Melanie Perkins did not begin with a plan to build one of the world’s largest design platforms.

She began by watching students struggle.

While teaching design software, Perkins noticed that learners spent a great deal of time understanding complicated menus and technical commands before they could create anything useful.

She believed design software should be simple, collaborative and accessible through a web browser.

The vision eventually became Canva. But before investors supported it, Perkins had to spend years proving that the idea was bigger than many people initially believed.

Start with a Problem You Have Observed Closely

Perkins and Cliff Obrecht first tested their ideas through Fusion Books, an online tool that made it easier for schools to create yearbooks.

This was a smaller and more focused version of the broader Canva vision.

Instead of immediately trying to replace every major design tool, they began with one customer group, one clear use case and one repeated problem. Working with hundreds of schools gave them experience in product development, marketing, sales and customer support.

This is a useful model for founders with very large ideas.

Your first product does not need to achieve the entire vision. It can act as evidence that customers want a simpler way to complete one part of the problem.

A narrow starting market allows a startup to learn without carrying the cost and complexity of serving everyone.

The Vision Sounded Too Ambitious

Perkins wanted to create an online design platform that would allow almost anyone to produce professional-looking visual materials.

That required significant engineering, a strong design experience and the ability to compete in a market containing established software companies.

Investors repeatedly rejected the idea.

Perkins later explained that the team did not fit the expected startup mould. Geography was one concern, while investors also questioned whether the technical team could deliver such an ambitious product.

Repeated rejection can affect a founder in two unhealthy ways.

One founder may give up too quickly. Another may decide that all feedback is irrelevant and refuse to improve.

Perkins followed a better path. She continued pursuing the vision while using feedback to strengthen the pitch, team and business.

She later described rejection as redirection: information that could help the founders find the right supporters and communicate the vision more effectively.

Canva Made Complexity Feel Simple

Canva launched publicly in 2013 with Melanie Perkins, Cliff Obrecht and Cameron Adams as its co-founders.

The platform allowed users to select templates, drag and drop elements, collaborate and create visual materials without mastering traditional professional design software.

This simplicity was not evidence that the underlying product was easy to build. Good products often hide technical complexity from the customer.

Canva grew to five million users within slightly more than two years of launch. The company’s early growth was helped by an active community that created tutorials, blog posts and videos about the platform.

That community participation showed that users were not only using Canva. They were teaching other people how to use it.

Products become especially powerful when satisfied customers contribute to education and distribution.

The “Overcrowded” Market Was Still Open

Canva entered a market that already had established design tools.

However, the existence of competitors did not mean every customer was well served.

Professional designers had powerful software, but teachers, students, entrepreneurs, marketers and small businesses often needed something faster and easier.

Canva did not win by pretending existing tools were useless. It focused on people who found those tools intimidating, expensive or unnecessarily complicated for everyday work.

By the end of 2025, Canva reported approximately 260 million monthly users and annual revenue of $3.5 billion.

The lesson is that a competitive market can still contain neglected users.

Founders should ask which customers find existing solutions too expensive, complicated, slow or specialised.

What Entrepreneurs Can Learn from Canva

First, observe problems directly. Perkins’ insight came from watching real people struggle with existing software.

Second, test a large vision through a smaller market. Fusion Books provided evidence, experience and customer understanding before Canva attempted to serve the world.

Third, use rejection as information. Investors are not always correct, but their questions may expose weaknesses in your team, pitch or strategy.

Fourth, simplify the customer experience. Your technology can be sophisticated behind the scenes while remaining intuitive to users.

Finally, crowded markets are not always closed markets. A new company can succeed by making an important product accessible to people established companies have overlooked.

Canva’s journey was not an overnight success. It was a long process of observing, testing, pitching, learning and improving.

The founders did not win because nobody else offered design software. They won because they saw how many people wanted to create but felt excluded by the tools available to them.