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Melanie Perkins
Canva · Perth, Australia
Perth student who taught design software as a uni tutor and decided the whole industry was hostile to non-designers.
Empathy for non-expertsDistribution funnelsPatient fundraising
C
Company
Canva
Journey
Moves that mattered.
- 2007Started Fusion Books — yearbook design tool from her mum's living room.
- 2013Co-founded Canva with Cliff Obrecht.
- 2019Hit unicorn status.
- 2024Canva valued $26B; 170M+ users.
Struggles
Pitched 100+ investors over three years before Canva closed its seed.
Family
Married co-founder Cliff Obrecht; both pledged most of their wealth.
Related on Empire
Keep reading inside Empire.
Around the web
External references & backlinks.
- ↗wikipedia.orgMelanie Perkins on Wikipedia
- ↗google.comCanva — official site
- ↗news.google.comMelanie Perkins in the news
- ↗crunchbase.comCanva on Crunchbase
External links open in a new tab. Empire is not affiliated with these publishers.
The full story
Melanie Perkins, in 1 chapters.
- Ch 01
The story
Perth student who taught design software as a uni tutor and decided the whole industry was hostile to non-designers.
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