The woman behind Canva shares how she built a $42B company from nothing | Melanie Perkins

In this episode of Lenny's Podcast, Lenny interviews Melanie Perkins, the CEO and co-founder of Canva, about her journey building one of the world's most valuable companies. Melanie shares insights on "column B thinking," which involves envisioning a desired future and working backward to create it, and emphasizes the importance of setting "crazy big goals" to drive innovation. She discusses Canva's mission to empower the world to design and the company's two-step plan: building a valuable company and doing the most good possible. Melanie also recounts overcoming challenges like investor rejection and a major codebase rewrite, and she highlights Canva's unique approach to product development, which involves actively listening to community feedback and integrating AI to enhance user experience. Finally, she touches on the importance of balancing work with personal well-being and shares her vision for a future where basic human needs are met for everyone.