Melanie Perkins

Guest: Melanie Perkins - CEO and co-founder of Canva. Melanie is on track to be the most successful female tech founder in history, having built Canva into a $42 billion company with over $3.3 billion in annual revenue. Key Takeaways: Column B Thinking: Focus on envisioning the future you want and work backwards to achieve it. This involves setting crazy big goals that seem improbable but drive you to work hard towards them. Iterative Pitching: Use investor feedback, even in the form of rejection, to refine your pitch and clarify your vision. This approach helped Melanie turn over 100 rejections into a successful funding round. Chaos to Clarity: Start with a big, unclear idea and gradually refine it through steps that add clarity, such as creating pitch decks and prototypes. Community-Driven Development: Canva integrates user feedback into its product development, closing over 200 feedback loops annually, ensuring that new features meet real user needs. Two-Step Plan: Canva's mission is to build one of the world's most valuable companies and use its success to do the most good, such as donating significant funds to alleviate global poverty. Topics Covered: Column B thinking, Crazy Big Goals, iterative pitching, chaos to clarity process, community-driven product development, Canva's two-step plan, AI integration in Canva, personal growth and work-life balance, vision for 2050.