Canva’s founder Melanie Perkins was rejected by over 100 venture capitalists. The reasons: she was from Perth (not Silicon Valley), had no technical background, was dating her co-founder (investors hated that), and was pitching a design tool in a market dominated by Adobe.

She didn’t have a prototype. She didn’t have a tech co-founder. She didn’t even have a company — she had a yearbook business run out of her mother’s living room.

To get a meeting with Silicon Valley investor Bill Tai, she learned kitesurfing — because Tai hosted his networking events at kite-surfing retreats.

One of her first investors wrote a $250,000 check after meeting her, before even seeing a pitch deck. His reasoning: he’d made two reference calls on the way to the meeting and decided to bet on her, not the product.

Today Canva has over 185 million users, is valued at over $40 billion, and is used by 85% of Fortune 500 companies.

She and her husband got engaged with a $30 ring. They’ve pledged to give away the majority of their wealth.

The design tool that Adobe laughed at is now the design tool the world actually uses.