Episode · Lenny's Podcast · 2025-11-02
Lenny Rachitsky & Melanie Perkins: books mentioned on Lenny's Podcast
The woman behind Canva shares how she built a $42B company from nothing | Melanie Perkins
Melanie Perkins is CEO and co-founder of Canva, currently valued at over $42 billion, generating over $3 billion in annual revenue, with more than 240 million monthly active users and, incredibly, eight consecutive years of profitability. But the journey was far from smooth.
Lenny Rachitsky discussed Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull and others. Melanie Perkins recommended The Power of Moments by Chip Heath and others and Designing the Obvious by Robert Hoekman (Jr.) and others.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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Creativity, Inc.
Discussed“This makes me think about this concept of an ugly baby from the book Creativity Inc. by I think Ed Catmull where he talks about how new ideas are this ugly baby that nobody wants to look at and deal with that”
Where to get it
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The Power of Moments
Recommended“What are two or three books that you find yourself recommending most to other people? One of the books I love is The Power of Moments.”
Where to get it
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Designing the Obvious
Recommended“Two two books. The Power of Moments and um one of the books early on I read was Designing the Obvious, which I found very insightful.”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (1) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
Passing The Lean Startup
“I remember pitching an investor that had the lean startup book on their on behind them when they were when I was pitching them and um they were never going to like Canva because we were not the lean startup.”