Joining us this week is Cameron Adams, co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Canva — the company that has simplified online design and become one of the world’s fastest-growing tech platforms.
What began in 2013 has grown into Australia’s most valuable private tech company, valued at as much as $40 billion and backed by investors including former Disney CEO Bob Iger.
Canva has transformed how people create everything from presentations and social posts to party invitations — taking a once-gatekept industry and making design accessible to more than 265 million people each month. The company has crossed billions of dollars in annual revenue and is now doubling down on AI as it enters its next phase of growth.
In this conversation, we dive into:
00:00: Introduction
01:30: From law school to design and entrepreneurship
07:28: Cameron’s early entrepreneurial instincts
03:10: Choosing passion over a traditional career path
04:17: What Google Wave taught Cameron about product development
07:00: Story of building Fluent and its failure
08:52: The connections that brought Canva’s co-founders together
09:46: Why Cameron initially turned down the opportunity to join Canva
12:17: Cameron’s accident hours before Canva’s launch
14:51: How Canva scaled to more than 265 million monthly users
16:52: How Canva built a truly localized global product
18:12: Ad
20:11: When should founders trust their intuition over user and investor feedback?
22:34: Why Canva scrapped its social networking features
23:04: How luck and timing shaped Canva’s success
24:18: Fundraising lessons for startup founders
26:37: How Cameron went from a shy kid to a confident public speaker
27:51: Canva’s strategy for competing with Adobe and Microsoft
29:14: How Canva built and maintains its global user community
31:27: The company’s biggest product shift with Canva AI 2.0
34:50: The challenges of building Canva AI 2.0
36:22: Has AI-powered design overcome its early limitations?
37:36: AI Boom vs. early innings
39:26: Will AI replace entry-level creative roles?
41:17: Cameron Adams on Canva’s IPO plans
42:03: Cameron’s approach to philanthropy and the Giving Pledge
45:08: Cameron’s long-term vision for Canva
46:11: Audience question
47:33: Rapid-fire round
Note: This episode was recorded in April 2026.
Check out Cameron's own new podcast, Prompted: https://promptedpodcast.com/
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🎙️About Behind the Business
Behind the Business is a Webby Award-winning, thoughtfully produced video podcast grounded in the belief that business is in fact personal. This is not a fawning interview show. We pair deep research with thorough interviews — asking the real questions and avoiding fluff, while keeping it fun! What’s the toughest day you’ve ever had at work? How did you get started when you practically had no money? Or how do you mentally prep for a big event? In each episode, guests get into it all. Each episode also connects guests with young founders who send in a question. New episodes Thursdays.
About Michelle Toh
Michelle is an award-winning international journalist, most recently a longtime reporter at CNN. She's covered top stories in global business, including the chip and trade wars, world-leading IPOs, the corporate response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Europe's energy crisis and China's property problems. Previously, she was with FORTUNE. She has reported for The New York Times, TIME and South China Morning Post.
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