Melanie Perkins

She got turned down by over 100 investors and now runs a $65B design company.

At just 19, Melanie Perkins dropped out of university to solve a problem no one else dared to tackle: making design so simple and accessible that anyone, anywhere, could create something beautiful.

Her first venture, Fusion Books, started as a scrappy yearbook company but grew to dominate the Australian market.

Yet Melanie had an even bigger vision… and an even bigger fight ahead.

In 2011, after a string of rejections, she pitched her revolutionary concept for Canva to Silicon Valley legend Bill Tai.

His response? “Find a tech team up to the challenge.”

What followed was two years of rejections, relentless networking, and, yes, even learning to kite-surf to gain access to exclusive investor meetups.

Finally, in 2013, Canva launched… and took off like wildfire.

Today, Canva empowers over 110 million users each month, from solo entrepreneurs to global corporations, with intuitive design tools and game-changing AI features.

Having pledged 30% of her wealth to combat poverty, she’s proving that success and social impact can go hand in hand.

So, why isn’t her name as famous as her product?