Inside Canva: Coaches not managers, giving away your Legos, and running profitably | Cameron Adams (co-founder and CPO)

Cameron Adams is the co-founder and chief product officer of Canva. Canva is one of the world’s most valuable private software companies, used by 95% of Fortune 500 companies. Since its launch in 2013, Canva has grown to over 150 million monthly users in more than 190 countries, generating $2.3 billion in annual revenue. Prior to Canva, Cameron ran a design consultancy, worked at Google on Google Wave, and founded the email startup Fluent. He is also an author of five web design books and a regular speaker at global conferences. In our conversation, we discuss:

• Why they spent a year building their minimum viable product (MVP) before launch

• Why Canva has no managers, and their unique approach to coaching and performance reviews

• Why they encourage employees to “give away their Legos”

• Insights into Canva’s SEO growth strategy

• Their three-pillar framework for integrating AI into their product

• Stories from the early days

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Find the transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/inside-canva-with-cameron-adams

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Where to find Cameron Adams:

• X: https://twitter.com/themaninblue

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/themaninblue

• Website: https://themaninblue.com/

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Where to find Lenny:

• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com

• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

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In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Cameron’s background

(02:00) Reflecting on the success of Canva

(04:50) Reflecting on hard times

(10:01) Canva’s product-obsessed culture

(12:02) Why they prioritize internal promotions and hires

(13:56) What makes Canva unique

(16:31) The concept of giving away your Legos

(21:44) Why Canva has no managers

(24:29) Product management at Canva

(27:56) Reflections on working with a married couple

(30:37) Why they spent a year building their MVP before launch

(33:49) Advice for building an MVP

(41:23) Canva’s onboarding transformation

(44:25) Canva’s SEO strategy

(50:37) The success of Canva’s freemium strategy

(54:24) Integrating AI into Canva’s product

(01:01:50) Where to find Cameron

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Referenced:

• Canva: https://www.canva.com/

• Melanie Perkins on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melanieperkins

• Cliff Obrecht on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cliff-obrecht-79ba9920

• Jennie Rogerson, Head of People, LinkedIn post about “season opener” events: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jennierogerson_season-opener-is-one-of-my-favourite-events-activity-7006815614556135424-73bD/

• Game of Thrones on HBO: https://www.hbo.com/game-of-thrones

• Woodstock: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodstock

• ‘Give Away Your Legos’ and Other Commandments for Scaling Startups: https://review.firstround.com/give-away-your-legos-and-other-commandments-for-scaling-startups/

• Minimum viable product (MVP): https://www.productboard.com/glossary/minimum-viable-product-mvp

• Canva’s SEO Strategy Is Elite: https://thegrowthplaybook.substack.com/p/canvas-seo-strategy-is-elite

• The SEO Strategy That Led Canva to a $40 Billion Valuation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INyGKt6LAqM

• Andrianes Pinantoan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrianes/

• Canva Create: https://www.canva.com/canva-create/

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Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.

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Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.