The 5 Ps you need to enjoy stratospheric startup success

Imagine waking up to see your business having doubled in value overnight! Whilst this may sound like a dream or an unbelievable fantasy, it is definitely possible. In fact this is exactly what happened to Melanie Perkins , Canva’s CEO and co-founder, on June 23rd of this year. That specific day was the plateau breakthrough, for the privately owned Australian design giant, as they raised US$60 million (A$87m) in a round that nearly doubled the company’s previous valuation of US$3.2 billion to US$6 billion (A$8.7bn). It’s the latest astonishing success in a string of them which has made Canva the envy of start-ups worldwide, not just in Australia.

This powerful envy could either be the creator or destroyer in helping your business match or perhaps even overtake such incredible success. Hold on a second, let me explain this theory to you. This envy could become a catalyst for enhanced determination, motivation and the drive to work hard to match your competitors or role models. Alternatively, it could destroy your internal desire to succeed because your mindset is already switched to ‘give up’ mode.Let me assure you that the first path is always the way to go.

Taking a look at what Canva did right in their early days can certainly teach you a lot. They are all-singing, all-dancing and serving as proof that Australian startups can still break through on a global level, even amidst the turbulent conditions of recent years.

So how did Canva get to where they are today? How did they gain 20 million users in 190 countries in less than 8 years? Here’s our opinion on the 4 most important qualities that took Canva from Melanie’s living room to the stratosphere. We’re calling them the 5 Ps and believe they’re useful for any start-up or growing business.

1.   Passion. Canva has been driven by passion from its earliest days. The story of how a 19-year-old Perkins got frustrated by the complexity of existing design software while teaching it to fellow students has been told by many. As Perkins told the BBC, “It could take a whole semester to learn the very basics. Even the simplest tasks… could take 22 clicks.” This was an industry ripe for disruption, and Perkins was convinced there was a better way that could make people’s lives easier. Or, as Perkins put it to Forbes, “make sure that the solution you create, solves a problem that people care about.” The key lessons for startup founders are that you need to have a clear understanding of the problem you have identified and feel so passionate about solving it that you won’t rest until you’ve fixed it.

2.   Persistence. Although Perkins and her boyfriend co-founder Cliff Obrecht were able to launch a design-inspired business quite quickly, the result – Fusion Books – was a smaller scale business dedicated to school yearbooks. It provided a platform while they chased the investment they needed for bigger scale success, but that certainly didn’t come overnight. From Perkins’ first opportunity to pitch to Silicon Valley executives, three long years passed, complete with hundreds of rejections, before they finally secured the investment needed to create Canva. Rejection can sometimes be a valuable learning tool, as Perkins told the BBC: “that process was really helpful for us, because it meant that we had to refine our pitch, and really get our strategy down before we started.” Startup founders should keep this persistence in kind: many successful founders have wanted to give up over the years, but passionate belief kept them going even when those around them doubted.

3.   Patience. Another crucial aspect of Canva’s success was that it took the time to get its product right. Although the team felt that Canva was a great product from day one, they tested it repeatedly and listened to customer feedback, even postponing the launch when they realised it wasn’t 100% right. Part of this was also about creating a product that reassured nervous users immediately. As Perkins put it in a blog post on Medium, “For Canva to take off — we had to get every person who came into our product to have a great experience in a couple of minutes.” Launching hastily would have led to bad user experiences. Instead, Canva took off so rapidly through early adopters loving the designs it created and sharing them. Startup founders can learn from this, too: every moment getting your product or service right before your big launch is time well spent. A poor launch in today’s social media-driven world can be very difficult to recover from.

4.   Purpose. From day one, Canva was driven by a sense of purpose, including what Perkins told CEO Magazine were two “crazy big goals”. They were a) to build one of the world’s most valuable companies and b) do the most good they could. This combination of ambition and single-minded clarity has clearly served Canva very well as they have grown exponentially. Another lesson for start-up founders: if you are clear about where you want to get to, choosing the right steps is much easier.

5.   Partnership. Perkins may be the face of Canva, but she certainly didn’t do it alone. As well as her boyfriend co-founder, she credits a critical moment in the company’s growth as bringing Cameron Adams, an ex-Google Executive, on as a co-founder. Canva also assembled a team of finance and legal experts who have served the business well as it has gone through its many investment cycles. Here the lesson for start-up founders is clear: make sure you have the right people by your side to guide you towards success.

Not every business can enjoy success as mind-boggling as Canva’s of course, but even Canva would never have got there if they didn’t believe it was possible. You should be setting similar lofty goals for your business and working with passion, persistence, patience, purpose and partnership towards them. A success which is smaller than you’d hoped for is still bigger than the success you didn’t even try to make happen. And who knows – perhaps you might just exceed even your wildest dreams and wake up like Melanie Perkins one day.