Designing flyers, posters, social posts, and more haven't been easier with the help of Canva! The graphic design platform is used to create social media graphics, presentations, posters, documents, and visual content. The CEO of the platform is Fil-Australian, Malaysian, Sri Lankan descent Melanie Perkins. She's created one of the most user-friendly platforms that allows anyone to be able to design visual content. The best part of the platform are the built in templates and plug and play graphic elements. Let's get to know a little more about how Melanie Perkins became one of the prominent women in the tech industry.
1. Melanie Perkins is from Perth, Australia
She is the daughter of an Australian-born teacher and a Malaysian engineer of Filipino and Sri Lankan descent. Melanie initially had aspirations of becoming a professional figure skater before becoming an entrepreneur.
2. Melanie's first entrepreneur venture was at fourteen years old
She started selling handmade scarves around her hometown of Perth then when she enrolled at the University of Western Australia, Melanie was a private tutor for students learning graphic design. She noticed the difficulties students had in learning design programs and wanted to make a design platform easier.
3. Before Canva, there was Fusion Books
Fusion Books focused on yearbook designs, allowing schools to design layouts and colors. The company started in her mother's living room and then expanded to most of the family home. The company continues to operate today and is the largest yearbook publisher in Australia.
4. She's rated as one of the coolest girls in tech
Melanie Perkins became the youngest woman in a tech startup to reach over $1 Billions. She was also named the ‘Coolest Tech Girl’ in 2016 and become the 3rd richest woman in Australia. Currently, Canva is helping to create nearly 2 billion designs in 190 countries.
5. Melanie is authentically normal, grounded, balanced and gives back to help other organizations
According to Entrepreneur, Melissa uses her platform to currently house 25,000 nonprofits that use Canva for fundraising. Canva supports businesses and customers, but Melissa loves to hear how her company can support charitable organizations.
Cover Photo Credit: Canva Facebook
