Canva’s journey to a $42B valuation and the launch of its 2025 AI design model showcases a powerful founder playbook. Co-founder Melanie Perkins credits the platform’s success to ‘Column B’ thinking – a philosophy that prioritizes ambitious long-term vision over incremental gains and shaped a tool now used by hundreds of millions. This story offers a guide for founders balancing huge dreams with hard execution.
The $42B engine behind everyday design
Canva’s success stems from a strategic focus on making design universally accessible, a willingness to undergo difficult technical reinventions for long-term scale, and early investment in community and education. This approach built deep brand loyalty and a product that serves everyone from students to Fortune 500 companies.
In August 2025, an employee share sale cemented Canva’s valuation at $42 billion. This figure is backed by $3.3 billion in annual recurring revenue and a user base of 240 million monthly active users, as reported by Sacra and Scroll Media. Remarkably, the company has maintained profitability for eight years while its growth outpaces most SaaS competitors. Perkins credits this massive scale to three core strategic decisions:
- Universal Accessibility: Creating a platform where teachers, marketers, and Fortune 500 teams can all design effectively.
- Product Reinvention: Committing to long-term goals, such as a two-year code rewrite that paused feature releases to build a stronger foundation.
- Community and Education: Investing early to build brand loyalty across 190 countries.
Column B in action
Perkins’ ‘Column B’ thinking requires teams to start with the “castle on the hill” – a clear vision of the ideal future – and work backward. Every project begins with a vision deck defining success. This method guided the company’s challenging two-year code rewrite, where engineers defined future performance targets before a single line of new code was written.
This forward-looking approach was also crucial for Canva’s AI strategy. The company’s 2025 foundational design model, which generates fully editable multi-layer designs in seconds, was the result of years of ‘Column B’ planning, not short-term, incremental updates.
Vision Beyond Profit: The Two-Step Plan
The leadership philosophy is anchored by a simple two-step plan:
- Step 1: Build one of the world’s most valuable companies.
- Step 2: Use that value to do the most good possible.
A 2050 vision board in Perkins’ office serves as a constant reminder of the second step. This commitment is demonstrated through initiatives like providing free premium access to 610,000 nonprofits and offering expanded education licenses, proving how commercial scale can directly fund social impact.
Competitive moat in the AI era
While Adobe and Figma lead the market for professional design studios, Canva has carved out a 12.47% share of the graphics software market by focusing on ease of use. Recent features, such as an AI design assistant and direct Meta Ads publishing, further strengthen its appeal to small businesses and non-designers.
Analysts identify three key competitive differentiators for Canva in the AI era:
- Embedded AI: Artificial intelligence is integrated across the entire platform, rather than offered as separate, bolted-on tools.
- Unified Brand Kit: A centralized system enables enterprises to maintain brand consistency across all assets.
- Education Sector Dominance: A significant user base of students and teachers (15% of total users) creates a strong future user pipeline.
Lessons for operators
Founders aiming to balance visionary goals with practical execution can learn from Canva’s approach:
- Codify the Vision: Use ‘Column B’ vision decks to ensure daily tasks align with long-term ambitions.
- Protect Technical Investments: Defend crucial, long-term technical projects, even if they don’t produce immediate visible results.
- Focus on North-Star Metrics: Track a few key metrics that truly define success, like activated teams and paid conversions for Canva.
- Link Profit to Purpose: Directly connect commercial success with social impact to attract and retain mission-driven talent.
As Perkins often says, the key is to “imagine the future you want, then turn improbable steps into today’s sprint backlog.” This methodology is precisely how Canva transformed itself from a small yearbook startup into a global design powerhouse with a clear runway for future growth.
How did Canva reach a $42 billion valuation while staying profitable?
Canva hit a $42 billion valuation in August 2025 after an employee share sale, up from $37 billion just one month earlier. The company now generates $3.3 billion in annual recurring revenue with 240 million monthly active users across 190 countries. What makes this growth remarkable is that Canva has maintained eight consecutive years of profitability – a rare achievement in the tech sector. The company’s revenue growth rate of 44% year-over-year outpaces competitors like Figma (31%) and Miro (26%), while operating at a 12.7x revenue multiple.
What is Melanie Perkins’ ‘column B’ thinking and how does it drive Canva’s innovation?
Column B thinking starts with envisioning a dream future rather than being limited by current resources. Perkins describes it as building the “castle on the hill” first, then working backward to make it reality. At Canva, every project requires a vision deck that imagines the ideal outcome before planning execution steps. This philosophy powered the company’s two-year codebase rewrite where no new features shipped while the team rebuilt technical foundations for long-term growth. Perkins keeps a 2050 vision wall in her office as a daily reminder to focus on transformative goals rather than incremental improvements.
How is Canva competing against Adobe and Figma in 2025?
Canva has captured 12.47% market share in graphics software by serving 170 million users globally, including 85% of Fortune 500 companies. The company’s competitive edge lies in its foundational AI design model launched in 2025, which generates editable designs across formats rather than flat images. Recent innovations include 3D object creation, spreadsheet integration with data visualization widgets, and direct Meta Ads publishing from the platform. While Adobe focuses on complex professional tools and Figma dominates UX/UI prototyping, Canva targets the accessibility gap with web-based, easy-to-use features that appeal to non-designers and businesses seeking quick solutions.
What drove Canva’s transformation from yearbook platform to design powerhouse?
The company pivoted from Fusion Books, a yearbook publishing platform, after recognizing the broader need for accessible design tools. This transformation required over 100 investor rejections during initial fundraising, with Perkins using each rejection to strengthen subsequent pitches. The team spent two years rewriting their entire codebase – a period where they shipped no new features but built the technical architecture needed for scale. This patient approach to foundation-building, rare in growth-obsessed startups, enabled Canva to support 240 million users while maintaining platform stability and performance.
How does Canva’s ‘two-step plan’ guide its business strategy?
Canva’s two-step plan involves: (1) building one of the world’s most valuable companies, then (2) maximizing positive societal impact. This framework drives decisions like the 2025 AI model launch, which democratizes advanced design capabilities while generating revenue through enterprise adoption. The first step creates the financial resources and scale needed for the second step – evidenced by Canva’s expansion into education (15% of user base) and non-profit sectors (7% of users). Perkins emphasizes that imagination and “crazy big goals” are essential to both steps, allowing the company to transcend conventional limitations while building sustainable business value.
