How SEVENTEEN Broke The K-Pop Business Model (And Won)

This K-pop group went from struggling during their trainee days to becoming global superstars with over 10 million albums sold. The biggest number for one show has been like 70K. Meet Seventeen, the K-pop group that made history as one of the first self-produced groups. Hi guys, we are Seventeen! But their journey wasn't easy. Some of Seventeen's members were almost cut during their trainee days because they struggled with singing, dancing, or rapping. The group originally had 17 members, but after some changes, the final lineup ended up with 13. Some members left during their trainee period for personal reasons. Now, despite the challenges, each of the 13 worked hard to prove they deserved to stay in the group. In 2013, Seventeen was supposed to debut, but Pledis Entertainment, their agency, was going through financial struggles, almost facing bankruptcy. With limited funds and resources, their debut was delayed, but the group didn't give up. Instead of relying on outside producers, the members of Seventeen took control. They created their own music, which was rare for K-pop groups at the time. In 2015, they debuted with their album Seventeen Carat. What set them apart from other groups was that everything from the music to the choreography was made by the members themselves. This caught the attention of fans and made them stand out in a crowded K-pop world. By 2016, Seventeen won their first major award for the song Pretty U, showcasing their talent as both performers and creators. This win helped them gain more recognition and establish their place in the industry. In 2017, Seventeen achieved a milestone by holding a concert at the Seoul Olympic Stadium. This was a huge accomplishment as it's one of the biggest venues in South Korea. Only the top K-pop groups had performed there before, making it a symbol of their growing success and international recognition. Their hit songs like "Don't Wanna Cry" and "Clap" gained even more attention worldwide because of their catchy melodies, meaningful lyrics, and the group's powerful performances. By 2019, Seventeen had become an even bigger name globally. They won major awards, including the IFPI Global Bestselling Artist, and performed at huge international festivals like Glastonbury. The boy band won their first Global Album Award on Tuesday, presented by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. They continue to grow their fan base, known as Carats, who supported them through thick and thin. Seventeen is also known for their generosity. They have a tradition of donating to charity, especially on their anniversaries, helping communities in need. Their hard work and positive influence earned them the title of UNESCO Youth Ambassadors in 2021, a huge honor for their dedication to education and charity work. The 13 members of K-pop group called Seventeen is appointed as UNESCO's first ever goodwill ambassador for youth. Today, Seventeen is one of the most successful K-pop groups in the world, with over 10 million albums sold. Their YouTube videos have gained billions of views, and they continue to break records as one of the best-selling K-pop acts globally. Seventeen once said, "No matter how tough the path is, keep going forward with courage. We're cheering you on." Success takes time and effort. Seventeen didn't give up, and neither should you. Keep going, and you'll get there. If you've been here before, drop a hashtag #believe in the comments below so I can feature you here in a future video. And if you're new, welcome to Believe Nation, the only channel that helps you believe in yourself daily, one video at a time. The brink of bankruptcy. Seventeen did not start at the top. Their agency, Pledis Entertainment, was struggling. The company was going through massive financial problems. They were almost facing bankruptcy. The group originally had 17 members in training. Some members were almost cut because they struggled with singing, dancing, or rapping. The pressure was intense. Some members left for personal reasons. The final lineup dropped to 13 members. In 2013, Seventeen was supposed to debut. A debut is a product launch. It requires money for marketing, the music videos and outfits. Pledis Entertainment did not have the funds. The launch was delayed. Now, this is a common problem for entrepreneurs. You have a vision, but you lack the capital. You have a team, but you lack resources. The easy choice is to walk away. The hard choice is to pivot. The members of Seventeen looked at the situation. They saw a failing company. They saw a delayed launch. They decided to solve the problem themselves. They stopped waiting for outside producers. They stopped waiting for outside choreographers. They took control of the manufacturing process. This is the first major lesson in business. You must own your product. Becoming the product. In the K-pop industry, groups usually rely on large teams of executives. So writers write the songs, producers make the beats, choreographers build the dances. The artists just perform. Seventeen changed the business model. They became one of the first self-produced groups in the industry. So one of the members stepped up and took charge of the music. He didn't know everything at first. He learned through trial and error. He studied how to use production software. He spent hours in the studio making beats. He took on the role of the chief product officer. Another member took charge of the performances. He created the dance routines. He organized 13 people on a stage. He took on the role of their chief operations officer. This decision saved their career. It It also created a unique selling proposition. In business, a unique selling proposition is what makes you different from your competitors. Because Seventeen made their own music, their songs felt way more authentic. The lyrics matched their actual personalities. The dances highlighted their specific strengths. They turned a massive disadvantage into their greatest strength. When you lack money, you must use your creativity. Sweat equity replaces financial capital. The science of teamwork. So managing a startup with 13 founders sounds impossible. Human psychology tells us that large groups often struggle with communication. This is called the Ringelmann effect. The Ringelmann effect states that individual productivity decreases as group size increases. People get lazy when they think others will do the work. Seventeen beat the science of the Ringelmann effect through strict organization, so they divided their massive team into 3 specific units. They built a hip-hop unit, a vocal unit, and a performance unit. This structure is actually pretty brilliant. It gave every member a clear job description. The hip-hop unit focused on writing the rap lyrics. The vocal unit focused on singing and melodies, and the performance unit focused on dancing and stage presence. This division of labor is exactly how successful companies scale. You cannot have 13 people trying to do the same job. You must assign roles based on talent and interest. When the 3 units came together, they formed one cohesive team. This is why their name is Seventeen. 13 members plus 3 units plus 1 team equals Seventeen. They built a corporate structure that maximized efficiency and destroyed laziness. The first major launch. By 2015, Seventeen was finally ready to launch. They debuted with their first extended play called Seventeen Carat. This was their minimum viable product. That minimum viable product is the simplest version of your idea that you can sell to the market. They did not have the biggest budget. They did not have the most expensive music video, but they had a product that they owned completely. Seventeen Carat was a massive success. It became the longest charting K-pop album of the year in the United States. The market responded to their authenticity. Fans noticed that everything from the music to the choreography was made by the members. This created a deep level of trust. In business, trust is your most valuable asset. Customers will support a brand that feels real. Seventeen kept pushing forward. They did not rest after their first launch. They went right back into the studio. They understood the science of momentum. Sir Isaac Newton proved that an object in motion stays in motion. This applies to a business as well. When you get a win, you must immediately start working on the next project. By 2016, Seventeen won their first major music show award for the song Pretty U. This was a critical milestone and proved their self-production model worked. It proved they could compete with massive agencies. They secured their place in the industry. Also, if you want to take real action after this video, I made a free worksheet just for you. Covers the top lessons from today, gives you space to write biggest takeaways, and helps you build a simple action plan. It's 100% free. Just click the link in description to Grab it. I'll see you there. Scaling the business. Winning an award is great. Building a global empire requires scaling. Seventeen knew they had to expand their market. They couldn't just stay in their hometown. They needed international distribution. So in 2017, they held a concert at the Seoul Olympic Stadium. This is one of the largest venues in their country. Only the absolute top artists performed there. It was a massive physical expansion of their brand. Their songs like "Don't Wanna Cry" and "Clap" went viral. The melodies were catchy, the lyrics were meaningful. The performances were powerful. They were building a massive customer base. In the K-pop industry, the customer base, it's, it's your fandom. Seventeen named their fandom Carats. They treated their customers with massive respect. They communicated with them constantly. By 2019, Seventeen had achieved global dominance. They won major awards, including recognition from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. They were booked for massive international events like Glastonbury, and they were no longer a small startup. They were a multinational corporation. The science of consistency. So how did they scale so fast? The answer is consistency. Seventeen releases new products constantly. They produce albums and videos, merchandise, live shows. The science of habit formation explains why this works. When a brand consistently delivers high-quality content, it wires the human brain to expect a reward. This releases dopamine. Every time Seventeen releases a new song, their fans get a new hit of dopamine. This builds intense brand loyalty. The fans become repeat customers. They buy the albums, they buy the concert tickets. They share the music with their friends. This creates organic marketing. Organic marketing is when your customers do the advertising for you. Entrepreneurs often fail because they're inconsistent. They launch one product and disappear for a year. The market forgets them. The dopamine loop is broken. Seventeen never breaks the loop. They work tirelessly to keep the supply chain moving. They understand that attention is the most valuable currency in the modern economy. You must produce consistently to keep the attention on your brand. Overcoming burnout. Now, working this hard creates a new kind of problem. The problem is burnout. Burnout is a state— is when your emotional, physical, mental exhaustion just caused by excessive stress and, and prolonged stress. When you are the product, the pressure never stops. You are always traveling, you are always performing, you are always creating something new. Seventeen faced this challenge together. In the K-pop industry, contracts usually last for 7 years. Many groups break up when the contracts end. The stress destroys the relationships. These founders wanted something different. Seventeen did something incredibly rare. All 13 members renewed their contracts early. They survived burnout through aggressive communication. When you have 13 ambitious people, egos will clash, arguments will happen. Seventeen made a rule to talk through every problem. They hold regular team meetings. They force themselves to be honest with each other. In business, unspoken resentment will destroy your company, so you need to communicate clearly and often. They also protect their culture. They remember the days when they had nothing. They remember their financial struggles of their agency. They remember the fear of never being able to launch. This shared history keeps them grounded. They don't let the success make them arrogant. They focus on the work, they focus on the product, they focus on the customers. The power of resilience. The journey of Seventeen is a pretty powerful showcase of entrepreneurship. They started with zero leverage. They were trapped in a failing company. Their dream was entirely dependent on someone else having money. When the money ran out, they had two choices that they can make. They could complain about all of their bad luck, or they could take extreme ownership of their situation. And they chose the extreme ownership. They learned the new skills. One member learned to produce, another learned to choreograph. They all learned to sing and rap better. They built a structural system to manage 13 different personalities. They created their minimum viable product. They launched it to the world. They gathered feedback. They improved. They scaled their business globally. They built a massive customer base. They delivered consistent value. They protected their team culture. They communicated through the hard times. They became one of the biggest acts in the world. Their YouTube videos have gained billions of views. As Seventeen once said, no matter how tough the path is, keep going forward with courage. We are cheering you on. And this is the mindset you need. Success takes time. Success takes effort. You will face face painful moments. You might face bankruptcy. You will face delays. You will face burnouts. The people who win are the people who simply refuse to quit. Seventeen did not give up. You should not give up either. Look at your current problems. Figure out what skills you need to solve them. Stop waiting for outside help. Take control of your product. Take control of your life. Keep going, and you will get there. And congratulations, you're one video closer to who you're meant to be. Believe. Now let's learn the incredible story of Ed Sheeran. Ed Sheeran had no record deal, no money, and no backup plan. He played on the streets, in tiny pubs, even on the subway. And some nights he had nowhere to sleep but a train station. But he refused to quit. Now he's one of the biggest artists in the world. Growing up, Ed was bullied for his stutter, his red hair, and his thick glasses. He didn't fit in. Music became his escape. At 16, he dropped out of school, packed his guitar, and moved to London alone. No money, no record deal, no safety net, just a dream. Every night he played tiny pubs, street corners, and open gigs, sometimes to only 3 people in the audience. When the gigs paid nothing, he slept on sofas, on trains, even outside Buckingham Palace. Some nights he played his heart out and still went to bed hungry. Record labels ignored him. People told him to quit. But he kept writing, kept performing, kept believing. Then in 2010, everything changed. He took a one-way ticket to LA, played an open mic, and Jamie Foxx saw his talent, inviting him to record in his studio and sleep at house. That moment led to his big break. His independent music blew up online. Soon he signed a record deal, dropped Plus, and the world finally saw what he always believed— he was meant for this. Now, 100 million records sold, Grammy Awards, stadiums packed worldwide. Ed had no money, no support, no excuses— just belief, hustle, and a guitar. What about you? Are you making excuses or making it 7. A rough start. Bullied and different, Ed Sheeran grew up feeling like an outsider. He was a shy, weird kid with thick glasses, bright red hair, and a bad stutter. Classmates picked on him relentlessly for how he talked, how he looked, everything. He once said, I wore big glasses, had hearing problems, had a stutter, and I had ginger hair. Not exactly a recipe for popularity at school. To escape the bullying, young Ed found solace in music. He started singing in the church choir at just 4 years old and learn guitar by 11. In his early teens, music had become his safe space, a place to express himself when words failed. In fact, music literally helped cure Ed's stutter. At age 9, he memorized Eminem's fast rap album, the Marshall Mathers LP, front to back, and rapping along helped him stop stuttering. The very things that made him different—his voice, his creativity, his quirks—would one day become his superpowers. But back then, Ed just knew that music was his passion. He wrote songs in high school and performed wherever he could. At 11, he nervously played his first his first real gig singing Eric Clapton's Layla at a youth show. That little taste of performing lit a fire inside him. He didn't fit in at school, but on stage with a guitar, Ed felt at home. He dreamed of making it big as a musician, even when almost no one else believed in him. No plan B, all in on a dream. At 16, Ed made a bold decision that shaped his future. He dropped outta school and moved to London alone to pursue music full-time. No college, no day job, just gig after gig in the big city. This is a huge leap of faith for him. He had no record deal, no connections, no safety net to catch him if he fell. But that was exactly how Ed wanted it. He never had a plan B. In his mind, if you have a backup plan, you'll use it when things get tough. So he didn't give himself that option. There's no plan B. This has to work was his mindset. By removing the safety net, Ed forced himself to give 100% went to Plan A, making it in music. It was a do-or-die gamble on himself. Now, London was intimidating for a teenager from a small town. Ed arrived with basically nothing, just his guitar, a few songs, and a head full of dreams. He crashed on couches of any friends or acquaintances who'd have him, and when he ran out of couches, he got creative. He knew which late-night subway lines he could ride to stay warm until morning, and he discovered an archway near Buckingham Palace with a warm air vent where he could curl up for night. He later admitted he was technically homeless for about 2 and a half years from 2008 through 2010, but Ed tried not to see it that way. He was just home less than I'd like to be, as he wrote in one song. He kept reminding himself that it was all temporary, a part of the journey. Now, during this period, Ed had to grow up fast. By day, he would scribble lyrics in his notebook or record rough demos, and by night, he'd haul his little acoustic guitar to any pub, club, or street corner that would let him play. He often performed multiple gigs a day, hustling across London with guitar on his back. The audiences were usually pretty tiny, sometimes just a handful of indifferent drinkers in a pub or a few passersby on the street. Once Ed played an open mic where literally only one person was in the crowd, but he played his heart out for that one person as if it was a packed arena. And every single day was an opportunity to get better. Rejection? He faced it constantly. Most record labels and industry people completely ignored him in those early days. Now, many artists would have gotten discouraged, but Ed used that as motivation to improve. He set crazy work goals for himself. So for example, Evans Carmichael in 2009, he played over 300 live shows almost every day of the year. He did a gig. He read that singer James Morrison got a record deal after doing 200 shows in a year. So Ed thought, I'll do 300. No was not an acceptable answer. He was determined to outwork everyone. Practice makes progress, and Ed was essentially living the 10,000-hour rule, performing nonstop to hone his craft. My songs are terrible, but I got it out of me. The more you write, the better they'll get, Ed has said, comparing songwriting to letting dirty water flow from a faucet until it runs clear. Every rough gig and every bad song he wrote was bringing him closer to the hit songs that were inside of him. Playing for peanuts: gigs, grit, and growth. So Ed's life in his late teens was anything but glamorous. He'd lug his gear to open mics where he might get paid in beer or not paid at all. He slept on floors and sofas of kind strangers or fellow musicians when he could, but when he couldn't, it was the train or the outdoors. He went without regular meals or showers. I didn't have the best personal hygiene at that point, he admitted, because it was basically play, sweat, crash, and repeat each day. Yet through all this, Ed never saw himself as a failure. He truly believed he was paying his dues and that his big break would come if he just kept going. And importantly, Ed kept writing new music constantly. In between gigs, he recorded homemade EPs and sold them independently. He wasn't waiting for a record label to hand him an opportunity— he was creating his own. And in 2010, he released an EP called Loose Change, which featured song The A-Team that he wrote after performing at a homeless shelter. He had been struck by the struggles of a young woman that he met there. Ed would later say that many of his first performances were at homeless shelters, and those experiences inspired some of his most heartfelt songs. Even as he was living through his own hardships, Ed was turning pain into art. Storytelling and empathy became part of his signature songwriting qualities that would set him apart set apart from the pack. Slowly but surely, Ed Sheeran was improving. His vocals got stronger, his guitar skills sharper, and his stage presence a little more confident. He was also developing a unique style, using a loop pedal to layer his voice and guitar live, effectively becoming a one-man band. So crowds of 5 turned into 10, then 50. He built a tiny fan base, listener by listener. These few fans were fiercely supportive, buying his self-made CDs and spreading the word about this red-haired kid who could sing and rap and hold an audience spellbound with just an acoustic guitar. Ed's hustle was beginning to pay off in little ways, but the big breakthrough still felt elusive and far away. By the end of 2010, after years of grinding, he was still an unsigned artist living on scraps. Most people, they would have given up. Ed almost did, but he didn't. The turning point: one shot in LA. So in early 2010, frustrated with his stagnation in England, Ed took a huge risk. He spent basically the last of his savings on a one-way ticket to Los Angeles. It sounds crazy. He had no contacts in LA. No shows booked, nothing. But Ed had heard that open mic nights in LA could lead to big opportunities, so he went entirely alone, sleeping on couches in LA just like he had in London. Night after night, he lugged his trusty guitar to any club or cafe that held an open mic, signing up to perform among dozens of other hopefuls. He was just another unknown ginger-haired kid strumming for a distracted crowd. Until one fateful night. That night, Ed played at a popular open mic event in the city. Little did he know, Hollywood actor and musical deliver. Jamie Foxx was in the audience. Jamie Foxx had a keen eye and ear for talent, and Ed's raw musical fire caught his attention immediately. He was this pale British kid pouring his soul into original songs, rapping and singing with incredible skill. After Ed's set, Jamie Foxx approached him. Imagine Ed's shock! Foxx invited Ed to his radio show, The Foxxhole, and had him perform live on air, which introduced Ed to a whole new audience. Even more amazingly, Jamie Foxx was so impressed that he offered Ed the use of his personal recording studio to cut some tracks and let Ed crash at his house during that time. For the first time, someone with industry clout was saying, you've got this, let me help you. Ed's long night of struggle was finally seeing a dawn. Ed returned to London with renewed confidence and a small but crucial foothold in the industry. In January 2011, he independently released one more EP, Number 5 Collaborations Project, featuring guest spots from underground rappers that he admired. To everyone's surprise, that EP blew up online. It reached number 2 on the iTunes chart with no label backing at all, selling thousands of copies in first week. The music industry took notice, big notice. Ed had built a following on his own, and now the labels were calling him. And in a poetic twist, after years of rejection, Ed Sheeran suddenly had a bidding war on his hands. He signed a record deal with Atlantic Records in 2011. The scrappy kid who had been ignored by every label finally had the machine behind him to amplify what he'd been doing all along. Ed was ready for the world, and now The world was ready for Ed. Rico's success— the world listens. Ed wasted no time. In September 2011, at age 20, he released his debut studio album, Plus, under a major label. It was an album full of songs reflecting his journey— heartfelt ballads, up-tempo tracks blending pop, folk, and hip-hop influences. The lead single, The A-Team, a gentle song about a homeless girl's struggle, showcased Ed's songwriting and soulful voice, it struck a chord globally. The 18 became a top 10 hit in many countries and earned Ed his first Grammy nomination for Song of the Year. Not bad for a song he wrote while couch surfing. The album itself shot to number 1 in the UK and broke into the top 5 in the US, eventually selling millions of copies. Songs like Lego House and Gimme Love turned casual listeners into diehard fans. After so many years of playing for tiny crowds, Ed suddenly found thousands of people singing along to his lyrics. He had gone from sleeping outside Buckingham Palace to performing for the Queen of England, literally. In 2012, Ed was invited to perform at the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Concert. And at the 2013 Grammy Awards, Elton John, one of Ed's early heroes, joined him on stage to duet "The A-Team" in front of a worldwide audience. Try to picture that moment. Moment from Ed's eyes. Just 2 years prior, he was unknown and unsigned, and now he's trading lines with Sir Elton John at the Grammys. It was a powerful validation that all those lonely nights and all those gritty days, they'd been worth it. But Ed was just getting started. Instead of resting after his first taste of success, he worked even harder. In 2012 to 2013, he toured constantly, including getting coveted spots as the opening act for Taylor Swift's Arena Tour. Night after night, Ed walked on stage with just his guitar in front of massive crowds who mostly didn't know him, and by the end of his set, he had won them over completely. He built his audience the same way he did in pubs, only now on a bigger scale. In 2014, Ed released his second album, Multiply, which exploded even bigger. It featured Thinking Out Loud, the love ballad that earned him 2 Grammy Awards and became a wedding playlist staple worldwide. By the mid-2010s, Ed Sheeran was a bona fide superstar, selling out arenas and stadiums everywhere that he went. Ed's third album, Divide, in 2017 broke streaming records and led to the highest-grossing most successful tour of all time. Think about that. The kid who played 300 small gigs in a year ended up staging a single tour that sold over 8 million tickets and earned more money than any tour in history. He was selling out London's Wembley Stadium for 3 nights in a row, the very same city where he once slept on the Circle Line train because he had nowhere else to go. Ed had transformed every setback into a stepping stone forward, and as he As he puts it, "I have come out the other end and blossomed." Lessons from Ed's journey: grit, heart, and belief. So Ed Sheeran's rise from struggling busker to global icon is more than just a music success. It's a lesson that we can all learn from. He wasn't handed anything on a silver platter. He wasn't an overnight sensation. He was an over-a-decade sensation. His story proves that hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard. And research actually shows that what we accomplish depends more on our passion and perseverance than about our innate talent for that thing. Passion and perseverance. Ed had both in abundance. He poured thousands of hours into writing songs, performing nonstop to empty rooms, and improving his craft. And every time life said no, Ed's answer was, "Try me tomorrow." So what kept him going? First, love of the craft, right? Ed genuinely loves making music, and that sustained him more than fame or money ever could. Second, it was his belief. Like, he had a belief that he was meant to do this. Even when others doubted him and many people people did, Ed believed in his own vision. He turned insults and rejections into motivation. Remember how he was bullied as a kid? He took that pain and vowed to succeed in his own way. He once advised, embrace your quirks. The moment you stop trying to fit in, things will fit around you. So being yourself is your greatest strength. Ed's weirdness became his uniqueness. The very traits that bullies mocked him for—his voice, his appearance, uh, his emotional openness—became what millions of fans now adore about him. Ed's journey also shows just the power of being resilient. He faced homelessness and hunger and loneliness and industry rejection for years. Any one of those could make people give up, but Ed kept writing another song, kept booking another gig, kept knocking on the next door. Psychologists have a word for this kind of perseverance: grit. And Ed's grit was off the charts. He didn't wait for opportunities, he created them, whether by playing 300 shows in a year or flying to LA on a whim to play open open mics. He trusted the process. And most importantly, Ed never made excuses for why he couldn't succeed. He could have blamed the bullies or his lack of money or the record labels that all turned him down. Instead, he focused on what he could control: writing better songs, performing better on stage, and working harder than anyone else. No money? He played on street corners. No stage? He built his own audience online. No support? He leaned on his own drive. Ed once said in an interview that having a plan B can hold you back, because if you have an escape route, you'll take it when things get tough. So he made music his only plan. It was a risky strategy, but that focus helped turn his dream into reality. And look at him now. Ed Sheeran's success isn't just measured in album sales or awards. It's in the millions of lives that he's touched with his music and his story. So he's proof that you can start with nothing but a dream and end up living that dream as long as you're willing to work for it and believe in it. His journey from sleeping in subway stations to performing on the world's biggest stages changes inspires entrepreneurs, artists, or really anyone with a big goal. So the takeaway: if you want something badly enough, put in the work and never quit. As Ed's story shows, perseverance and passion are a winning combination. Make it happen. Your turn. Ed Sheeran had no money, no privilege, no secret shortcut to success. What he had was his hustle, his heart, and his belief. He made his own opportunities through just sheer effort and refused to let his circumstances define him. So now What about you? Think of your own dreams while you consider Ed's journey. Are you making excuses? Are you making it happen? And the next time you're feeling discouraged or thinking about giving up, remember Ed Sheeran, busking for coins in the cold, sleeping on a train, hearing no 100 times, and remember how he kept going. That persistence built the foundation of an empire, and your persistence can do the same for your dream. Now let's learn the incredible story of Melanie Perkins. Melanie Perkins was rejected over 100 times. Investors told her that she wasn't a real tech founder. They told her that Canva would never work, but she refused to listen. At 19, Melanie was a college student teaching design to her classmates. She noticed how frustrating traditional design software was—complicated, expensive, and built for professionals. So she had an idea: what if anyone could design anything easily? She started started small, creating an online tool for school yearbooks. It gained traction. But when she pitched a bigger vision, what would eventually become Canva, investors shut her down over and over again. Most people would have quit. Instead, Melanie kept refining her pitch, kept reaching out, and after 2 years of persistence, one investor finally said yes. That was all she needed. Canva launched and it exploded. Today, Canva YouTube is worth $26 billion. Over 135 million people use it every month. And it all started with one idea and the courage to keep going. You don't need experience. You don't need permission. You just need the courage to start and the determination to keep going. Are you willing to bet on yourself? Early spark, noticing a problem at 19. In 2007, at just 19 years old, Melanie was a university student in Perth who taught graphic design to earn extra money. She saw firsthand how frustrating and complicated traditional design software like Adobe Photoshop could be for her classmates. The programs were hard to learn, expensive to buy, and they were meant for professionals. Her fellow students struggled even to find where basic buttons were. Melanie realized this wasn't just a classroom problem, it was a problem everywhere. There had to be a way to make design ridiculously simple, she thought. What if if anyone could design anything easily without needing a degree or expensive software? That question lit a fire in her. Instead of shrugging it off, Melanie began dreaming about an online design tool that would empower anyone to create graphics regardless of their experience. This was a crazy big idea at the time, democratizing design for all. But Melanie wasn't intimidated by the size of the vision. In fact, she decided to start small to prove concept worked. Starting small, the birth of Fusion Books. Melanie's first step was to tackle a specific niche that needed better design tools: school yearbooks. Her mother was a teacher, and Melanie knew how much time and effort teachers spent cobbling together yearbooks, often without any design expertise or background. In 2008, Melanie, together with her then-boyfriend Cliff, started a company called Fusion Books. The idea was simple but powerful: an online platform to let schools design their yearbooks easily with templates and a user-friendly interface. They would provide the design tool for free and charge schools for printing the final yearbooks. Melanie and Cliff scraped together funding to get Fusion Books off the ground, borrowing about $50,000 from family and friends and even getting a small $5,000 grant from the Australian government. Melanie poured her heart into detailing exactly how the software should work. She wrote an 80-page business plan and sketched out every page and button of the app. Herself. With this clear vision in mind, they hired a software development company to build the first version. It wasn't easy. The project scope ballooned into 5 times what they expected and took 6 months to develop. But they persisted, and when the product was finally ready, Melanie struck a partnership with Fuji Xerox, convincing them to supply high-quality printers in exchange for covering the ink costs. FusionBooks launched, and before long, schools started signing up. In the first year, 16 schools used their online yearbook designer. By the second year, 50 schools. By the third, over 100 schools were on board. It was clear that Melanie was on to something. Even without advertising or a big team, word was spreading because the tool solved a real pain point. FusionBooks gave Melanie a taste of success and proved that her idea of a simple online design had merit. But for Melanie, yearbooks were just the beginning. She had an even bolder vision in mind. If this approach worked for schools in Australia, why not expand it to the whole world and let everyone design everything online? To do that, she would need to build a new platform, eventually called Canva, and secure serious investment and tech talent. Little did she know, this next phase would test her resolve like nothing before. Big vision meets big skepticism. So emboldened by Fusion Books' progress, Melanie and Cliff, they began pitching a broader vision to investors around 2010, a platform that could allow anyone to design anything by simply dragging and dropping, no expertise required. This was essentially the Canva idea. However, when she took this big vision to venture capitalists, Melanie was met with a lot of skepticism. Many investors just couldn't see how design for everyone would work. Some thought the market was way too small. Others thought the idea was too ambitious. Remember, this was before user-friendly online tools common. Canva's mission seems obviously useful today, but back then VCs didn't buy it. In fact, it took 3 years of pitching before Melanie secured her first major investor. During that time, she was rejected over and over again. Over 100 investors heard her pitch and passed. It's hard to imagine the level of persistence it takes to endure 100 versions of no. Most people would have given up after a dozen rejections, but not Melanie. She kept refining her pitch after each rejection. Early on, her presentations were heavy on the technical details and business jargon, but she realized something crucial. She needed to explain why Canva mattered before explaining how it worked. Instead of bombarding investors with abstract promises like a unified publishing system, as one early pitch deck, uh, said, she started telling the story of her students that were struggling with Photoshop and how frustrating that was to do. That personal story made investors feel the problem. A lot of people can relate to going into something like Photoshop and being completely overwhelmed, she explained. Once Melanie learned how to pitch the problem in a more relatable human way, investors began to lean in rather than tune out. It was a transformative moment for her. She discovered that communicating her passion that her passion and why she was building Canva was as important as the product itself. Still, even with a better pitch, the rejections kept coming along for a while. Some potential backers doubted her because she wasn't a coder or she wasn't a Silicon Valley insider. One even told her she should go find a more practical project, implying that her vision wasn't realistic. Others flat out laughed at the idea that a young woman from Perth could take on giants like Adobe. And these missiles, they, they could have crushed her spirit. But Melanie instead said that every no just strengthened her resolve. She later reflected that these rejections forced her to know her product inside out and address every single concern, which made her pitch even stronger. Melanie was committed to the vision of democratizing design no matter how many doors were closed in her face. All she needed was one door to open. A chance meeting that changed everything. In 2011, after countless failed pitch meetings, Melanie attended a local startup conference in Perth. She actually wasn't even a scheduled participant, but she went anyway, looking to make connections. There she heard Silicon Valley venture capitalist Bill Tai speak. Bill Tai had invested in startups like Zoom and Wish, and just hearing him talk about startups excited Melanie. Despite being an introvert and far from the Silicon Valley scene, Melanie gathered all her courage and approached Bill Tai after his talk. She gave him a quick elevator pitch about her idea, and it must have intrigued him because Bill said, almost as a polite aside, "If you're ever in San Francisco, let's meet up." Now, a lot of people might take that as a brush-off line, but not Melanie. To her, it was the opportunity she'd been waiting for. She immediately messaged Bill to take him up on the offer, saying she'd be in Silicon Valley soon, even though she had no such trip planned yet. Then she booked a flight to California California. I spoke to him for 5 minutes and he said if I went to San Francisco, he'd be happy to meet with me. So I jumped on a plane to San Francisco and true to his word, he met up with me, Melanie said. It was a bold move, flying across the world on the hope that one investor might finally say yes. When Melanie arrived in Silicon Valley, she was in for a surprise. During her pitch to Bill Tai at his office, he appeared distracted, often looking at his phone. She was worried she was losing his interest. In reality, Bill was texting people in his network about Melanie's idea, lining up potential partners for her even as she spoke. Bill didn't write a check that day, but he did something invaluable. He introduced Melanie to Lars Rasmussen, a co-founder of Google Maps and an experienced tech engineer who could advise her on making Canva a reality. Meeting Lars was exciting. He understood the vision and even expressed interest in investing. However, Lars gave Melanie a condition: find a great tech team or co-founder to build this, and I'm in. This was a bit of a catch-22. Investors wanted a tech team in place, but tech experts often wanted investors or traction first. Nevertheless, Melanie took the challenge head on. She stayed in Silicon Valley for 3 months trying to recruit a technical co-founder or lead engineers who believed in Canva. She went to networking events, she met with anyone who would listen, and she pitched the her vision over and over again. But Silicon Valley can be a tough crowd. Most skilled developers were already running their own startups or working at tech giants. Nobody signed on. And after 3 exhausting months, Melanie had not secured a single engineer for her team. It was a real low point for her. Melanie flew back to Australia feeling defeated, thinking how back home Cliff was still running the Fusion Books yearbook business by himself while she was away. On the flight home, she could list only a few tangible achievements from her trip. Later, she would say that the only thing I actually achieved was surviving that Silicon Valley stint. But survival is no small accomplishment. She hadn't found her tech partner yet, but she also hadn't given up. Learning to kitesurf for a second chance. Back in Perth, Melanie jumped back into running Fusion Books and kept in touch with Bill Tai Lars. A few months later, Bill Tai invited Melanie and Cliff to an exclusive gathering he hosted in Maui, Hawaii. Bill had a hobby of kitesurfing and would organize kitesurfing meetups that doubled as informal startup conferences, bringing together investors and entrepreneurs. This invite was another big opportunity to network, with one catch: Melanie had no idea how to kitesurf. Still, when Bill asked if she could join, she wasn't gonna let that stop stoppers. Sure, I love kitesurfing, she lied. Little white lie in the service of her dream. Melanie and Cliff immediately took a few kitesurfing lessons so they wouldn't embarrass themselves, and then they flew out to Maui. In Hawaii, they found themselves among a small group of tech bigwigs and startup founders, far away from any formal boardrooms. The networking was happening on the beach. Despite feeling a little out of her element, Melanie made the most of it. She and Cliff even volunteered to pitch their Canva idea at a spur-of-the-moment event during during the gathering. The night before the pitch, they stayed up all night refining their presentation one more time. The next day, running on little sleep but full of determination, they delivered their pitch to the group, and this time things clicked. The attendees, many of them were seasoned investors, were impressed with her. Several people expressed a serious interest in doing business. They could see the massive potential in a democratized design platform. Platform. Momentum was finally building. Although they didn't walk away from Maui with a signed term sheet, Melanie and Cliff gained something almost as valuable: credibility and connections. They were no longer just an unknown duo from Australia with this crazy idea. They had influential backers in their corner. And so, backed by this positive feedback, they headed to Silicon Valley to capitalize on that buzz. The turning point: finding the right partners. On their return to Silicon Valley, Melanie and Cliff were on a mission. They had interest from people like Lars Rasmussen and other Maui attendees, but they knew the remaining hurdle: assembling a great tech team to build Canva. They networked and networked and networked, and each time an investor pointed out a weakness, they addressed it, refining their plan and their vision. And over this period, Melanie ended up pitching to more than 100 investors, essentially anyone who would listen in the span of about a year. It was grueling for her, but she stayed firm. She truly believed in the future of easy online design and would not quit until Canva became reality. Then at long last, the pieces started falling into place. Lars Rasmussen introduced Melanie to an engineer named Cameron Adams, an ex-Google software whiz with a passion for design. Cameron had actually co-founded a startup before and was highly respected in in the field. When Cameron saw what Melanie was trying to do, he was sold. This was exactly the kind of project he wanted to be a part of. So in 2012, Cameron Adams joined Melanie and Cliff as a co-founder of the future Canva. Finally, they had the tech leader that they needed. Around the same time, another early employee, Dave Burson, came on board as a developer, completing their core team. With Melanie driving the vision and design thinking, Cliff handling operations and business, and Cameron leading the technology technology, Canva now had a dream team to execute the idea. Investors took notice. Suddenly the question, can this team actually build this? Had a resounding yes. The next investor Melanie pitched said yes, and then another and another. Once the first domino fell, funding poured in. In 2013, Melanie finally secured a major investment round of roughly $3 million to officially launch Canva. Now, after nearly 3 years of constant direction, she had her breakthrough. Canva was a go. It's worth noting that this moment, this one yes, can outweigh hundreds of nos. Melanie Perkins only needed a single investor to believe in her, and because she never stopped believing in herself, she eventually found that investor. Her story could have ended in defeat many times, but she kept pushing until the door opened. Launching Canva, rapid growth, and impact. With funding secured and a talented team assembled, Melanie and her co-founders got to work building the first version of Canva. They officially launched canva.com in 2013. The response was immediate and enthusiastic. There was indeed a huge pent-up demand for easy design tools. Canva reached 1 million users in its first year by 2014. By the next year, it had 6 million users. The product kept improving, word of mouth spread globally, and user growth accelerated like wildfire. Over the next several years, Canva expanded its features, adding templates for everything from social media graphics to presentations. And its user base kept snowballing. By 2017, Canva was valued at over $1 billion, making Melanie one of tech's few female unicorn CEOs. And that was just the beginning. Investors continued to back the company as it grew. By 2021, the funding round valued Canva at $40 billion, an astonishing figure that made it one of the world's most valuable private companies. Melanie Melanie Perkins, the young founder once laughed out of boardrooms, had built a startup behemoth. As Inc. magazine noted, Canva's rise also made it one of the most valuable female-founded and female-led startups in history. Meanwhile, Canva's user community exploded. The platform spread to 190 countries and classrooms, nonprofits, small businesses, and Fortune 500 companies alike all began using Canva for their design needs. By 2022, 2022, Canva had over 100 million monthly active users, and by 2023, that number grew to 135 million people using Canva each month. A truly global impact. Now for context, that's more users than most established tech products could dream of today. Canva's growth continues now with over 220 million users as of 2024. The company generated an estimated $2.7 billion in revenue in 2024 and is expanding into new arenas like video editing and AI design tools. Melanie Perkins herself has been recognized as one of the most successful self-made women in tech. She graced the covers of Fortune magazine's Most Powerful Women issue in 2022, and major publications have profiled how Canva is taking on giants like Microsoft and Adobe in the design space. But maybe most impressively, Melanie and Cliff, who got married along the journey, have become multi-billionaires from Canva's success. By 2023, 2025, Forbes estimated the couple's net worth at over $8 billion. It's a pretty huge number, especially considering that just over a decade ago they were students with a dream, no money, no Silicon Valley connections, and not even technical programming backgrounds. They started from scratch, identified a problem, and solved it through their determination and their ingenuity. And despite this massive success, Melanie has remained grounded in her mission. She still says that Canva's goal is not just to be a valuable company, but to do the most good that they can. In 2021, Melanie and Cliff signed the Giving Pledge, vowing to give away the majority of their wealth to charitable causes. We have this wildly optimistic belief that there is enough money, goodwill, and good intentions in the world to solve most of the world's problems, Melanie wrote in her pledge. And true to that spirit, they've directed about 30% of Canva's equity into the Canva Foundation to fund projects in education, and sustainability. For Melanie, success isn't just measured in dollars or user counts, but in the positive impact that you can make once you achieve your dream. Lessons from Melanie Perkins' journey. Melanie's story is more than just a business success. It's an example of perseverance, vision, and courage. And so here are some of my favorite key lessons that we can all take away from her journey. Number 1, solve a real problem. Melanie's idea for Canva was rooted in a genuine pain point that she observed. People were struggling with complex design software. Great businesses start by addressing the real needs that others often overlook. So ask yourself, what problem can I solve? Focus on making something better for people. Next, start small and validate. Instead of immediately trying to conquer the world, Melanie began with a niche, which was yearbooks via Fusion Books, to test and improve her concept. That early traction gave her evidence that the idea worked. You don't need to have it all figured out on day day one. Start with a manageable piece of your vision and prove that it works. Next, be patient but persistent in building your team. Melanie knew she needed the right technical talent and refused to settle for less. Now, it took time— years, in fact— to find co-founder Cameron Adams and others who shared her vision. Rather than rushing with the wrong team, she patiently kept searching until the puzzle was complete. The right partners can make all the difference for Next, embrace rejection and never give up. And this is maybe the biggest lesson of all. Melanie heard no over 100 times, and each rejection she used to improve and try again. Every no that you hear is one step closer to your yes. Use that criticism as feedback, not as a verdict on your dreams. The moment that things got tough, Melanie doubled down instead of quitting, and her determination was ultimately more important than any credential or any connection. Each of these principles contributed to Canva's creation. If Melanie had lacked even one of them, her story might have ended completely differently. But by combining a great idea, a smart approach, her perseverance, her bravery, she achieved what once seemed impossible. One idea, one yes, and the courage to believe. Melanie Perkins' journey from a frustrated college student to the CEO of a multi-billion-dollar a company is a reminder that you don't need special permission or perfect conditions to start. She had no experience running a tech company. She had no famous last name. She had no Silicon Valley address. What she did have was an idea that she believed in and the courage to act on it. She started with what she had, right where she was. When experts dismissed her, she did not back down. When investors shut the doors on her, she found another way in. Even if if it meant flying across the globe or learning to kite surf to get 5 minutes with someone who could help. Now, most people, they would have quit after a handful of rejections or nos. Melanie kept going after 100. That is what made all the difference. And today it's hard to imagine how many people's lives, from small business owners creating their first logo to teachers making classroom posters to nonprofits raising awareness with beautiful graphics, have been touched because Melanie Perkins refused to quit. And it all started with one young woman who dared to say, there has to be a better way, and I'm going to create it. Remember Melanie's story when you face your own setbacks. You don't need experience, you don't need permission, you just need the courage to start and the determination to keep going. Every no is not the end, it's just an invitation to find a new path. So the next time you're feeling discouraged, discouraged about a dream of yours and it's not working out, think of Melanie hearing her 100th no and still pressing forward. The next yes could be just around the corner, waiting for you to show how much you believe. To watch the incredible story of BTS, check the video right there next to me. I think you'll love it. Continue to believe, and I'll see you there. Meet BTS, a 7-member South Korean boy band from Seoul. This group went from debuting with a small album on a tight budget to becoming the first K-pop group to top the Billboard Hot 100.