Canva

35 statements across 3 episodes · 11 bullish · 5 bearish · 2 people on the record · first statement Jan 28, 2019 by Guy Raz · said 50 times in 5 episodes since 2019 · across every show →

Mentions by year

brought up most by Guy Raz (36), Melanie Perkins (14)

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2026 3 mentions in 1 episode
2024 1 mention in 1 episode
2021 11 mentions in 1 episode
2020 24 mentions in 1 episode
2019 11 mentions in 1 episode

every mention, scene by scene, with the transcript →

Everything said about Canva, oldest first

Jan 28, 2019 positive
Assertion Supported
Canva saw 20 designs created per second by 10 million users
“According to company statistics from mid-two 1018, the online design and publishing tool is now used by over ten million people across the world, and new designs are created on the site at a rate of 20 per second.”
Guy Raz Jan 28, 2019 ▶ 40:02 Canva: Melanie Perkins
Jan 28, 2019
Insight
Melanie Perkins: No publishing market leader has ever survived an era transition
“And what you'll see, dear investor, is that no industry player has actually ever been able to go from one industry to the next and actually still maintain being the market leader. And so every single time there was a new era, a new market leader emerged.”
Melanie Perkins Jan 28, 2019 ▶ 24:24 Canva: Melanie Perkins
Jan 28, 2019
Assertion Supported
Melanie Perkins recruited Canva's CTO using a deck of his Facebook photos
“What I did was I went To his Facebook page, and I took lots of the photos from his Facebook page, and I put together a pitch deck and said why it would be such an amazing adventure to come and join and recreate the future of publishing and change the face of t…”
Melanie Perkins Jan 28, 2019 ▶ 26:08 Canva: Melanie Perkins
Jan 28, 2019 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
VC Bill Tai conditioned his Canva investment on finding a tech team
“When I went home, I had an email from him, and he said, if I could find a tech team, he'd be happy to invest.”
Melanie Perkins Jan 28, 2019 ▶ 12:56 Canva: Melanie Perkins
Jan 28, 2019 bearish
Opinion
Melanie Perkins: Desktop-based design software was destined to become archaic
“It seemed very apparent that this whole desktop-based thing would be completely archaic and outdated in the future.”
Melanie Perkins Jan 28, 2019 ▶ 3:21 Canva: Melanie Perkins
Jan 28, 2019
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Perkins pitched over 100 investors during early Canva fundraising
“It was, I don't know, between the, like, the first year and, I don't know, that year period, it would... Over a hundred people, more. I didn't count, but I was going through my rejections the other day, I was looking at some of the emails, and there was quite …”
Melanie Perkins Jan 28, 2019 ▶ 21:32 Canva: Melanie Perkins
Jan 28, 2019
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Google Maps co-creator Lars Rasmussen rejected Canva tech candidates for a year
“Yeah, that's exactly right, and Lars said he'd be happy to be an advisor but what that ended up entailing was him rejecting everyone for a full year.”
Melanie Perkins Jan 28, 2019 ▶ 14:29 Canva: Melanie Perkins
Jan 28, 2019
Insight
Perkins: People fear design because they are conditioned to think they lack creativity
“People were scared of designing, because people are conditioned for their whole lives, thinking they're not creative or can't design things.”
Melanie Perkins Jan 28, 2019 ▶ 28:46 Canva: Melanie Perkins
Jan 28, 2019 bullish
Insight
Melanie Perkins: All design and publishing tools will converge into one platform
“One of them was that over time, industries would converge. So rather than having the print industry being over here, having to use different software to create a website, and different software to create a presentation, and different software to create marketi…”
Melanie Perkins Jan 28, 2019 ▶ 13:51 Canva: Melanie Perkins
Jan 28, 2019 negative
Assertion Supported
Perkins: An embargo-breaking review panned Canva right before launch
“An article came out, and they, their article said that we had a not very good product, and that we had cheesy photography, and that it wasn't very easy to use”
Melanie Perkins Jan 28, 2019 ▶ 34:21 Canva: Melanie Perkins
Jan 28, 2019 positive
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Canva accumulated a 50,000-person waiting list before officially launching in 2013
“We ended up with a waiting list of 50,000 people before we launched.”
Melanie Perkins Jan 28, 2019 ▶ 30:48 Canva: Melanie Perkins
Jan 28, 2019
Assertion Supported
Perkins: Australian government matched Canva investor funding up to $2M
“And then the government in Australia had this matching funding thing where they would match every dollar that we got from investors up to two million.”
Melanie Perkins Jan 28, 2019 ▶ 25:20 Canva: Melanie Perkins
Jan 28, 2019 positive
Assertion Supported
Melanie Perkins: Canva is fully profitable on its freemium graphic design model
“And we're actually profitable, so actually that business model's been working out alright for us.”
Melanie Perkins Jan 28, 2019 ▶ 32:47 Canva: Melanie Perkins
Jun 27, 2020 neutral
Assertion Supported
Perkins: Canva reached 900 employees and millions of users by mid-2020
“I think if I was dropped into a 900 person company with millions of people around the world using our product, that would be quite scary.”
Melanie Perkins Jun 27, 2020 ▶ 7:16 How I Built Resilience: Live with Melanie Perkins and Bill Creelman
Jun 27, 2020 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Perkins: Canva users rapidly pivoted from physical prints to digital assets
“So they're creating less event invitations, they're creating less business cards, they're creating less flyers all of the things that sort of really resonate with the physical world. And what they are creating way more of is things like Zoom backgrounds and pr…”
Melanie Perkins Jun 27, 2020 ▶ 10:17 How I Built Resilience: Live with Melanie Perkins and Bill Creelman
Jun 27, 2020 positive
Insight
Perkins: Founders should solve a small niche problem before expanding wide
“Just like starting at that really small thing, starting niche and then going wide, I think is really important.”
Melanie Perkins Jun 27, 2020 ▶ 9:17 How I Built Resilience: Live with Melanie Perkins and Bill Creelman
Jun 27, 2020
Disclosure
Canva committed to paying all contractors throughout the 2020 COVID recession
“We made a statement early on that We're going to ensure all of our contractors will continue to be paid throughout this recession throughout, throughout this time.”
Melanie Perkins Jun 27, 2020 ▶ 4:42 How I Built Resilience: Live with Melanie Perkins and Bill Creelman
Jun 27, 2020
Assertion Supported
Perkins: 30 million people worldwide rely on Canva
“We've got thirty million people around the world that are relying on Canva to help with their social media, to help with their marketing, to help with their education.”
Melanie Perkins Jun 27, 2020 ▶ 4:30 How I Built Resilience: Live with Melanie Perkins and Bill Creelman
Jun 27, 2020 positive
Assertion Supported
Perkins: Canva avoided pandemic layoffs due to profitability and rapid growth
“No, we've been in a fortunate position that you know, we're a profitable company. We had, you know, strong cash reserves and cannabis continued to grow rapidly throughout this time.”
Melanie Perkins Jun 27, 2020 ▶ 1:05 How I Built Resilience: Live with Melanie Perkins and Bill Creelman
Mar 1, 2021
Assertion Partly supported
Canva amassed a 50,000-person waiting list before its 2013 public launch
“Well, we're fortunate that because we had some high-profile investors in that first round when we landed that first round of investment, we made, we announced it we got some TechCrunch coverage, and we were pretty stoked about that, and we ended up with a wait…”
Melanie Perkins Mar 1, 2021 ▶ 31:12 Canva: Melanie Perkins (2019)
Mar 1, 2021
What-if
Perkins says knowing the startup hardships in advance would have been intimidating
“I think one of the wonderful things about this whole experience is that I didn't know a lot going into it, and I think that learning every single day as you go has actually been one of the most critical parts, because I think if I knew all of the lessons that …”
Melanie Perkins Mar 1, 2021 ▶ 39:11 Canva: Melanie Perkins (2019)
Mar 1, 2021
Insight
Perkins placed answers to the hardest investor objections at the deck's front
“Every time we got a really hard question, that would go right to the front of the pitch deck. So the hardest questions were answered right at the front.”
Melanie Perkins Mar 1, 2021 ▶ 23:04 Canva: Melanie Perkins (2019)
Mar 1, 2021 negative
Disclosure
Perkins' first three-month San Francisco trip yielded zero tech hires or investors
“By the end of the three months I didn't have a tech team, and I left feeling like the biggest failure. Because I had not landed a tech team, which meant that I hadn't landed investors, which meant that all I'd done, in my view at that point in time, was like, …”
Melanie Perkins Mar 1, 2021 ▶ 17:21 Canva: Melanie Perkins (2019)
Mar 1, 2021 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
VC Bill Tai offered to back Canva if Perkins found technical cofounders
“And, but very fortunately, when I went home, I had an email from him, and he said if I could find a tech team, he'd be happy to invest.”
Melanie Perkins Mar 1, 2021 ▶ 13:21 Canva: Melanie Perkins (2019)
Mar 1, 2021 positive
Insight
Perkins predicted publishing and design tools would converge into one online platform
“One of them was that over time, industries would converge. So rather than having the print industry being over here, having to use different software to create a website, and different software to create a presentation, and different software to create marketi…”
Melanie Perkins Mar 1, 2021 ▶ 14:17 Canva: Melanie Perkins (2019)
Mar 1, 2021 neutral
Insight
Perkins: Early-stage VCs will not commit until they see others commit first
“Further talking more about this and waiting to see who else is going to invest before we invest is, was the general feeling. So you had to get enough people who are interested to invest before anyone would invest.”
Melanie Perkins Mar 1, 2021 ▶ 20:44 Canva: Melanie Perkins (2019)
Mar 1, 2021
Insight
Perkins: Asking VCs for advice rather than money prevents immediate rejections
“So we had a bit of a strategy where rather than asking if people wanted to invest, we'd ask people for their advice, and you can go back and you can say, hey, do you want to give me some advice? I'd love to show you my pitch deck, and then they'd give us some …”
Melanie Perkins Mar 1, 2021 ▶ 27:15 Canva: Melanie Perkins (2019)
Mar 1, 2021 neutral
Assertion Supported
The Australian government matched Canva's venture capital dollar-for-dollar up to $2M
“And then the government in Australia had this matching funding thing where they would match every dollar that we got from investors up to two million.”
Melanie Perkins Mar 1, 2021 ▶ 25:44 Canva: Melanie Perkins (2019)
Mar 1, 2021 negative
Opinion
Perkins believed desktop-based graphic design software was destined to become archaic
“It seemed very apparent that this whole desktop-based thing would be completely archaic and outdated in the future.”
Melanie Perkins Mar 1, 2021 ▶ 3:48 Canva: Melanie Perkins (2019)
Mar 1, 2021
Assertion Supported
Canva closed a $1.6M seed round paired with a $1.4M government grant
“So we want to raise 1.5. I think we left San Francisco and we'd raised seven 50. But then over the coming months, we ended up filling out that round of about 1.6. I think it got to, we're totally oversubscribed. And then the Australian government gave us 1.4.”
Melanie Perkins Mar 1, 2021 ▶ 28:05 Canva: Melanie Perkins (2019)
Mar 1, 2021
Disclosure
Perkins recruited Canva's CTO with a pitch deck of his Facebook photos
“What I did was I went To his Facebook page, and I took lots of the photos from his Facebook page, and I put together a pitch deck and said why it would be such an amazing adventure to come and join and recreate the future of publishing and change the face of t…”
Melanie Perkins Mar 1, 2021 ▶ 26:32 Canva: Melanie Perkins (2019)
Mar 1, 2021 positive
Insight
Perkins pitched VCs that no publishing incumbent survives new technological eras
“And what you'll see, dear investor, is that no industry player has actually ever been able to go from one industry to the next and actually still maintain being the market leader. And so every single time there was a new era, a new market leader emerged.”
Melanie Perkins Mar 1, 2021 ▶ 24:47 Canva: Melanie Perkins (2019)
Mar 1, 2021 negative
Assertion Supported
A publication broke Canva's launch embargo with a scathing product review
“An article came out, and they, their article said that we had a not very good product, and that we had cheesy photography, and that it wasn't very easy to use, and I felt at that point in time, like, the last, I don't know, six years of my life was crushed.”
Melanie Perkins Mar 1, 2021 ▶ 34:31 Canva: Melanie Perkins (2019)
Mar 1, 2021
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Advisor Lars Rasmussen rejected every Canva technical candidate for a full year
“Lars said he'd be happy to be an advisor but what that ended up entailing was him rejecting everyone for a full year.”
Melanie Perkins Mar 1, 2021 ▶ 14:55 Canva: Melanie Perkins (2019)
Mar 1, 2021
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Perkins received over a hundred investor rejections during Canva's early fundraising
“That year period, it would, over a hundred people, more. I didn't count, but I was going through my rejections the other day, I was looking at some of the emails, and there was quite a damn few.”
Melanie Perkins Mar 1, 2021 ▶ 22:03 Canva: Melanie Perkins (2019)
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