Start-up to Scale-up Success Story: How Melanie Perkins Built Canva into a $25B Platform

From Classroom Struggles to Changing the World

Back in 2007, Melanie Perkins was just a 19-year-old student in Perth, Australia. She saw how hard it was for students to use complicated design tools like Photoshop—even for basic projects. It was frustrating, honestly. And that frustration sparked a thought: “What if design was easier… for everyone?”

She didn’t just wonder. She went ahead and built it.

What started as a simple idea for making school yearbooks turned into Canva—a platform now used by over 150 million people around the world. Today, it’s one of the most successful tech companies founded by a woman, valued at more than $25 billion.

The Early Days: Small Team, Big Drive

Melanie’s first company, Fusion Books, helped students design their yearbooks online. She co-founded it with Cliff Obrecht and ran it from her mum’s living room. They did everything themselves—support, marketing, testing.

Canva’s beginning was anything but smooth:

• Investors kept saying no

• The team was tiny but super focused

• User experience was always top priority

• They constantly improved the product based on user feedback

Like most start-ups, they had to figure things out while moving forward. There was a lot of uncertainty, but they didn’t stop.

Scaling Up: Growth, Features, and Going Global

After two years of pitching (and rejections), they finally got their first funding in 2012. That was the turning point. From there, they scaled up with purpose:

• Built an easy drag-and-drop design tool

• Used a freemium model to attract users

• Created templates for pretty much every industry

• Localised the platform into over 100 languages

• Hired people from all over the world, with remote work in mind

They went from a small start-up to a global company with over 3,000 employees and millions of paying users. Canva became something people used in schools, businesses, nonprofits—you name it.

Lessons We Can Learn from Canva

• Start-ups are scrappy, flexible, and all about solving problems.

• Scale-ups focus on structure, hiring specialists, and sustainable growth.

• A clear mission like “empowering the world to design” can keep your team united through every phase.

• Good design isn’t just how something looks—it’s about making it usable and inclusive.

Start-up vs. Scale-up: Quick Look

Category	Start-up (2007–2012)	Scale-up (2013–Today)
Product Focus	Online yearbooks (Fusion)	All-in-one design platform
Team Size	Founders + a few developers	3,000+ employees worldwide
Revenue Model	Bootstrapped	Freemium + Enterprise SaaS
Users	Students, teachers	SMBs, companies, educators
Traction	Early adopters	150M+ users in 190 countries

Design Isn’t Just About Looks

Melanie proved something powerful—design isn't only visual. It's about making something people can actually use, scale, and understand. She started small, with a pretty ordinary problem. But with vision and stubborn execution, she helped change the way the world thinks about design.

Canva’s story isn’t just inspiring—it’s a real-world guide for modern entrepreneurs figuring out how to start… and how to grow.