From 100+ rejections to billions: How Melanie Perkins built Canva

Melanie Perkins knows the compounding power of perseverance. She is considered a visionary who turned rejection into resilience.

In so doing, she led the scaling of a cloud-based design platform, with unmatch simplicity and depth, with a loyal global user base. The platform is now worth billions of dollars.

At 37, Perkins, co-founder and CEO of Canva, has revolutionised creativity and built a $50-billion tech empire.

Her road to success wasn’t easy.

As a young entrepreneur, Perkins was rejected by over 100 potential investors she asked for funding to develop the platform. They didn’t believe she could hack it.

For Perkins, however, the rejections only became her stepping stones to achieving her goal. She had a clear view of the future.

Perkins cited one value most motivational speakers extol: expect setbacks in any endeavour.

But what’s important is to hold on to your vision, as it fortifies your heart to get past obstacles.

Estimated number of Canva users worldwide

“I think one of the most important things is to have a really clear picture of where you're going,” Perkins said in an interview. 

“I knew this was the future — there was no doubt in my mind. The only question was whether I would be the one to build it. Having that vision helped me push forward.”

Canva boasts 180 million users worldwide, including 16 million paying subscribers.

It all started when Perkins, while studying at the University of Western Australia, noticed how clunky and complicated design software was. 

So, she and her now-husband Cliff Obrecht built Fusion Books, an online yearbook-making platform, from her mother’s living room. 

That little idea grew into Australia’s largest yearbook publisher — and planted the seed for something even bigger.

Launched in 2013 with Cameron Adams as co-founder, Perkins envisioned a platform where anyone could create professional-looking designs — no graphic design degree required.

But getting Canva off the ground was a battle.

Later, while studying at university, she taught design classes. There, she realised that programs like Photoshop and InDesign seemed complex. 

At just 19 years old, she set herself the goal of improving access to graphic design, a leitmotif that would shape her life.

At the same university, along with her boyfriend (now her husband Cliff) and a group of volunteers, they created a platform for creating student yearbooks using templates: Fusion Books. 

The office was her mother's living room and it worked very well (it still does today). 

Her idea, however, was more ambitious. Except that to carry it out, she needed funding. 

She claims she tried to sell it to more than 100 investors, but no one bought it.

During a visit by tech investor Bill Tai (Tweetdeck or Zoom) to Australia to serve as a judge for an awards show and practice kitesurfing, they went to see him. 

They managed to approach him, but they didn't get any money, but something better: joining his kitesurfing group. 

The investor advised her to learn because the venture capitalists who could put up the money practiced the sport.

She listened.

Then she started training and surfing with them, and it worked. The doors to Silicon Valley opened for her, where they found the platform's designer (former Googler Cameron Adams) and its main advisor (Google Maps co-founder Lars Rasmussen). 

They raised $3 million in the funding round, and in 2013, after changing their name to Canva, they launched. In the first year, they already had 150,000 active users. 

By 2021, Canva hit a $40-billion valuation, making Perkins one of Australia’s richest women. 

Tens of thousands of teams pay a premium for using the full features of the platform – and more than 100 designs are created every second. 

It's among the top five startups in the world and valued at more than $50 billion. 

And as a woman, Perkins has a clear perspective on protocols: she eliminated gender bias in the selection processes and has more than 40 per cent women on staff, compared to 28 per cent in the technology sector.

On a personal level, she is only one of the 2 per cent of women who lead the tech sector.

She and Obrecht, each owning 18 per cent of the company, pledged to give away over 80 per cent of their equity to charitable causes.

Today, Forbes ranks Perkins at #590 on the list of the world’s billionaires, with an estimated net worth of $5.8 billion. 

But despite her massive success, she keeps things real — starting her mornings journaling and chatting with Canva users online.

Her story isn’t just about making billions — it’s about resilience, innovation, and rewriting the rules of success.

On April 10, 2025, Perkins will headline Canva Create 2025 at Hollywood Park, Los Angeles.

It will be the fourth time the community will be brought together, and expected to be its biggest gathering. 

In-person tickets had been sold out, but Canva users could also join online – it's free.