Over 100 investors said no to Canva's founder. She learned to kitesurf.
In 2006 Melanie Perkins was 19, a student in Perth, teaching design programs on the side. In her words, people would spend "an entire semester learning where the buttons were."
She and Cliff Obrecht started with school yearbooks, run from her mum's living room. In 2010 Silicon Valley investor Bill Tai met her in Perth and invited her to San Francisco. More than 100 investors turned them down.
Tai ran a retreat for investors and kitesurfers, and kept asking how her kitesurfing was going. She had never tried it. She learned anyway. "When you don't have any connections, you don't have any network, you just kind of have to wedge your foot in the door and wiggle it all the way through," she told the US business network CNBC in 2020.
Canva launched in 2013. It ended 2025 with more than 265 million people using it every month.
If you run projects and can't get a meeting with the people who decide, go where they already spend their free time.
One-minute true story. AI-generated illustration with narration by an AI voice.
What is the strangest thing you did to get into the right room?
What the captions say
- This is the story of how the founder of Canva heard no from over 100 investors, and learned to kitesurf to meet investors.
- Canva ended 2025 with more than 265 million monthly active users. This is how it started.
- In 2006, Melanie Perkins was 19, a student in Perth, Australia, teaching design programs on the side.
- In her words, people would have to spend an entire semester learning where the buttons were, and that seemed completely ridiculous.
- With her boyfriend, Cliff Obrecht, she started an online school yearbook business from her mum's living room.
- In 2010, she met Silicon Valley investor Bill Tai in Perth. While she talked, he was on his phone.
- She thought he was bored. He was introducing her to people. He invited her to San Francisco.
- She spent months in San Francisco chasing money for what she called her crazy, big dream. More than 100 investors turned them down.
- Tai ran a retreat for investors and kitesurfers. Whenever he asked about her business, she recalls, he also asked about her kitesurfing.
- She had never done it. She learned anyway. Melanie said, "You just kind of have to wedge your foot in the door."
- In 2012, they found a tech co-founder, Cameron Adams. Their first round, $1.5 million, was oversubscribed.
- Canva went live in 2013. By the end of 2025, its recurring revenue had reached $4 billion a year.
- It started with a 19-year-old who found a semester of hunting for buttons ridiculous.
