Melanie Perkins

Melanie Perkins wasn’t a Silicon Valley founder. She wasn’t a coder. She was a 19-year-old student in Perth, Australia, teaching design programs to classmates who constantly struggled with the complexity of Photoshop and InDesign. She realized there had to be a simpler way—and the idea for Canva was born.

Her first venture was small: an online tool called Fusion Books, which helped schools create yearbooks through drag-and-drop design. It wasn’t glamorous, but it worked. Teachers and students loved how easy it was. That small success gave Perkins the confidence to think bigger: what if anyone in the world could design anything, without needing technical skills?

The Rejections

With that vision, Perkins set out to raise funding. But turning a local yearbook tool into a global design platform was a massive leap—and investors didn’t buy it. She was rejected by more than 100 investors. Some told her the idea was impossible, others said the market was saturated, and many simply couldn’t see how a young founder from Australia could compete against billion-dollar software giants like Adobe.

Still, Perkins refused to give up. Each “no” pushed her to refine the pitch, strengthen the business model, and sharpen the story of how Canva could democratize design.

The Breakthrough

Her persistence finally paid off when she crossed paths with Silicon Valley investor Bill Tai. Through his network, she gained access to advisors who could see her vision clearly. Perkins teamed up with co-founder Cliff Obrecht and former Google engineer Cameron Adams, who brought technical expertise to the table. Together, they built Canva’s first version in 2013—a drag-and-drop, cloud-based design tool that made creating graphics as easy as writing a document.

The product spread quickly, not through flashy advertising, but by word of mouth. People who had never considered themselves “designers” suddenly could create professional-looking materials.

The Outcome

Canva scaled globally at an astonishing pace. Within five years, it had tens of millions of users. Today, Canva is valued at over $25 billion, with more than 170 million people using it to design presentations, resumes, social media posts, and more. Perkins, once told she was “too inexperienced” and “too far away” from Silicon Valley to succeed, became one of the youngest female tech billionaires in history.

The Lesson for Founders

Melanie Perkins’ journey shows that you don’t need to fit the mold to change an industry. What you do need is clarity of vision, relentless persistence, and the ability to learn from every rejection. More than 100 “no’s” couldn’t stop her—because she only needed one big “yes.”

At My Idea Desk, we help founders refine their vision, validate their ideas, and move through rejection faster—so they’re ready when their “yes” finally comes.