Paige Finn DohertyFounding Partner, Behind Genius · Founding Partner at Behind Genius Ventures

What was Blackbird Co-founder Niki Scevak's experience meeting Canva CEO Melanie Perkins?

14 Apr 2023 · 1 min

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In this interview excerpt, the host asks Blackbird co‑founder Niki Scevak about his early encounter with Canva’s CEO Melanie Perkins and the company’s evolution. Scevak describes meeting Melanie, Cliff, and Cam and immediately recognizing Canva as a “superstar” Australian startup with a global outlook from day one. He highlights Canva’s mission to empower anyone to design, positioning it as a superior alternative to limited tools like Microsoft Paint and PowerPoint. The conversation touches on Canva’s rapid growth, worldwide customer base, and the pivots it underwent in its business model.

One of the portfolio companies I would love to talk about is Canva. What was your experience like meeting Melanie earlier on, and how was that journey watching Canva grow? Because they definitely went through like pivots and changes in the business model.
It, it was very clear that Mel, Cliff, and Cam and Canva was a superstar company and exactly the kind of company that you would hope to be born from Australia. So Global from day one, customers all around the world, and and this big mission of empowering people to design who previously were you know given Microsoft Paint or Microsoft PowerPoint and did a really bad job with those tools.
Yeah.
I think Mel in particular defines the the person doing her life's work. She taught graphic design at university. The first company that her and Cliff did was Fusion Books, which is almost like a high school yearbooks version of Canva. It let parents and kids and teachers manage the workflow of creating a high school yearbook.