Canva is a popular online graphic design and publishing platform through which users can create a wide range of visual content including presentations, social media graphics, flyers, logos, infographics, and more. Melanie Perkins, Cliff Obrecht, and Cameron Adams launched Canva in 2012 in Sydney, Australia. The Canva platform design is user-friendly and accessible to people of all skill levels, including those with no prior design experience. The platform offers a range of customizable templates, graphics, icons, and fonts to choose from, making it easy for users to create professional-looking designs in a matter of minutes. Canva is available both as a free and paid service, with additional features and resources available to users who choose to subscribe to the platform’s premium version. While most people access Canva via its website, it also offers a mobile app, which allows users to create and edit designs on the go. Canva is an incredible success story. Roughly 125 million people use the firm’s platform each month. It is available in more than 190 countries. It is among the top 100 most visited websites in at least 61 countries. Over 27 million teachers and students use “Canva for Education” in classrooms around the world. Over 400,000 nonprofit organizations use “Canva for Nonprofits” in their design work. Approximately 85 percent of Fortune 500 companies, which amounts to more than 425 of the United States’ largest companies, use Canva. Since the firm’s launching, users have created more than 15 billion designs, with 10 billion of them appearing in a recent two-year period. Canva sounds like an overnight success. But as Steve Jobs once said, “If you really look closely, most overnight successes took a long time.” Jobs’s observation is spot-on when considering Canva’s story. Its founding and growth, including how obtaining investment capital plays in Canva’s success, is a fascinating story. In 2018, Melanie Perkins, Canva’s lead cofounder, invited fellow entrepreneurs to ask her any question they wanted to ask about Canva’s journey and how Canva achieved what it has. Resulting from this “question-and-answer” process is a 78-page blog post titled “21 Questions from Aussie Startups: Highs, Lows & Lessons Learned During Canva’s Journey So Far [Part 1].” The quotes from Melanie we show below are from the blog post. The post is an excellent read and reflects the long slog that many startups experience before achieving success. You can find the URL for the post in the “Sources” section at the end of this case.....

Discussion Questions:

1.In Chapter 1, we introduced you to the four characteristics of successful entrepreneurs, which are passion for the business, product/customer focus, tenacity despite failure, and execution intelligence. On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the highest), how would you rate Melanie Perkins on each characteristic? For each characteristic, cite an example from the case that illustrates that characteristic at work in Canva’s startup experience.
2.On Melanie’s first trip to Silicon Valley, imagine if Bill Tai, the venture capitalist she wanted to meet by traveling there, had requested a 60-second elevator speech from her. Write Melanie’s 60-second elevator speech. You can write it in bullet-point format if you desire. Organize the elevator speech in the manner we show in Table 10.3.

3.Bill Tai, the venture capitalist with whom Melanie first met, indicated that he would support her venture but only if she hired a capable tech team.
Why do you think Tai had this requirement?
4.If you are not already familiar with Canva, spend some time experimenting with its platform. Design a logo, business card, or any form of design that interests you. In your judgment, did Melanie and her team achieve their goal of making Canva easy to use, even for someone with no design experience?

Data From Table 10.3.

Transcribed Image Text:

TABLE 10.3 Guidelines for Preparing an Elevator Speech The elevator speech is a very brief description of your opportunity, product idea, qualifications, and market. Imagine that you step into an elevator in a tall building and a potential investor is already there; you have about 60 seconds to explain your business idea. Step 1 Describe the opportunity or problem that requires a solution. Step 2 Describe how your product or service meets the opportunity or solves the problem. Step 3 Describe your qualifications. Step 4 Describe your market. Total 20 seconds 20 seconds 10 seconds 10 seconds 60 seconds