Canva's Melanie Perkins. From her parent’s lounge room in 2013, 32 year old Melanie Perkins invented Canva; an online design tool with a mission to empower everyone in the world to design anything and publish anywhere. In 2023, Canva has just been valued at 25.5 billion dollars! It’s a rags to riches episode 652 of The (14 year-old, award-winning) Small Business Big Marketing podcast.


A little more about Canva founder Melanie Perkins ...

In 2006, Melanie Perkins was a troubled 19 year-old teenager. Not by the usual stuff that troubles most people of that age. Oh no … something much more serious.

Melanie was troubled by the fact that desktop publishing software (like Adobe, CorelDraw and Photoshop) was complicated and hard to use. So, like any smart, young entrepreneur, she came up with a simple, elegant solution … starting small by launching a business making high school yearbook design easy.

It was a huge success, and following an unexpected meeting with a venture capitalist, she found herself able to pursue her original idea and the chance to take on the software industry giants of the desktop publishing world.

Fast forward to 2023, and Melanie’s online design platform Canva, has recently been valued at $25.5B, she employs over 2,500 staff who have no working hours or dress code, Canva has over 135 million active users … and here’s the interesting bit … Melanie thinks she’s only just scratched the surface of what’s possible.

This interview is from 2019 when I caught up with her in Canva’s new inner-Sydney 7-story office which resembles something more of an oversized cubby house for millenials, complete with a very cool rooftop garden, full commercial kitchen pumping out two home-cooked meals a day, a very funky, well-stocked bar, and all types of meeting booths and rooms and pods full of young folk getting stuff done.

I started off by asking Melanie what it feels like to be the founder of a company that (at the time) was valued at a tiny $3B?

Oh, and here's the transcript of my interview with Melanie Perkins of Canva.



Businesses that make this podcast possible

StudioHawk - No generalists, just a damn good SEO agency (award-winning actually!).



Patreon - Join Timbo's Business Owner Membership and take control of your marketing.



Book Tim Reid - Keynote or conference emceeing.



As always, thanks for your support. May your marketing be the best marketing.

Timbo Reid

Canva's Melanie Perkins. From her parent’s lounge room in 2013, 32 year old Melanie Perkins invented Canva; an online design tool with a mission to empower everyone in the world to design anything and publish anywhere. In 2023, Canva has just been valued at 25.5 billion dollars! It’s a rags to riches episode 652 of The (14 year-old, award-winning) Small Business Big Marketing podcast.
 A little more about Canva founder Melanie Perkins ...
In 2006, Melanie Perkins was a troubled 19 year-old teenager. Not by the usual stuff that troubles most people of that age. Oh no … something much more serious.
Melanie was troubled by the fact that desktop publishing software (like Adobe, CorelDraw and Photoshop) was complicated and hard to use. So, like any smart, young entrepreneur, she came up with a simple, elegant solution … starting small by launching a business making high school yearbook design easy.
It was a huge success, and following an unexpected meeting with a venture capitalist, she found herself able to pursue her original idea and the chance to take on the software industry giants of the desktop publishing world.
Fast forward to 2023, and Melanie’s<a href="https://www.canva.com/"> online design platform Canva</a>, has recently been valued at $25.5B, she employs over 2,500 staff who have no working hours or dress code, Canva has over 135 million active users … and here’s the interesting bit … Melanie thinks she’s only just scratched the surface of what’s possible.
This interview is from 2019 when I caught up with her in Canva’s new inner-Sydney 7-story office which resembles something more of an oversized cubby house for millenials, complete with a very cool rooftop garden, full commercial kitchen pumping out two home-cooked meals a day, a very funky, well-stocked bar, and all types of meeting booths and rooms and pods full of young folk getting stuff done.
I started off by asking Melanie what it feels like to be the founder of a company that (at the time) was valued at a tiny $3B?
Oh, and here's the<a href="https://smallbusinessbigmarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Melanie-Perkins-Interview-Transcription.docx.pdf"> transcript of my interview with Melanie Perkins of Canva</a>.
 
Businesses that make this podcast possible
<a href="https://studiohawk.com/timbo">StudioHawk</a> - No generalists, just a damn good SEO agency (award-winning actually!).
 
<a href="https://www.patreon.com/marketingpodcast">Patreon</a> - Join Timbo's Business Owner Membership and take control of your marketing.
 
<a href="https://timreid.com.au/">Book Tim Reid</a> - Keynote or conference emceeing.
 
As always, thanks for your support. May your marketing be the best marketing.
Timbo Reid

The most innovative people in the world of small business go one-on-one each week with marketing expert Tim Reid. In this award winning podcast; business owners share where their original business idea came from, how they got it to market and the strategies they used that led to their business’s unprecedented growth. Host Timbo Reid’s curiosity for what makes business owners tick and his passion for small business success means that every episode is chock full of marketing gold that will help you build that beautiful business of yours into the empire it deserves to be. 

For more episodes download the free LiSTNR app

www.SmallBusinessBigMarketing.com | Tim Reid chats with amazing business owners and marketers.

The Small Business Big Marketing Podcast with Timbo Reid

The most innovative people in the world of small business go one-on-one each week with marketing expert Tim Reid. In this award winning podcast; business owners share where their original business idea came from, how they got it to market and the strategies they used that led to their business’s unprecedented growth. Host Timbo Reid’s curiosity for what makes business owners tick and his passion for small business success means that every episode is chock full of marketing gold that will help you build that beautiful business of yours into the empire it deserves to be.

The most innovative people in the world of small business go one-on-one each week with marketing expert Tim Reid. In this award winning podcast; business owners share where their original business idea came from, how they got it to market and the strategies they used that led to their business’s unprecedented growth. Host Timbo Reid’s curiosity for what makes business owners tick and his passion for small business success means that every episode is chock full of marketing gold that will help you build that beautiful business of yours into the empire it deserves to be.

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