In 2007, Melanie Perkins was a 19-year-old student at the University of Western Australia, teaching her fellow students how to use design software on the side. She noticed a problem: the software was expensive, complex, and took months to learn. 

At 19, she founded her first company, Fusion Books, a platform that let students design and print their own school yearbooks. It was a modest business rooted in the idea that design didn't have to be hard. 

Fusion Books worked. It was so successful, she dropped out of college. But the real vision was something much larger: a single platform that could give anyone the ability to design anything.

The Long No

What followed were years of rejection that would have stopped almost anyone else. The rejection count was staggering, including more than 100 "no's" from VCs. Investors were wary of investing in an Australian startup. Some thought design software for non-designers was too niche; others simply weren't convinced a young founder could crack the market.

Instead of letting the refusals crush her spirit, Melanie treated them as feedback. She viewed every no as “free market research.”

The Platform

In early 2013, the company raised its first funding round, a $3 million seed investment that gave the small team the resources to bring the idea to life. 

Canva launched that year with a simple goal: to make design accessible to all, whether for logos, business cards, or presentations. Within five years, Perkins was making headlines as one of tech's youngest female CEOs, at just 30. 

Today, Canva has over 185 million users, is valued at over $40 billion, and is used by 85% of Fortune 500 companies. The founder, who was told her market was too niche, built one of the most widely used creative platforms in the world.

The Philosophy

As a founder myself, I understand the tension: do you build for the expert, or do you build for everyone? Do you defend the complexity that protects your position, or do you dismantle it in service of something bigger? 

Melanie Perkins wasn't the most likely person to succeed in this space. What she had was a clear conviction in her idea - and the stubbornness to prove it.

When I practiced medicine, the focus was on the patient in front of me and whatever it took to safely get them through their procedure.

When I moved into venture capital and building in healthcare, people assumed I had left medicine altogether. 

I saw it as a bigger play.

Going from the bedside to building solutions that reach patients at scale felt like a continuation, not a departure.

Yes, there are bad actors and perverse incentives in VC. Plenty of them.

I get it - I’ve experienced some of the worst of venture capital as a founder. Investors tried to take away my company, but we didn’t let it happen. We got through and came out ahead.

It didn’t stop me from digging deeper into VC,  but it pushed me to build it better, and it was a reminder of why we are ethical in our work at LOUD Ventures. Empathy, experience, resilience, and determination cannot be stopped.

When you carry the right perspective into healthcare investing, it can become something different. It can become part of the healing.

Are you making time for your well-being?

Physicians - and others in similarly high-pressure careers - face expectations from society and from ourselves. Many of us prioritize helping other people but don’t always prioritize our own needs. 

No matter the stakes in our careers, we need to allocate time for ourselves every single day so we can be better for others.

When AI is everywhere, and technology is changing so fast, it can feel like a source of stress, but change is also an opportunity to learn and empower ourselves.

I’ve been on this journey, too, but I’ve developed the skills to ask for help whenever I feel overwhelmed.

We must support ourselves, support others, and continue to be curious. We aren’t alone, and we shouldn’t hesitate to ask others for help when we need it.