Strictly Creative

Being a creative entrepreneur requires special guts. Of course, people have always relied on their creativity to create a successful brand and wealth, but the modern creative entrepreneur goes a step further. She uses her creativity to unlock the wealth that lies within her, and uses that force to conquer uncharted territories. This March, as the world celebrates #Balanceforbetter as theme of International Women's Day, we spoke with six creative entrepreneurs across Asia-Pacific and beyond to learn why they chose the path they took and how they became successful leaders in their respective fields.

- Nidhi Singh, Komal Nathani & Pooja Singh

The Unicorn Designer

Canva’s Melanie Perkins shares the journey of her $1 billion business

Melanie Perkins was 22 when she flew from her home in Perth, Australia, to the Silicon Valley in the US to pitch a startup idea to a multimillionaire. Although Bill Tai, the famous technology investor, initially didn’t pay much attention to the college dropout’s “future of publishing” idea, he did introduce her to other investors, engineers and developers — and ultimately, he himself invested in her brainchild, Canva. Today, Canva, an online platform that allows anyone to design everything from greeting cards to posters, and websites to calendars, is worth more than one billion dollars, available in over 100 languages and used by people across the world.

The Other Story

The shaping of Canva started when Perkins was at the University of Western Australia. Then 19, she used to teach students how to use a design software. It was then she realized how long it took them “to feel remotely confident while designing something basic.” The idea behind Canva was to make the future of design simpler. Along with her partner, Cliff Obrecht, Perkins decided to test the idea by launching Fusion Books. “It was the idea of Canva, but for the very niche market of high school yearbooks in Australia,” she says. Securing funding, however, was a big challenge. It took her three years from her first conversation with an investor to get her first cheque. “I even woke up at 4am to catch the train to Silicon Valley for a breakfast meeting. I heard the words ‘no’ or ‘not yet’ many, many times but whenever I did, I listened to their questions and made our pitch deck stronger,” she says.

Perkins believes being a female entrepreneur in a male-dominated world can be difficult, but one must always stay focused to one’s vision.