Prompt Cast
Melanie Perkins' Journey to Building Canva
TLDR Melanie Perkins faced rejection from investors but persisted in revolutionizing the design industry by starting with an online tool for designing school yearbooks, eventually launching Canva in 2013 with a free design tool and a unique business model.
Timestamped Summary
00:00
Melanie Perkins founded the design platform Canva, now valued at six billion dollars, after facing skepticism and rejection from investors.
05:10
Melanie Perkins started small by creating an online tool for designing school yearbooks, aiming to revolutionize the desktop publishing industry.
09:17
Melanie Perkins developed software to simplify the process of creating yearbooks, eventually expanding her vision to revolutionize the design industry after meeting a Silicon Valley investor in 2010.
13:35
Melanie Perkins met with a Silicon Valley investor who agreed to invest if she could find a tech team, leading her to connect with Lars Rasmussen, co-founder of Google Maps, who became an advisor and helped her navigate the tech team approval process.
17:51
Melanie Perkins worked out of a co-working space at Nordstrom in San Francisco, pitching her company to anyone who would listen, while feeling like a failure for not securing a tech team and investors after three months in Silicon Valley.
22:27
Melanie Perkins utilized over 2,000 pre-made templates on Miro for various purposes, partnering with Miro to create a podcast template, while continuing to pitch her company to potential investors and engineers.
27:15
Melanie Perkins faced numerous rejections from investors due to the lack of a tech team and a chief technology officer, pitching her idea to over a hundred people in San Francisco over a three-month period, but persevered by refining her pitch and emphasizing the future of online publishing.
31:06
Melanie Perkins convinced high-profile individuals to join her startup by creating a personalized pitch deck based on their Facebook photos, eventually leading to oversubscription in their seed round of funding.
35:12
Melanie Perkins successfully launched Canva in August 2013, attracting 50,000 people to a waiting list before the official launch, with a business model that offers a free design tool with the option to purchase images, fonts, and layouts.
39:31
Melanie Perkins faced challenges during Canva's launch, including a negative article breaking the embargo, but ultimately persevered and focused on continuous improvement.
44:02
Melanie Perkins reflects on the combination of luck and hard work that contributed to Canva's success, emphasizing the value of continuous learning and embracing challenges.
Categories:
Business
