100 Investors Said No. Canva Said Yes.
A university romance in Perth. A yearbook business in a lounge room. A design app used by hundreds of millions.
Imagine hearing "no" from about 100 investors.
Most people would quit. Cliff Obrecht and his partner Melanie Perkins kept going.
The company they were pitching became Canva, the design app used by hundreds of millions of people to make posters, slides, videos and social media posts.
Growing up in Perth
Cliff Obrecht grew up in Kingsley, a suburb north of Perth in Western Australia. His father worked for the government. His mother was a schoolteacher.
He studied at the University of Western Australia.
Melanie and the yearbook idea
At university, Cliff met Melanie Perkins. She taught students how to use design software and noticed how hard those programs were to learn.
She had an idea: design tools that anyone could use in a web browser.
They started small. In 2007, they launched Fusion Books, a website that let school students design their own yearbooks. They ran it from Melanie's mum's lounge room. It grew into one of the biggest yearbook companies in Australia.
Taking the idea bigger
Fusion Books proved the idea worked for yearbooks. Cliff and Melanie wanted to use it for everything.
Melanie flew to Silicon Valley to pitch investors. Many said no. But she met people who opened doors, including the man who introduced them to an ex-Google engineer named Cameron Adams. Cameron joined as the third co-founder.
Canva launches
Canva launched in 2013. Melanie became CEO. Cliff became chief operating officer, the COO, running the business side.
Canva was simple. Pick a template, drag and drop, and you have a great looking design. Students, teachers, small businesses and big companies all started using it.
Canva grew to more than 265 million monthly users. It bought other companies, including Pexels, Pixabay, Leonardo.ai and the maker of the Affinity design apps.
Giving it away
In 2021, Cliff and Melanie got married. That same year, they signed the Giving Pledge and promised to give more than 80 percent of their Canva stake to charity through the Canva Foundation.
Between 2022 and the end of 2025, the foundation gave out nearly $84 million.
Where he is now
Today, Cliff Obrecht is co-founder and COO of Canva. An employee share sale in August 2025 valued Canva at $42 billion, with $3.3 billion in yearly revenue.
He has talked often about a future stock market listing. In late 2025 he told Bloomberg it was "probably imminent in the next couple of years." In 2026 he told Capital Brief that Canva was targeting a 2027 IPO.
Why the story matters
Cliff Obrecht's story shows that "no" is just a step. He and Melanie tested their idea with yearbooks, proved it worked, then kept pitching until the right people said yes.
It also shows a different kind of success: building a fortune and choosing to give most of it away.
For young builders, the lesson is simple. Start small, prove your idea, and do not let rejection decide your future.
He helped put design in everyone's hands, then opened his own.
The Record
From: Kingsley, Perth, Western Australia
Studied: University of Western Australia
Built: Fusion Books and Canva (with Melanie Perkins and Cameron Adams)
Role: Co-founder and COO of Canva
Timeline
2007 Launches Fusion Books with Melanie Perkins.
2012 Cameron Adams joins as co-founder.
2013 Canva launches.
2021 Marries Melanie Perkins and signs the Giving Pledge.
2025 Canva valued at $42 billion.
2026 Canva targets a 2027 IPO.