Melanie Perkins

Last updated

Melanie Perkins
M Perkins.jpg
Perkins in 2019
Born1987 (age 36–37) [1]
Perth, Western Australia [2]
Education University of Western Australia
OccupationTechnology entrepreneur
Years active2007–present
Known forCo-founder and CEO of Canva
Spouse
​
(m. 2021)​

Melanie Perkins (born 1987) is an Australian technology entrepreneur, who is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Canva. She owns 18% of the company. [3]

Contents

Perkins is one of the youngest female CEOs of a tech start-up valued over A$1  billion. As of May 2021, Perkins was one of Australia's richest women with an estimated net worth of US$4.4 billion. [4] . [note a] [5] [6] [7]

In 2023, she ranked 89th in Forbes list of "World's 100 most powerful women" [8] and 92nd in Fortune 's list of Most Powerful Women. [9]

Early life

Melanie Perkins was born in 1987 in Perth, Western Australia. She is the daughter of an Australian-born teacher and a Malaysian engineer of Filipino and Sri Lankan descent. [10] She attended Sacred Heart College, [11] a secondary school located in the northern Perth suburb of Sorrento. In high school, Perkins had aspirations of becoming a professional figure skater and would routinely wake up at 4:30 am to train. By the age of fourteen, she had started her first business, selling handmade scarves at shops and markets throughout Perth. [12] She credits this experience with developing her entrepreneurial drive as ‘she never forgot the freedom and excitement from building a business.’ [13]

After high school, Perkins enrolled at The University of Western Australia, majoring in communications, psychology and commerce. [14] At this time, Perkins was also a private tutor for students learning graphic design. She noticed the difficulties students had in learning design programs such as Adobe Photoshop: it would often take students a semester at university to be introduced to basic features of these complex design programs. [15] Perkins thought there was a business opportunity in making the design process easier. [15] Her idea was to make a design platform where no technical experience was required. She dropped out of university at age 19 to pursue her first business with Cliff Obrecht, Fusion Books. [15]

Career

Fusion Books

Fusion Books was founded by Perkins and Obrecht in 2007. [15] Fusion Books allowed students to design their own school yearbooks by using a simple drag-and-drop tool equipped with a library of design templates that could be populated with photos, illustrations, and fonts. Originally, Perkins wanted to develop software that made the entire design process easier but due to the competition with large companies and her lack of resources, she concluded ‘it did not seem the logical thing to do’. [15] Perkins's mother was a teacher who would also co-ordinate the school yearbook. [15] Perkins saw how much time was required to design a yearbook and thought the high level of consumer friction would make yearbooks a good niche to test the idea for Canva. [15]

Started in the Duncraig living room of Perkins's mother, [15] [16] [17] Obrecht would cold call schools in an attempt to get new clients for Fusion Books. Their parents would often help with printing the yearbooks. Over five years, Fusion Books grew into the largest yearbook company in Australia and expanded into France and New Zealand. [10]

Formation of Canva

Perkins at Web Summit event 2019 - Centre Stage - Day 1 DF1 8690 (49018823468).jpg
Perkins at Web Summit event

Perkins and Obrecht were originally based in Perth. Perkins claims that she was rejected by over 100 local investors in Perth. [10]

In 2011, prominent investor, Bill Tai visited Perth to judge a start-up competition. Perkins and Obrecht pitched Tai the initial idea for Canva over dinner. There were also other venture capitalists present including Rick Baker from Blackbird Ventures. [10] They received no funding but became regular fixtures at gatherings hosted by Tai for investors and start-up founders. Some of these gatherings took place in Silicon Valley where Perkins and Obrecht met Lars Rasmussen, co-founder of Google Maps. [18] He expressed interest in the idea but told the founders to ‘put everything on hold’ until they found a tech team of the calibre required. [10] Rasmussen then became the tech adviser to the business, where he introduced Perkins and Obrecht to Cameron Adams, an ex-Google employee with relevant technical expertise. [19] Adams was initially not interested in joining the business as he was starting his own business called fluent.io, software attempting to disrupt email. [15] Adams was in Silicon Valley trying to raise funds for his start-up when Perkins sent him another email asking if he wanted to join the business. [15] After that email, he agreed to join Canva, becoming its third founder and chief product officer. [18]

Perkins is the CEO of one of the few ‘unicorn’ start-ups that are profitable. [20] In Nov. 2023, Forbes estimated her net worth at $ 3.6 bln. She remained CEO of Canva, and owned around 18 % of the company. [21] She was named to the Financial Review Rich List of 2023 . [22] [23]

Women in start-ups

Controversy surrounds the gender disparity in the technology industry as well as amongst start-ups, [24] with one in four start-ups founded by a woman. [25] [26] Perkins is amongst the 2 percent of female CEOs of venture-backed companies. [27] She wrote an article for people who feel like 'they are on the outside' and discussed her journey as a young entrepreneur in order to encourage people from diverse backgrounds to pursue big dreams and concentrate on their goals. [27] Perkins has implemented policies at Canva that eliminate bias in the hiring process, that has resulted in Canva obtaining 41 percent female representation, significantly higher than the industry average of 28 percent. [28]

Personal life

Perkins took an interest in kite surfing when she discovered many prominent venture capitalists use this as a way to network with founders. [10] She would regularly kite-surf with venture capitalist Bill Tai. [10] Perkins has also travelled the world extensively and credits a trip to India as a life-changing experience. [29]

In 2019, Obrecht proposed to Perkins on a holiday in Turkey's backpacker-friendly Cappadocia region. [30] The engagement ring was $30. [30] The couple have been critical of materialism, with Obrecht stating, ‘what is the point of hoarding stuff’. [31] They have expressed a desire to donate most of their fortune to charity. [31] Perkins and Obrecht married in January 2021 on Rottnest Island. [32] Later that year, they joined the Giving Pledge, committing at least half of their fortune to philanthropic purposes. [33]

Net worth

In 2020 Forbes named Perkins as one of the world's "Top Under 30 of the Decade". [34] Perkins first appeared on The Australian Financial Review Rich List in 2020 with a net worth of A$3.43 billion. [note a] [35] As of May 2023, The Australian Financial Review assessed her and Obrecht's joint net worth as A$13.18 billion, on the 2023 Rich List; making them the ninth wealthiest Australians. [36] As of 31 January 2022, Forbes estimated Perkins' personal net worth at A$9.21 billion (US$6.5bn). [37]

Year Financial Review
Rich List [note a] 		Forbes
Australia's 50 Richest
Rank Net worth (A$)Rank Net worth (US$)
2019 [38] [39] n/anot listedn/anot listed
2020 [35] 26Increase2.svg$3.43  billion Increase2.svg
2021 [5] 10Increase2.svg$7.98 billion Increase2.svg
2022 [37] 8Increase2.svg$13.80 billion Increase2.svg$6.50 billion
2023 [36] 9Decrease2.svg$13.18 billion Decrease2.svg
Legend
Icon Description
Steady2.svgHas not changed from the previous year
Increase2.svgHas increased from the previous year
Decrease2.svgHas decreased from the previous year

Notes

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Dell</span> American business magnate

Michael Saul Dell is an American billionaire businessman and investor. He is the founder, chairman, and CEO of Dell Technologies, one of the world's largest technology infrastructure companies.

James Douglas Packer is an Australian billionaire businessman and investor. Packer is the son of Kerry Packer, a media mogul, and his wife, Roslyn Packer. He is the grandson of Frank Packer. He inherited control of the family company, Consolidated Press Holdings Limited, as well as investments in Crown Resorts and other companies. He is the former executive chairman of Publishing and Broadcasting Limited (PBL) and Consolidated Media Holdings, which predominantly owned media interests across a range of platforms, and a former executive chairman of Crown Resorts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Doerr</span> American businessman (born 1951)

L. John Doerr is an American investor and venture capitalist at Kleiner Perkins in Menlo Park, California. In February 2009, Doerr was appointed a member of the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board to provide the President and his administration with advice and counsel in trying to fix America's economic downturn. Forbes ranked Doerr as the 40th richest person in tech in 2017, and as of August 1, 2023, as the 146th richest person in the world, with a net worth of US$11.9 billion. Doerr is the author of Measure What Matters, a book about goal-setting, and Speed & Scale: An Action Plan for Solving Our Climate Crisis Now.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank Lowy</span> Australian businessman, founder and chairman of Westfield

Sir Frank P. Lowy is an Australian-Israeli businessman of Jewish Slovak-Hungarian origins and the former long-time chairman of Westfield Corporation, a global shopping centre company with US$29.3 billion of assets under management in the United States, United Kingdom and Europe. In June 2018 Westfield Corporation was acquired by French company Unibail-Rodamco.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gina Rinehart</span> Australian businesswoman (born 1954)

Georgina Hope Rinehart is an Australian billionaire mining magnate and businesswoman. Rinehart is the executive chairwoman of Hancock Prospecting, a privately owned mineral exploration and extraction company founded by her father, Lang Hancock.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Meeker</span> American venture capitalist and Wall Street securities analyst

Mary Meeker is an American venture capitalist and former Wall Street securities analyst. Her primary work is on Internet and new technologies. She is the founder and general partner at BOND, a San Francisco–based venture capital firm. She previously served as partner at Kleiner Perkins.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harry Triguboff</span> Australian property developer and founder of Meriton (born 1933)

Harry Oskar Triguboff is a Chinese-born Australian billionaire real estate developer, and one of Australia's richest people. He is the founder and managing director of Meriton and is known as "high-rise Harry".

The Financial Review Rich List, formerly known as the BRW Rich 200, is a list of Australia's two hundred wealthiest individuals and families, ranked by personal net worth published annually in The Australian Financial Review Magazine, a supplement of The Australian Financial Review, published by Nine Publishing. The list provides a short summary on some of the known business activities of the individuals and families, together with commentary on how their ranking has changed from the previous year, if listed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canva</span> Online graphic design platform

Canva is an Australian multinational software company that provides a graphic design platform that provides tools for creating social media graphics, presentations, postcards, promotional merchandise and websites. Launched in Australia in 2013, the service offers design tools for individuals and companies. Its offerings include templates for presentations, posters, and social media content, as well as functionalities for photo and video editing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mike Cannon-Brookes</span> Australian businessman (born 1979)

Michael Cannon-Brookes is an Australian businessman who is the co-founder and chief executive officer of software company Atlassian.

David Hains was an Australian businessman, engineer, and horse breeder. He was the founder and once CEO of Portland House Group, Australia’s largest private investments management firm and hedge fund. According to Forbes, Hains had at the time of his death a personal net-worth of around $2 billion, making him one of Australia’s richest person.

Angela Bennett is an Australian mining heiress and businesswoman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scott Farquhar</span> Australian businessman (born 1979)

Scott Farquhar is an Australian businessman who is the co-founder and the former co-chief executive officer of software company Atlassian. Farquhar often carries the epithet of accidental billionaire after he and his business partner Mike Cannon-Brookes founded Atlassian with the aim to replicate the A$48,500 graduate starting salary typical at corporations without having to work for someone else. Farquhar and Cannon-Brookes were Australia’s first technology billionaires.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vivek Chaand Sehgal</span> Indian-Australian businessman

Vivek Chaand Sehgal is an Indian-Australian billionaire businessman and entrepreneur. Sehgal is the chairman and co-founder of Samvardhana Motherson Group, an auto parts manufacturer.

Anthony Eisen is an Australian FinTech entrepreneur and is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Afterpay. Eisen and co-founder, Nick Molnar, a neighbour in the Sydney suburb of Rose Bay, started the company in 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pexels</span> Free online media library

Pexels is a provider of stock photography and stock footage. It was founded in Germany in 2014 and maintains a library with over 3.2 million free stock photos and videos.

Nigel Austin is an Australian business and horse racing entrepreneur. Austin is the founder and 90% majority owner of the Cotton On Group clothing and stationery group with brands including Cotton On, Supre, Factorie and Typo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michelle Zatlyn</span> Canadian businesswoman (born 1979)

Michelle Zatlyn is a Canadian businesswoman. She is the co-founder, president, chief operating officer and a board member of American content delivery network provider and cybersecurity firm Cloudflare.

Clifford Obrecht is an Australian billionaire technology entrepreneur, who is the co-founder and chief operating officer (COO) of Canva and owns 18% of the company.

<i>Australias Richest 250</i> Annual list published by The Australian

The List – Australia's Richest 250 is a study of Australia's 250 richest people and families, published annually in The Australian newspaper and on its website.

References

  1. ↑ "Melanie Perkins and Ginia Rinehart revealed as Australia's youngest billionaires at age 36". news.com.au. 1 September 2023. Retrieved 4 May 2024.
  2. ↑ Stanton, Kate; Griffith, Hywel (10 January 2018). "The 30-year-old woman who designed a $1bn business". BBC . Archived from the original on 28 July 2018. Retrieved 16 July 2019.
  3. ↑ "Profile - Melanie Perkins". Forbes. Archived from the original on 17 May 2024. Retrieved 18 July 2023.
  4. ↑ "Forbes 2024 Billionaires List - The Richest People In The World Ranked". Forbes. Retrieved 5 December 2024.
  5. 1 2 Bailey, Michael; Sprague, Julie-anne (27 May 2021). "The 200 richest people in Australia revealed". Australian Financial Review . Archived from the original on 27 May 2021. Retrieved 28 May 2021.
  6. ↑ Sprague, Julie-ann; Bailey, Michael (7 March 2021). "The nation's richest women revealed". Australian Financial Review. Archived from the original on 17 May 2024. Retrieved 6 October 2021.
  7. ↑ "Canva prints a new billionaire". Australian Financial Review. 23 June 2020. Archived from the original on 17 May 2024. Retrieved 6 October 2021.
  8. ↑ "The World's Most Powerful Women 2023". Forbes .
  9. ↑ "Most Powerful Women". Fortune.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Konrad, Alex. "Canva Uncovered: How A Young Australian Kitesurfer Built A $3.2 Billion (Profitable!) Startup Phenom". Forbes. Archived from the original on 17 May 2024. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  11. ↑ "How a Sacred Heart girl built a $1b tech empire". The West Australian. 7 May 2018. Archived from the original on 2 March 2023. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  12. ↑ Connelly, Claire (6 October 2015). "From making scarves to building a $165 million tech start-up: Canva's Melanie Perkins". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 21 July 2023. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  13. ↑ Zipkin, Nina (12 June 2019). "She Was Told 'No' 100 Times. Now This 31-Year-Old Female Founder Runs a $1 Billion Business". Entrepreneur. Archived from the original on 4 September 2022. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  14. ↑ "Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht". Uniview. The University of Western Australia. 3 November 2017. Archived from the original on 17 May 2024. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  15. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Perkins, Melanie (24 August 2020). "21 Questions from Aussie Startups: Highs, lows & lessons learned during Canva's journey so far…". Medium. Archived from the original on 17 May 2024. Retrieved 2 November 2020.[ self-published source? ]
  16. ↑ City of Joondalup (8 September 2020). "Why some of the best business successes have started at WA's home of innovation". Business News. Archived from the original on 17 May 2024. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
  17. ↑ Boyd, Tony (9 January 2018). "Canva follows Atlassian into the $US1 billion unicorn ranks". Australian Financial Review. Archived from the original on 17 May 2024. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
  18. 1 2 "Informit Logout". search.informit.com.au. Archived from the original on 17 May 2024. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  19. ↑ Gilchrist, Karen (9 January 2020). "How a 32-year-old turned a high school yearbook idea into a $3.2 billion business". CNBC. Archived from the original on 17 May 2024. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  20. ↑ Kruger, Colin (14 September 2018). "Rare billion-dollar beast: Aussie tech unicorn Canva makes a profit". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 17 May 2024. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  21. ↑ "Melanie Perkins". Forbes. Archived from the original on 17 May 2024. Retrieved 30 January 2024.
  22. ↑ "AFR Magazine Rich List issue 2023". Australian Financial Review. 25 May 2023. Archived from the original on 17 May 2024. Retrieved 30 January 2024.
  23. ↑ Mediaweek (26 October 2023). "Financial Review Young Rich List 2023 reveals green energy, retail and property as the biggest drivers of wealth". Mediaweek. Archived from the original on 17 May 2024. Retrieved 30 January 2024.
  24. ↑ "Gender gap in the tech industry". Deloitte Insights. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  25. ↑ "Women in US Technology Leadership". www.svb.com. Silicon Valley Bank. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  26. ↑ Hession, Jane (2009). Women in the Modern Workplace: Gender Barriers to Business Start-ups. Cambridge Scholars. ISBN   978-1-4438-1385-3. Archived from the original on 17 May 2024. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
  27. 1 2 "A message for those who feel they're on the outside, from Canva co-founder Melanie Perkins". SmartCompany. 24 September 2018. Archived from the original on 17 May 2024. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  28. ↑ "The Companies Making A Difference: Introducing Our Women Leading Tech Advocacy Finalists". B&T. 2 September 2020. Archived from the original on 17 May 2024. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  29. ↑ "Canva's CEO on her 'crazy big goal'". Australian Financial Review. 16 August 2019. Archived from the original on 17 May 2024. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  30. 1 2 "Australia's richest 250: Melanie Perkins and the unicorn" . The Australian . Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  31. 1 2 "Meet the debutants storming up the Rich List". Australian Financial Review. 27 October 2020. Archived from the original on 17 May 2024. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  32. ↑ Waters, Cara (22 February 2021). "Canva co-founder backs Facebook's move to ban news, slams 'stupid' tech regulation". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 23 February 2021. Retrieved 23 February 2021.
  33. ↑ Gamboa, Glenn (15 December 2021). "Canva founders join Bill Gates' Giving Pledge to give away most of their fortune". Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 17 May 2024. Retrieved 5 May 2024.
  34. ↑ Palmer-Derrien, Stephanie (8 January 2020), Canva's Melanie Perkins named one of the world's top founders of the decade, SmartCompany, archived from the original on 17 May 2024, retrieved 15 November 2020
  35. 1 2 Bailey, Michael; Sprague, Julie-anne (30 October 2020). "The full list: Australia's wealthiest 200 revealed" . The Australian Financial Review . Nine Publishing. Archived from the original on 30 October 2020. Retrieved 31 October 2020.
  36. 1 2 Bailey, Michael; Sprague, Julie-anne (26 May 2023). "The 200 richest people in Australia revealed". Australian Financial Review . Archived from the original on 6 June 2023. Retrieved 6 June 2023.
  37. 1 2 "Melanie Perkins". Forbes. Archived from the original on 17 May 2024. Retrieved 31 January 2022.
  38. ↑ Bailey, Michael (30 May 2019). "Australia's 200 richest people revealed". The Australian Financial Review . Nine Publishing. Archived from the original on 3 September 2019. Retrieved 31 May 2019.
  39. ↑ "2019 Australia's 50 Richest". Forbes Asia. January 2019. Archived from the original on 10 June 2015. Retrieved 28 September 2019.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.