Melanie Perkins, the cofounder and CEO of Canva, runs one of the world’s most valuable private tech companies, valued at about $42 billion with annual revenue reported above $3 billion. Yet her way of keeping that machine running looks nothing like the always-online style most startups celebrate. She, as explained in a recent interview in Lenny's Podcast, doesn’t keep Slack or email on her phone, and when her laptop closes, so does her workday. That small rule keeps her head clear enough to steer long projects without the constant buzz of messages.
Canva has grown by leaps and bounds since 2012, but Perkins credits steady attention, not frantic energy, for keeping it together. In the early grind, she barely took a day off. It caught up with her. Working through weekends began to cloud her thinking, so she drew some hard lines. These days she carves out quiet pockets for walking, journaling, and yoga, using those stretches to sift through ideas until only the important ones remain. She calls the process “moving from chaos to clarity,” and it shapes everything she builds.
That same rhythm runs through Canva itself. The company doesn’t chase every shiny trend that hits the design world. It listens first. With a community that now numbers in the hundreds of millions, the team filters more than a million user requests each year and closes hundreds of feedback loops. That grounded pace let Canva branch from simple drag-and-drop templates into documents, video, and brand publishing tools without losing its easy feel.
Perkins also keeps one eye far down the road. She has built what she calls “crazy big goals,” like a 2050 vision wall that sketches where Canva might fit into the world decades from now. Those distant targets are broken into bite-size steps, each one marked before moving on. It’s the same trick used by marathoners, run the next mile, not the whole race at once.
The discipline shows up in the company’s technical choices too. At one point, Canva pressed pause on new features for nearly two years to rebuild its front end from the ground up. It felt endless at the time, but the payoff came later when that foundation made future releases smoother. Perkins often says slowing down is sometimes the fastest way to get things right, and that lesson stuck.
Success has also given room for generosity. Through its Step Two initiative, Canva has sent about $50 million through GiveDirectly and pledged another $100 million to follow. Profitability, maintained over several years, makes those plans possible without cutting into growth.
Perkins’ leadership mirrors Canva’s own product logic: strip away clutter, keep what works, and give ideas breathing space. She treats attention like gold dust, easy to spill, hard to gather. Maybe that’s why her company keeps moving ahead without the rush that traps so many in tech. In a world obsessed with speed, she’s found power in lifting her foot off the gas.
Notes: This post was edited/created using GenAI tools.
Read next: When Algorithms Start to Lead: Sam Altman Says the First AI CEO Could Be Closer Than Anyone Thinks
Canva has grown by leaps and bounds since 2012, but Perkins credits steady attention, not frantic energy, for keeping it together. In the early grind, she barely took a day off. It caught up with her. Working through weekends began to cloud her thinking, so she drew some hard lines. These days she carves out quiet pockets for walking, journaling, and yoga, using those stretches to sift through ideas until only the important ones remain. She calls the process “moving from chaos to clarity,” and it shapes everything she builds.
That same rhythm runs through Canva itself. The company doesn’t chase every shiny trend that hits the design world. It listens first. With a community that now numbers in the hundreds of millions, the team filters more than a million user requests each year and closes hundreds of feedback loops. That grounded pace let Canva branch from simple drag-and-drop templates into documents, video, and brand publishing tools without losing its easy feel.
Perkins also keeps one eye far down the road. She has built what she calls “crazy big goals,” like a 2050 vision wall that sketches where Canva might fit into the world decades from now. Those distant targets are broken into bite-size steps, each one marked before moving on. It’s the same trick used by marathoners, run the next mile, not the whole race at once.
The discipline shows up in the company’s technical choices too. At one point, Canva pressed pause on new features for nearly two years to rebuild its front end from the ground up. It felt endless at the time, but the payoff came later when that foundation made future releases smoother. Perkins often says slowing down is sometimes the fastest way to get things right, and that lesson stuck.
Success has also given room for generosity. Through its Step Two initiative, Canva has sent about $50 million through GiveDirectly and pledged another $100 million to follow. Profitability, maintained over several years, makes those plans possible without cutting into growth.
Perkins’ leadership mirrors Canva’s own product logic: strip away clutter, keep what works, and give ideas breathing space. She treats attention like gold dust, easy to spill, hard to gather. Maybe that’s why her company keeps moving ahead without the rush that traps so many in tech. In a world obsessed with speed, she’s found power in lifting her foot off the gas.
Notes: This post was edited/created using GenAI tools.
Read next: When Algorithms Start to Lead: Sam Altman Says the First AI CEO Could Be Closer Than Anyone Thinks
