Canva CEO Melanie Perkins runs the world’s largest female-founded and woman-led startup

Designing the future. Hi, Broadsheet readers. I missed you! Some of you may have noticed I was away from the newsletter for the past few weeks. But I promise I have a good excuse: I spent time in Sydney, with Melanie Perkins, the cofounder and CEO of Canva. 

For those who aren’t familiar with the firm, Canva is a decade-old graphic design turned visual communications company valued at $26 billion by one estimate and $40 billion by another. By either measure, Canva is the most valuable startup in the world that’s both female-founded and woman-led.

Perkins is a fascinating figure, which is why she’s on the cover of Fortune’s October/November issue. She’s 35 and had the idea for Canva during her college years. One of her cofounders is her husband, Canva COO Cliff Obrecht. The pair founded the company early in their relationship and later brought on a cofounder with more technical expertise, Cameron Adams. The success of Canva has made the couple among the most visible leaders in their native Australia, and their combined 30% stake in the business has made them billionaires several times over. 

Ben Baker for Fortune

Some founders set business goals. Perkins sets goals for humanity. She’s extraordinarily ambitious; her aim is not just to build a successful company but to build the “world’s most valuable company.” As she describes it, her motivation isn’t purely success for its own sake but to use that success for a greater purpose. The couple has signed the Giving Pledge and promised most of their Canva shares to the Canva Foundation, a nonprofit focused on alleviating global poverty.

Her superlative credentials, and the blazing spotlight that comes with them, mean she can be intensely private. The couple welcomed their first child earlier this year but are reluctant to discuss their new family. When talking to the CEO about any topic—not just her personal life—it’s obvious she’s constantly thinking about how her words and actions will be perceived. “Sorry, that’s not a good quote for you,” she sometimes says after answering a question.

At this particular moment, the spotlight is getting brighter. Perkins is a deliberate leader, meticulously and methodically tackling her vision to revolutionize modern publishing—a goal that she first set at age 19. Some of her early ambition is now bearing fruit.

In Sydney last month, the company announced an ambitious plan to launch a “visual work suite,” a set of products taking on not just graphic design giant Adobe, but workplace mainstays Microsoft and Google. The challenge ahead is persuading users and enterprise customers to boot up Canva Docs instead of Google Docs when they need to communicate.

It’s a tricky transition for any founder to make, but Perkins has some ringing endorsements. As Canva investor and ex-Disney CEO Bob Iger told me: “I think she’s very capable of running a company that is much larger and more complex than the company she runs.” (Read more from Iger’s interview here.)

As for what the future holds for Perkins? “Every time we’ve been able to imagine a huge, crazy goal and then turn that into reality—each of those things equip us for the next stage,” she says. “As soon as you stop dreaming big dreams, you become an old company.”

Read my full cover story here.

Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
@_emmahinchliffe

The Broadsheet is Fortune’s newsletter for and about the world’s most powerful women. Today’s edition was curated by Paige McGlauflin. Subscribe here.

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