The Twenty Minute VC

Canva's Cliff Obrecht: How We Turned Our Yearbook Company to $40B Business | 20VC #971

Cliff Obrecht is the Co-Founder & COO @ Canva, the free-to-use online graphic design tool that makes it easy for anyone to design anything from presentations to videos and social media. Cliff and Mel have scaled Canva to over 60 million monthly users, 2,000 employees, and 500,000 teams from companies like Intel and Zoom using Canva. During this incredible growth journey, they have raised over $580M with their last round valuing the company at over $40BN. ------------------------------------------------ Timestamps: 0:00 Founding Story of Canva 5:16 Advice to Founders 16:39 Hiring Internally vs Externally 17:47 How to Be a Deal Maker 24:59 Toughest Times at Canva 32:58 The Future of Canva 39:44 Cliff’s Relationship to Money 42:05 The Canva Foundation 47:44 Married to Your Co-Founder 52:55 Quick Fire Round ------------------------------------------------ In Today’s Episode with Cliff Obrecht 1.) From Teacher to Billionaire Tech Founder: How did Keith make his way into the world of tech with his founding of FusionBooks? What did the process with FusionBooks teach him about how to run Canva? How did the early fundraising days for Canva go? Why does Cliff think they got over 100 no’s? What are Cliff’s biggest pieces of advice for founders today, not in Silicon Valley, looking to raise from Silicon Valley VCs? 2.) Scaling to $40BN: The Biggest Lessons: What does Cliff mean when he says the secret to successful hiring is looking for “distance traveled”? How does he determine this in the interview process? What have been some of the single biggest lessons in what it takes to acquire the best talent? What are some of the biggest mistakes Cliff has made in talent acquisition? How has his process changed as a result? What do Canva do to get the best operators as advisors in the company? How do they compensate these advisors? What does Cliff advise founders on how to do the same? 3.) The Art of Deal-Making: How does Cliff think through what makes a “good deal”? How does he approach negotiation? What are the biggest mistakes founders make when negotiating and doing deals? What have been Cliff’s biggest lessons on successful investor relations over the years? How does Cliff and Canva approach acquisitions? What do they look for? What is their process? Why do most tech companies approach acquisitions the wrong way? 4.) Cliff Obrecht: Money, Fatherhood and Marriage: How does Cliff analyze his relationship to money today? How much money is enough? How has his relationship to money changed over time? Why have Cliff and Mel given away over $10BN to their foundation? Why is philanthropy so hard to do effectively? Why would Cliff hate for his children to be brought up in excess wealth? What does “great fatherhood” mean to Cliff? What are the most challenging aspects of parenting? What are the secrets to a happy marriage? How does co-founding a company with your other half work well? How does it work poorly? ------------------------------------------------- Subscribe to the Podcast: https://www.thetwentyminutevc.com/cliff-obrecht/ Follow Harry Stebbings on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarryStebbings Follow Cliff Obrecht on Twitter: https://twitter.com/cliffobrecht Follow 20VC on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/20vc_reels Follow 20VC on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@20vc_tok --------------------------------------------------- #CliffObrecht #Canva #HarryStebbings #perthaustralia #techfounders #startupstory #founderstory

Cliff ObrechtguestHarry Stebbingshost

Jan 26, 202358mWatch on YouTube ↗

WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT

From Perth Yearbooks To Global Design Giant: Canva’s Relentless Ascent

Cliff Obrecht traces Canva’s journey from a small Perth-based yearbook business (Fusion Books) to a $40B global visual communication platform, emphasizing persistence despite over 100 VC rejections and major technical setbacks.
He unpacks his philosophies on leadership, hiring, talent development, deal-making, and product strategy, including the importance of integrity, long-term thinking, and treating business as a serious but ultimately non-defining “game.”
Obrecht discusses prioritizing product quality, bundling versus specialized tools, and Canva’s deep push into AI as an embedded copilot for users’ real jobs-to-be-done rather than a standalone novelty.
He also reflects candidly on imposter syndrome, co-founding with his wife and CEO Melanie Perkins, fatherhood, and their decision to dedicate 99% of their Canva stake to philanthropy focused on efficiently connecting capital with the world’s biggest problems.

IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING

5 ideas

Start narrow, prove value, then expand deliberately.

Canva began by solving a very specific problem—school yearbooks—before generalizing the same core concept to broader visual communication. Obrecht frames this as “start niche and go wide,” solving one group’s pain deeply, then moving to adjacent segments.

Persistence and long-term integrity compound more than early credentials.

Obrecht and Perkins were rejected by over 100 VCs, yet persisted while running Fusion Books and couch-surfing in the US. He stresses that playing the “marathon, not a sprint,” combined with always keeping your word, eventually draws talent, partners, and investors back to you.

Hire for ‘distance traveled’ and grow world-class leaders internally.

He looks for candidates who’ve overcome significant disadvantages or non-traditional paths, arguing that once they “figure out the game,” they can outperform stereotypically polished résumés. Many of Canva’s top leaders (e.g., CMO, Head of People) were promoted from junior or unconventional roles.

Be radically transparent and goal-aligned in deals and acquisitions.

Obrecht’s deal-making approach is to quickly surface whether an acquisition or partnership can align both sides’ goals, be clear about what is valuable and what is not, and avoid drawn-out, vague corp-dev courtship. He prefers a fast no to a slow no and emphasizes character and founder motivation.

Invest in foundations, even when it means pausing visible progress.

Canva halted feature shipping for nearly two years to rewrite its front-end and repay crippling tech debt. In the short term this was a “death march,” but it enabled far greater product velocity and defensibility later, illustrating the payoff of painful, foundational work.

WORDS WORTH SAVING

5 quotes

In the future, creation is gonna be totally different. It's gonna be online, it's gonna be collaborative, and it's gonna be easy.

— Cliff Obrecht (crediting Melanie Perkins)

Most things are just a game, really… I play to win, but at the end of the day, the business doesn't define me.

— Cliff Obrecht

Persistence really, really pays off… it’s a marathon, not a sprint.

— Cliff Obrecht

Good enough is not good enough. We aspire to be world-class across our key product areas.

— Cliff Obrecht

How much money do you need? The last thing I want my daughter to do is grow up rich.

— Cliff Obrecht

Origins of Canva: From Fusion Books yearbook software to global design platformFundraising challenges, investor rejection, and persistence in Silicon ValleyLeadership evolution, high performance, and people management philosophyHiring, talent development, internal promotion, and “distance traveled” in candidatesDeal-making strategy, M&A philosophy, and aligning incentives in acquisitionsProduct strategy, AI integration, and prioritization across a unified design platformWealth, philanthropy, co-founder marriage dynamics, and becoming a parent

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