13:12 - Meeting Bill Tai and getting him to invest.
21:38 - Getting a $1.4M grant from the Australian gov’t that matched her first round of funding.
26:48 - Jason thanks sponsor Scott Walker and Walker Corporate Law. Visit them at walkercorporatelaw.com.
30:17 - Melanie describes how and why Canva got into the ad template space and describes recent acquisitions.
36:48 - Meeting Mary Meeker and securing her first investment at Bond Capital.
46:15 - Jason thanks sponsor Carta. To get 20% off Carta's cap table software and 409A valuations, go to carta.com/twist.
48:50 - Canva’s next chapter after raising a $70M Series D.

[@fabulous178]

I enjoyed the interview. The power of partnership. She is a great woman. Simplicity from start to finish. A smarter and generous being. Keep it up and Go for Gold.🏅🏅🏆

[@keithcline6694]

I've been an avid Canva user for user... thank you Melanie for creating such an amazing product!

[@karlaivonne6720]

32! Wow! What a story. Thank you for sharing. She’s goals on all levels.

[@doncan1446]

tbh canva ist so good. intuitive, and you can create great designs. she totally deserves it

[@danielmatsunaga11111]

I really had a crush to her. She's voice radiates good energy to me. I admire her a lot.

[@catesmith1055]

What an inspiration, I love what Canva offers both designers and those who like to great images

[@khalidelgazzar]

Looks like a great episode. Seen few minutes and looks awesome 😎

[@saraeissa4954]

She’s such an inspiration and I love Canva

[@michaelparis5229]

Great show. Never under-estimate anyone especially humble young Aussie female founders. Just signed up for Equity Zen as well. Aussie....Aussie....Aussie....Oi....Oi....Oi

[@ranjithpowell6791]

Has Equity Zen released made a Canva offering available yet?

[@WishpondCA]

Melanie had a great vision and amazing drive!

[@artsfromcrafts7817]

it's a multiple triple "G" that Melanie got #Goodknowledge #Gr8thingsssssss #Godblessssssss with this... she humbly sharessssss her knowledge & blessings to people around the gl🌎be "LONG LIVED" po :) Ms. Melanie withyourloveonefamilies& friendssssssssssssssss

[@bennylatlhang]

This interview was/is top notch!🔥🙏❤️

[@irinaamarandei4208]

So much talent and money and no gucci belt in sight. Interesting

[@user-fu3wd6xk1f]

So your comment after watching this insightful video was about her clothes? If she was a male, you wouldn't even think about this. Please, check your biases and what is important to bring your attention to.

[@irinaamarandei4208]

@@user-fu3wd6xk1f it was an obvious joke and an appreciation on her modesty

[@recursion.]

@@user-fu3wd6xk1fthis person logic is like, no gucci belt she must be humble and great like bruh some people are into fashion some people are not.

[@rudesign4985]

I can’t help but notice the guy is trying to compare Adobe Photoshop to Canva as a designer I just want to clarify Canva is not in direct competition with Photoshop. You have to have serious creative skills to be able to use the maximum capability of Photoshop that is why Photoshop is not for everybody on the other hand Canva is an editing tool with a template based design meaning you are not designing you are just editing existing template that’s why Canva can be used by anyone you don’t need creative skills to use Canva.

[@bccoleman8678]

Really great interview. Keep going.

[@wd1534]

She has enough energy, enthusiasm and solarity to turn a entire city light on!

[@joshuamelo]

Young, smart, disciplined, gorgeous and rich, what a deadly combination. And Melanie is not bad either (😜)

[@healhands5760]

We are not very sure at your last statement 🤣 What a gorgeous lady

[@ranjithpowell6791]

best pre-IPO interview I have seen.

[@bardwheelo]

We used Canva for all our thumbnails. Thanks, Melanie.

[@HalloCasa]

canva, great product, great founder!!

[@BhupinderNayyar]

She has a contagious smile.

[@DurgeshKaushikVlogs]

A beautiful product!

[@otea-app]

Otea's logo was built with Canva! so much love for melanie

[@nycto16]

Canva has made life so easy specially as a marketing student myself we have to do design work but spending time on photoshop, learning illustrator sucks. Melanie is herself marketing graduate... INSPIRATION 😂💖

[@philjubert6915]

Canva is a great tool and gets better with updates

[@Alex-gu2ws]

She is killing it.

[@wonderfulwinner8207]

1:00:18 Melanie like: I'm not deeply concerned about that. One second later: I'm concerned about everything.

[@recursion.]

Lmaoo good catch

[@coppersulphate002]

As much as I appreciate CANVA I will always support regular graphic artists!

[@fabulous178]

Melanie : M: Masterful E: Empowering L: Luminous A: Ambitious N: Nimble I: Inspirational E: Energetic

[@gtyu4408]

One of the best... canva.... 😍

[@swyxTV]

melanie is my idol right now. hot damn. well done.

[@xoriginproductions]

Visionary, smart, charismatic. Investors invest in ppl, not just companies - this is going to be 10x bigger... how do I invest?

[@harijeevakumar2218]

You were right, my man

[@tinamtliu]

Hated this “interview”. The interviewer’s job is to let the interviewer speak… I’m here to listen to Melanie not this guy

[@amiddleclassteenagerwhowil503]

I love her now she is soooooo beautiful

[@udonwadon2045]

Shes a genius

[@kalibiznes]

i love Canva ❤❤❤👏

[@sabalkshetri05]

Come on guys, when you enter to watch a video of someone who worked so hard to make it, why don't you like or dislike. This will encourage them to make more videos with minimum errors. Your feedback decides their performance....At least like or dislike whenever you watch video....

[@rentboy15]

Lol dude she's worth $4B you should just let her talk more

[@eonryan8491]

9:00(12:22) 17:05 17:42

[@Supergecko8]

Lmao you know that it is the top when a website like this gets a multi billion dollar valuation

[@tiberius9283]

true

[@darkpearl88]

Same can be said for Instagram. What makes insta so special? It's literally nothing but photos.

[@naeemf6019]

15$Bn valuation as of today

[@tatkonateneryfie]

AI is coming. I wonder how it will impact this type data agregating companies. Value now is in convenience.

[@kittencat1360]

Intregrate Ai in their business I guess.

[@Gitohandro]

Please, make me your disciple and teach me your ways!

[@mohammadhassanjahanbakhshi9474]

Is she an introverted?

[@LiSe0]

Clearly not lol

[@juventusventuno9213]

the product ideation part was non existent. something about a yearbook, blah blah then how g-dsign tool are so expensive and hard to learn. Really need to dive into the meat of how the product/service came to be.

[@anacletocazar5173]

Mr & mrs

[@engineerepixlele2845]

Their revenue 10xed since this interview before covid. They are worth 40 billion+ now.

[@Styyy]

RIP Niki Lauda

[@benedict303]

Canva doesnt need to hire any models for its marketing, they can just use Melanie..

[@exelredulla6793]

She's half filipino🇵🇭

[@achacs1]

@Darren Walsh I think she's been there. cnnphilippines.com/life/culture/businesslife/2016/04/01/canva-manila-office.html

[@achacs1]

@Darren Walsh kzbin.info/www/bejne/mX3IdXltZ76fY8k

[@daviduntalan]

@Darren Walsh yeah you're right! maybe this wikipedia is lying en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Australian_people_of_Filipino_descent ^_^

[@daviduntalan]

@Darren Walsh to retrospect, Miss Universe 2018 Catriona Gray is part Australian. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Australian_people_of_Filipino_descent

[@exelredulla6793]

@Darren Walshdid you know that the biggest office of canva outside austrilia is located in the philippines, she always go to ph every month evry month

[@arnolt2590]

Ok Canva is very cool and practical, but billionaire...really ?

[@jimj2683]

AI has already made her company obsolete

[@cl5619]

Canva will eat Adobe

[@almichael6286]

Another interestring fact about Canva, they have there Culture nailed, which is great.