How he went from building a Google product to co-founding Canva

Cameron Adams, co-founder of Canva

This article is part of Tech in Asia’s partnership with The Jay Kim Show where we publish the revised transcripts from the show’s podcast interviews with top entrepreneurs. This is heavily revised from the original show transcripts. For the full interview, go here.

Cameron Adams is the chief product officer and co-founder of Canva, an online design and publishing tool that makes graphic design simple for everyone. Since launching in 2013, the Australia-based company has grown to over 10 million users across 190 countries.

Here, Adams talks about how he met his co-founders, the idea behind Canva, and some insights from their milestones.

Could you tell us about your background and how you decided to become an entrepreneur?

I had a fairly long history dabbling in business, though I’ve always been more on the creative side. I’d been doing graphic design in university and eventually picked that up as a full-time job. That was right around the time when the internet was becoming popular, particularly in Australia.

I started my own web design agency and worked there for a while before I ended up at Google, where I worked on a product called Google Wave. Then, I decided to go back and do my own thing. I did another startup with two other Google engineers. We did a lot of pitching but we didn’t come out with any money.

Fortunately, my old boss at Google introduced me to a woman called Melanie Perkins (Mel) who had been running a school yearbook business at the time. They were over in Perth, letting schools build their own yearbooks using a Flash app. My former boss told me to talk to them about technology.

That’s when Mel told me about her broader vision for what design could be, which eventually turned into Canva. So, Mel, Cliff Obrecht, and I joined forces and founded the company. We launched it with eight people in 2013.

What was the pain point that led you guys to start this company?

It definitely originated from Mel’s pain point. She was teaching design in university, and her students were amateurs who had never touched a design program before. She found it incredibly frustrating. She thought there must be a better way for people to communicate their ideas and their vision without having to spend two years learning Photoshop and understanding the fundamentals of design.

The yearbook business was the first step. They went out and talked to schools, teachers, and students, and understood what their frustrations were and what could help them. When they met up with me, they were starting to formulate their broader vision.

How does Canva work?

Our tagline now is “Design anything. Publish anywhere.” The idea behind that is that we want to offer the full experience of designing something in a really simple package.

When we first entered the market, there were quite a few things out there, but they were very fragmented. To find an image, you had to go to a stock photo library. To find a layout, you had to go to a stock layout library. To get fonts, you had to download them separately. Then, you had to pull all that stuff into an application like Photoshop. But you had to understand first how to use it and know the rules about layout, etc. It was an incredibly complex process.

So, we wanted to condense that down into one app that could do it all and in a simple way. We wanted to take design from this very privileged, professional thing that only 1 percent of the world could do and allow the other 99 percent to access it as well.

Does it still use the freemium model?

Yes. We have lots of free elements that you can use in your designs. But if you want to take your design to the next level, you can access premium elements, which only cost US$1. We also have a more business-oriented subscription offering for when you want to focus on your brand and work together with a team.

What are some of the milestones that you are focusing on?

What challenges have you experienced as the organization grows?

What’s your advice for people who want to be successful entrepreneurs?