From 100 Rejections to a $42 Billion Design Empire

From 100 Rejections to a $42 Billion Design Empire: The Melanie Perkins Story

A college tutor in Perth watched her students struggle with design software for an entire semester just to learn where the buttons were. That frustration sparked an idea that would change design for millions. But first, she had to survive 100+ investor rejections and learn to kitesurf.

The Early Days

Melanie Perkins was born in 1987 in Perth, Western Australia. Her mother taught, her father worked as an engineer. At 14, she started selling handmade scarves at local markets. This taught her business basics and gave her a taste of entrepreneurial freedom.

She woke at 4:30 a.m. for figure skating practice, developing discipline and goal-setting skills. After high school, she enrolled at the University of Western Australia, studying communications, psychology, and commerce. To pay for school, she tutored students in graphic design programs.

The Problem

During tutoring sessions, Perkins saw the issue. Students spent entire semesters just learning where buttons were in Adobe Photoshop and InDesign. The software had steep learning curves and expensive price tags, making professional design inaccessible.

"People would have to spend an entire semester learning where the buttons were, and that seemed completely ridiculous," Perkins told CNBC. "I thought that in the future, it was all going to be online and collaborative and much, much simpler than these hard tools."

Starting Small: Fusion Books

Rather than building a comprehensive design platform right away, Perkins and her boyfriend Cliff Obrecht started with a niche: high school yearbooks. At 19 years old in 2007, Perkins left university to pursue her entrepreneurial ambitions and founded Fusion Books.

Neither knew how to code. They secured a $50,000 friends and family loan and contracted a software development company to create their first version. Working from Perkins' mother's living room, they built a drag and drop editor with templates that let students design yearbooks without technical expertise.

Within five years, Fusion Books became Australia's largest yearbook provider and expanded into France and New Zealand. The revenue helped sustain them while they pursued their bigger vision. Fusion Books remains active today.

The Rejection Marathon

Despite Fusion Books' success, Perkins never lost sight of her bigger dream: creating a comprehensive, all in one design platform accessible to everyone. In 2010, she began pitching this vision to investors. What followed was a brutal three year journey of relentless rejection.

Living on the floor of her brother's apartment in San Francisco with Obrecht, the couple pitched to venture capitalists daily and got rejected over and over. More than 100 investors turned them down. The reasons varied: headquarters too far from Silicon Valley, no technical backgrounds, being a couple working together (considered risky), and the concept seemed unviable.

"Rejection stings a lot," Perkins reflected. "For better or worse, I don't give up when I set my mind to anything. Being turned down frequently during our early phases forced me to work harder and hone my approach."

Her early pitches failed because they were too technical and didn't tell her personal story. One business plan read: "Our platform will seamlessly integrate many previously separate industries and leverage isolated online communities to deliver a powerful, unified publishing system." Thorough, but it didn't explain why Canva was a good idea or connect emotionally with investors.

Learning to Kitesurf for Success

A breakthrough came when Perkins met Bill Tai, a legendary Silicon Valley venture capitalist and kitesurfing enthusiast, at a conference in Perth. She pitched her idea during dinner. While he didn't invest immediately, he invited her to San Francisco to discuss her vision further.

There was one catch: Tai was passionate about kitesurfing and regularly hosted investor retreats called MaiTai, where venture capitalists and entrepreneurs would meet while kitesurfing. To maintain the connection, Perkins took up kitesurfing, despite never having done it and not being drawn to extreme sports.

"Every time he would say, 'How was my business going?' he'd also be like, 'How's your kitesurfing going?'" Perkins recalled. "So I needed to learn to kitesurf. When you don't have any connections, you don't have any network, you have to wedge your foot in the door and wiggle it all the way through."

In May 2013, Perkins found herself stranded on a kiteboard between Richard Branson's private Necker and Moskito islands, waiting to be rescued from strong Caribbean currents, her leg scarred from a previous coral reef encounter. Risky and challenging, but it worked. Through the kitesurfing network, she met Lars Rasmussen, co-founder of Google Maps, who became Canva's technical advisor.

Building the Team

For an entire year, Rasmussen rejected every technical candidate Perkins brought to him, insisting they weren't good enough. This was frustrating, but Perkins persisted. Eventually, she found Cameron Adams, a former Google user interface designer, and Dave Hearnden, a Google Maps engineer. Adams joined as Canva's third co-founder and chief product officer in March 2012.

With a solid technical team in place, everything changed. In 2012, Canva's first funding round was oversubscribed, receiving $1.6 million from investors and $1.4 million in matching funding from the Australian government.

Launch and Growth

Canva officially launched publicly in 2013, when Melanie Perkins was 26 years old. The platform arrived with 50,000 users already on the waiting list. Despite initial negative press when a journalist broke the embargo, Canva began attracting attention and growing rapidly.

The growth has been extraordinary:

2014: 600,000 users

2015: 1.5 million users, introduced Canva Pro, reached $165 million valuation

2017: Achieved profitability

2018: Became a unicorn with $1 billion valuation

2019: 24 million users

2021: 75 million monthly active users, $40 billion valuation after raising $200 million

2024: 220 million monthly active users, $32 billion valuation

August 2025: 240 million monthly active users, $42 billion valuation, $3.3 billion in annualized revenue

The Business Model

Canva's revenue strategy is straightforward. Unlike typical software companies that choose either a freemium model or free trial, Canva successfully employs both. Millions use the platform for free, while 21 million users pay for premium features like background removers, Magic Resize, premium stock content, and Brand Kits.

The company has been profitable for eight consecutive years as of 2025. With current annualized revenue of $3.3 billion and a valuation of $42 billion, Canva trades at approximately 12.7x revenue, comparable to Adobe's 12.5x forward revenue multiple.

Recognition and Impact

Perkins has earned widespread recognition:

Named to Forbes' "30 Under 30" list in 2016

Ranked 89th in Forbes' list of "World's 100 Most Powerful Women" in 2023

Ranked 92nd in Fortune's list of Most Powerful Women in 2023

Named to Forbes' "World's Self Made Women" list

Recognized by Fast Company as one of the "Most Creative People in Business"

Today, Canva processes over 280 designs per second. The company serves users in 190 countries and has been adopted by 85% of Fortune 500 companies. More than 60 million students and teachers use Canva for Education.

Key Lessons

Solve real problems. Canva succeeded because it addressed a genuine pain point: making professional design accessible to everyone, not just trained designers.

Persistence beats pedigree. Perkins didn't come from wealth, didn't have technical skills, and didn't have Silicon Valley connections. But she had an unshakable belief in her vision.

Start small, think big. Fusion Books proved the concept before Canva scaled globally. Test your idea in a niche, then expand.

Network creatively. Learning to kitesurf opened doors that traditional pitching couldn't. Find unconventional ways to connect with decision makers.

Give back. Despite building a $42 billion company and becoming one of the youngest female tech billionaires, Perkins has committed to giving away the majority of her wealth through the Giving Pledge.

The Bottom Line

From a college tutor in Perth to the CEO of one of the world's most valuable startups, Melanie Perkins' journey shows what's achievable when vision meets relentless determination. At 38 years old, Perkins continues to lead Canva's mission to empower everyone to design anything and publish anywhere, proving that extraordinary innovation comes from the most unlikely beginnings.