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Having known all along{{clarify|date=October 2020|really! - when she was one day old?}} that the technology Perkins had developed with Fusion Books could be applied more broadly, she set out to build Canva with co-founders Cliff Obrecht and Cameron Adams.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Zipkin |first1=Nina |title=She Was Told 'No' 100 Times. Now This 31-Year-Old Female Founder Runs a $1 Billion Business |url=https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/310482 |work=Entrepreneur |date=12 June 2019 |language=en}}</ref> Perkins ventured to Silicon Valley where a chance encounter with investor Bill Tai saw him invite Perkins to San Francisco to pitch her idea which in turn helped her to build further relationships.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Gilchrist|first=Karen|date=2020-01-09|title=How a 32-year-old turned a high school yearbook idea into a $3.2 billion business|url=https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/09/canva-how-melanie-perkins-built-a-3point2-billion-dollar-design-start-up.html|access-date=2020-10-15|website=CNBC|language=en}}</ref> Perkins secured American Actors [[Woody Harrelson]] and [[Owen Wilson]] as early investors, even going so far as to learn to kitesurf in order to meet with the latter.<ref name=":0" />
Perkins built Canva with co-founders Cliff Obrecht and Cameron Adams.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Zipkin |first1=Nina |title=She Was Told 'No' 100 Times. Now This 31-Year-Old Female Founder Runs a $1 Billion Business |url=https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/310482 |work=Entrepreneur |date=12 June 2019 |language=en}}</ref> Perkins ventured to Silicon Valley where a chance encounter with investor Bill Tai saw him invite Perkins to San Francisco to pitch her idea which in turn helped her to build further relationships.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Gilchrist|first=Karen|date=2020-01-09|title=How a 32-year-old turned a high school yearbook idea into a $3.2 billion business|url=https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/09/canva-how-melanie-perkins-built-a-3point2-billion-dollar-design-start-up.html|access-date=2020-10-15|website=CNBC|language=en}}</ref> Perkins secured American Actors [[Woody Harrelson]] and [[Owen Wilson]] as early investors, even going so far as to learn to kitesurf in order to meet with the latter.<ref name=":0" />


As CEO, Perkins leads a team over 650 across three offices in Sydney, Manila, and Beijing.<ref>{{cite news |title=AFR business people of the year 2018: Canva's Melanie Perkins |url=https://www.afr.com/technology/afr-business-person-of-the-year-2018-canvas-melanie-perkins-keeps-aussie-unicorn-powering-20181212-h191z7 |work=[[The Australian Financial Review]] |date=13 December 2018 |language=en}}</ref>
As CEO, Perkins leads a team over 650 across three offices in Sydney, Manila, and Beijing.<ref>{{cite news |title=AFR business people of the year 2018: Canva's Melanie Perkins |url=https://www.afr.com/technology/afr-business-person-of-the-year-2018-canvas-melanie-perkins-keeps-aussie-unicorn-powering-20181212-h191z7 |work=[[The Australian Financial Review]] |date=13 December 2018 |language=en}}</ref>

Revision as of 12:00, 7 November 2020

Melanie Perkins
Born
Perth, Western Australia[1]
NationalityAustralian
EducationSacred Heart College
OccupationTechnology entrepreneur
Years active2007 - present
Known forCo-founder of Canva
Board member ofCanva
Websitewww.linkedin.com/in/melanieperkins/

Melanie Perkins is an Australian technology entrepreneur, who is the CEO and co-founder of Canva, an online graphic design and publishing tool.[3][4]

Perkins is one of the youngest female CEOs to be leading a tech startup valued at over US$1 billion.[5] As of June 2020, Perkins was Australia's third wealthiest woman and youngest billionaire.[6] Perkins has raised more than $166 million[clarification needed] from investors including Google Maps co-founder Lars Rasmussen, Yahoo! CFO Ken Goldman, and funds such as Bond, General Catalyst, Felicis Ventures and Blackbird.[7][8]

Early life

Perkins was born in Perth, Western Australia and attended Sacred Heart College.[9] Perkins started her first venture when she was 14 years old, creating hand-made scarves that she sold at shops and markets throughout Perth.[10]

Career

Fusion Books

Perkins has studied communications, psychology, and commerce at the University of Western Australia when she decided to drop out to build Fusion Books, her first company, a design tool for school yearbooks, to test out the idea for Canva.[11] While in university, aged 19 years, Perkins had also been teaching design programs to fellow students. After seeing students struggle, she created Fusion Books, which took the idea of empowering students to design their own school yearbooks by using a simple drag-and-drop tool equipped with a library of design templates that could be populated with photos, illustrations, and fonts. Over five years, Fusion Books grew into the largest yearbook company in Australia and expanded into France and New Zealand.[12][13][14]

Canva

Perkins built Canva with co-founders Cliff Obrecht and Cameron Adams.[15] Perkins ventured to Silicon Valley where a chance encounter with investor Bill Tai saw him invite Perkins to San Francisco to pitch her idea which in turn helped her to build further relationships.[16] Perkins secured American Actors Woody Harrelson and Owen Wilson as early investors, even going so far as to learn to kitesurf in order to meet with the latter.[6]

As CEO, Perkins leads a team over 650 across three offices in Sydney, Manila, and Beijing.[17]

References

  1. ^ Stanton, Kate; Griffith, Hywel (10 January 2018). "The 30-year-old woman who designed a $1bn business". BBC.
  2. ^ Bailey, Michael; Sprague, Julie-anne (30 October 2020). "The full list: Australia's wealthiest 200 revealed". The Australian Financial Review. Nine Publishing. Retrieved 31 October 2020.
  3. ^ Burston, Jo (18 May 2017). "Can't think of any female leaders in tech? It's not because they don't exist". The Guardian.
  4. ^ Charleston, L. J. (8 April 2018). "Canva started with a great idea and no funding only a few years ago". news.com.au.
  5. ^ Gallo, Carmine (6 June 2019). "Four Remarkably Simple Pitch Tips From An Entrepreneur Who Turned Her Idea Into A $2.5B 'Unicorn'". Forbes.
  6. ^ a b "Canva's Melanie Perkins becomes Australia's third wealthiest woman". au.finance.yahoo.com. Retrieved 2020-10-15.
  7. ^ Lopez, Elyssa Christine (27 March 2016). "How Melanie Perkins disrupted digital design". Entrepreneur. Archived from the original on 2016-03-30. Retrieved 2020-10-12.
  8. ^ Perez, Sarah (19 March 2013). "Canva Raises $3 Million To Make Design Accessible To Everyone". TechCrunch.
  9. ^ "How a Sacred Heart girl built a $1b tech empire". The West Australian. 7 May 2018.
  10. ^ Connelly, Claire (6 October 2015). "From making scarves to building a $165 million tech start-up: Canva's Melanie Perkins". The Sydney Morning Herald.
  11. ^ "Get the Most from Word-of-Mouth Advertising". business.com.
  12. ^ Singh, Pooja (8 March 2019). "How this 30-year-old College Dropout Created a Tech Unicorn in Australia". Entrepreneur.
  13. ^ Perkins, Melanie (29 May 2014). "3 Keys to Providing Great Customer Service". Entrepreneur (magazine).
  14. ^ Weinberger, Matt. "This 29-year-old startup founder learned to kiteboard to impress investors — and it paid off big time". Business Insider.
  15. ^ Zipkin, Nina (12 June 2019). "She Was Told 'No' 100 Times. Now This 31-Year-Old Female Founder Runs a $1 Billion Business". Entrepreneur.
  16. ^ Gilchrist, Karen (2020-01-09). "How a 32-year-old turned a high school yearbook idea into a $3.2 billion business". CNBC. Retrieved 2020-10-15.
  17. ^ "AFR business people of the year 2018: Canva's Melanie Perkins". The Australian Financial Review. 13 December 2018.
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