Melanie Perkins didn’t follow the traditional Silicon Valley path to success. The Australian entrepreneur’s rise started in her college dorm room at the University of Western Australia, where she noticed a major problem—design software like Adobe Photoshop was too complex for beginners. This observation sparked an idea: what if design could be simple and accessible to everyone? Along with her now-husband Cliff Obrecht, Perkins launched Fusion Books, an online tool for students to design yearbooks.
That small project became the foundation for what would later become Canva, an intuitive, drag-and-drop design platform that has since changed the way millions of people create visual content. But getting Canva off the ground wasn’t easy. Perkins and Obrecht pitched their idea over 100 times before securing funding. Investors simply didn’t believe a young woman with no tech background could disrupt the industry.
“We got rejected by every investor we pitched,” Perkins recalled in an interview. “They told us it was impossible, that we couldn’t compete with big players like Adobe. But we didn’t give up.”
In 2013, Canva finally launched—and the rest is history. Today, the company is valued at over $40 billion, with more than 100 million users worldwide. Perkins, now one of the richest women in the world, has pledged to donate most of her fortune to philanthropic causes, proving that success isn’t just about money—it’s about impact.
Perkins’ story is a masterclass in perseverance and innovation. She saw a problem, found a solution, and refused to take no for an answer. Canva continues to evolve, integrating AI-powered tools and expanding into business solutions, but one thing remains the same—it all started with one woman’s vision to make design accessible to everyone.
