Melanie Perkins
Co-Founder & CEO, Canva · 3 appearances on the record.
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Melanie Perkins is the co-founder and CEO of visual design platform Canva. Prior to Canva, she co-founded the online yearbook design system Fusion Books.
44statements → 23claims → 11claims resolved → 91%fully supported → 4/5average certainty → 1.36/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated →
10 supported 1 partly supported 0 contradicted 1 not yet assessed 11 not checkable as stated how the 23 claims stand · each chip opens the sources
23 assertions · 2 opinions · 11 insights · 7 disclosures · 1 what if · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 23 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 11 are resolved, 1 is not yet assessed, and 11 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.
The record, in short
What the tape says about how Melanie argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.
How they sound: not measured why? →
We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Melanie Perkins on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.
Everything Melanie Perkins said on How I Built This that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →
Founders should answer their hardest investor objections immediately in the pitch deck
“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: 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.”
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“It seemed very apparent that this whole desktop-based thing would be completely archaic and outdated in the future.”
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…”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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 …”
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 …”
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.”
Perkins: Founders should adopt a just-in-time approach to learning
“I believe in this concept of just in time learning. You kind of learn everything just in time or often just after you need to know it.”
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: 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…”
VC Bill Tai conditioned a pitch meeting on Melanie Perkins learning kitesurfing
“Because I made it seem like I was really interested in kite surfing, and so he said that if I could kite surf, I could go to this conference, and that was where a lot of VCs and investors would be.”
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: 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.”
Perkins started Fusion Books with a $50K family loan and tax refund
“We got a 50 grand loan from friends and family, which was awesome, and then we got five grand back from GST, which is like our tax thing. So that was our marketing budget.”
Perkins bluffed about a Silicon Valley trip to secure a VC meeting
“I kind of was like, hey, I'm gonna be in Silicon Valley just gonna be in the area, wanna catch up... I was like, if I just say that I'm going to be there, and he says that he'll meet up, well then I'll go.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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…”
Appearances (3)
| Episode | Date | Speaking time |
|---|---|---|
| Canva: Melanie Perkins (2019) | Mar 1, 2021 | 23m |
| How I Built Resilience: Live with Melanie Perkins and Bill Creelman | Jun 27, 2020 | 8m |
| Canva: Melanie Perkins | Jan 28, 2019 | 23m |