Identify a problem and create a product that solves it. That's what Australian entrepreneur Melanie Perkins did and now she's the CEO of the graphic design and photo editing company Canva.
It's also her advice to others. Asked to list five steps to success in an interview for the website Irish Tech News, Perkins said: "One: Solve a real problem that many people experience. Two: Go niche before you go wide. Three: Hire and work with the best people you can. Four: Focus on the projects and tasks that are going to have the biggest impact. Five: Just get started!"
Perkins got started when she was still a student at the University of Western Australia. While teaching other students, she saw that they had difficulty with software like Adobe Photoshop, so she had the idea of creating a graphic design platform that anyone could use. However, following step two, she went niche first, founding Fusion Books with her boyfriend (who's now her husband), Cliff Obrecht, in 2007.
Fusion Books was a software program to help students create yearbooks with simple drag-and-drop tools. It was a hit — in five years, it was the biggest yearbook company in Australia. While raising money for Fusion Books, Perkins and Obrecht decided to return to the idea of a graphic design platform for everyone, which they called Canva. The name was inspired by the French pronunciation of "canvas".
Not giving up
Perkins explains that it took years to put together the money and the tech team needed to launch Canva. She was rejected hundreds of times and told it couldn't be done in Australia. "At that point in time, people thought you could only build companies in Silicon Valley and wouldn't invest in anyone who they couldn't go and visit regularly," Perkins told the Financial Times.
Perseverance paid off, however. Perkins and Obrecht launched Canva in 2013, and the company is now worth $15 billion. More than 60 million monthly active users (MAUs) in 190 countries use it to create graphics and images. It's free, but includes extras for paid subscriptions.
Canva is one of Australia's most successful "home-grown" tech companies. "Things have changed radically," Perkins says. "We are really fortunate now to have a thriving tech ecosystem and lots of amazing venture capitalists who are thinking about how Australian companies can succeed on a world stage."
At 35, Perkins is one of the youngest female CEOs of any billion-dollar company, but she and her husband are famously modest. He proposed to her with a $30 engagement ring, and last year, the couple joined the Giving Pledge, promising at least half of their money to philanthropic causes.