How a 19-year-old built a $25B+ company

Success is defined by both doing well and doing good.

♻️ Last week, I shared the story of 10th-grader Isha Anand who invented a tote bag using recycled materials that can keep food cold for 12 hours.

💰 Now she’s in business with a $200m company.

One of our readers reached out to us to say:

“It is amazing to see what young people can do when their creativity is channeled into doing something good.”

I couldn’t agree more.

Today, we’re diving into the story of one of my favorite founders, Melanie Perkins, creator of the design platform Canva.

Melanie didn’t create Canva because she was determined to make billions of dollars (although she has). She founded Canva because she wanted to democratize design and give everyone the power of expression.

When your mission begins by wanting to put some good into the world, success often follows.

Here’s how that happened for Melanie. 👇

How a 19-year-old took on Adobe and Microsoft — and won

Who doesn’t love an underdog story? (Well, the tech goliaths getting replaced probably don’t.)

At 19, Melanie Perkins started building a company that would eventually become Canva – the $25B alternative to complicated design tools.

But dethroning tech giants is not the most interesting part of Melanie’s story.

The most interesting part of the story is how often she failed. ❌

“We were just faced with a wall of problems and rejections,” says Melanie.

When you keep meeting rejection, you have two options:

1. Stop ⛔

2. Persist ✅

Melanie persisted again and again, revising her pitch over 100 times.

“Every time we got a hard question from an investor or a reason why they wouldn't invest, we stayed focused on what we could change,” says Melanie.

In her 2016 Sunrise Conference talk, Melanie emphasized how difficult it was to get Canva off the ground.

“Our overnight success has taken more than 9 years,” she said.

Overnight successes are a myth.

In fact, facing rejection and persisting is part of the success playbook:

• Stephen King’s first book was rejected by 30 publishers.

• Jay-Z was rejected by every music label before he started his own.

• Walt Disney was rejected 300 times by bankers who thought his animation ideas were crazy.

⚡ Embracing rejection is one of the best ways to supercharge your career.

“If it wasn’t challenging, you wouldn’t feel as satisfied when you get to the end goal,” says Melanie.

Young entrepreneurs are more likely to be successful

I know — even if you persist, founding a billion-dollar company is rare at any age.

But studies show that serial entrepreneurs, or people who began building businesses at a young age, set themselves up for success later on.

This is true no matter how viable their early ventures are.

📈 In fact, young founders see their sales revenues nearly double between their first and second companies.

The data tracks — because Melanie didn’t start her first business at 19.

She started at 14, designing and selling handmade scarves in her hometown of Perth, Australia.

Canva is actually Melanie’s third business venture (the second was the precursor to Canva, called Fusion Books).

Entrepreneurship can help kids:

• Gain first-hand experience in business

• Get exposed to a variety of jobs and industries

• Discover and define their future college or career aspirations

💸 The sooner your kids get started with entrepreneurship, the more likely they’ll be to find success later in life.

Storytelling – a life skill every kid should learn

Melanie was rejected by investors over 100 times.

WSJ bestselling author Carmine Gallo interviewed Melanie to find out why.

According to Carmine, Melanie’s early pitches were rejected because she was missing key parts of her story.

“She started with the solution: Canva’s features. But few investors understood the world of graphic design or why anyone would care,” says Carmine.

💡 It’s what Simon Sinek meant when he advised entrepreneurs to start with why: “People don't buy what you do; they buy why you do it.”

Melanie’s “why” was to help everyone design beautifully, even without design experience.

To find your own persuasive story, Carmine suggests using a three-act storytelling structure:

These three acts mimic the great story structures we’ve come to know and love in movies and television that have proven to win over hearts and minds.

Act 1: The Setup

In stories, this is where we meet the characters and set the stage.

In business, this is where you talk about your company’s origin story. The more unique and relatable, the better.

Melanie started her pitch by talking about her 19-year-old self, earning side income by teaching other students how to use design programs like Photoshop.

For BETA Camper Rhett Jones, he introduced himself as one of the top three mountain bikers in the state of Texas.

Act 2: The Conflict

“The second act is where the action happens,” says Carmine.

In business, this is where you explain why your idea should exist. What is the problem you are here to solve?

Melanie described how people would spend an entire semester just learning where the basic buttons were on Photoshop. She wanted to create a better way.

And Rhett described how mountain bikers have to take 12-hour road trips to other states to get access to good bike trails.

Act 3: The Resolution

The final act is where the story resolves.

“The hero finds a solution to the problem, achieves their dream, and — this is critical — transforms the world for the better,” says Carmine.

What are the benefits of your product? How does it solve the problem you outlined before?

Melanie pitched Canva — a tool that makes it easy for anyone to design, even without any design experience.

Rhett pitched a plan to build the world’s biggest bike park, for which he already had a land grant and tax dollars secured. 🚵 

(P.S. — You can check out Rhett’s full pitch here!)

Anyone can start a business and use the three-act story structure to get investors on board.

In fact, this is exactly what all of our students do at BETA Camp.

After working on their companies for four weeks, they pitch their ideas to real venture capitalists. 💰

Want in? Get on the waitlist for our next cohort.

Here are some awesome kids 👇️ 

BETA Camp recently held an in-person meetup in Toronto for alumni and other teen entrepreneurs. Many thanks to investor Jai Relan for the amazing office hours and Q&A!

If you want a future meetup in your city, be sure to tell us where you live!

Until next time,

Ivy

CEO Prequel, BETA Camp, Apollo, AI Masterclass

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