Canva ties company growth to doing the most good

Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

1. 40:38

   Something else that I know is really important to you and also really unique to Canva is something that's called the two-step plan. You mentioned this earlier. I want to definitely talk about this. What is the two-step plan? Why is this so important to you? Yeah, so when you were asking about crazy goals, I think this is our most macro, most crazy biggest goal. Step one, build one of the world's most valuable companies and step two, do the most good we can do. And in our early days, I thought I'd do step one and then step two and realise that actually step one can fuel step two and step two can fuel step one.

2. 41:10

   And so that's been a really big part of Canva for some years now. In the early days, we took the 1% pledge, which I think is an incredible program. Every single person, every single company should take that, where you give 1% of time, money, equity and profitability. And I think that's a really easy thing to do in the early days that then can compound greatly over time. We also knew that Canva's equity was obviously going to be a really key part of it.

3. 41:34

   So Cliff and I owned a little over 30% of Canva, and so we decided we were going to take 30% of Canva and use it to do the most good we can do. And we are doing that. So we're doing all of our donating through the Canva Foundation. We've just, over the last few years, we've donated $50 million to give directly, where they give money directly to people in Malawi who are in extreme poverty. and then they can use that money on their family to go to school, to get healthcare, to start small businesses, to get a roof so they can sleep in without being wet.

4. 42:08

   You know, just like real truly basic human needs things. And we've just announced that we're going to be giving another $100 million over the next four years to people in extreme poverty. And it's just like when you go and sit with people and you hear about how they're spending, you know, What's a very microscopic amount at $550, it doesn't buy us that much, but it's a life-changing amount of money for people in extreme poverty.

5. 42:36

   And it's truly transformational what it can do. And you meet people and you hear their stories, and it's truly the best money I could ever imagine spending. And that crazy big dream I was mentioning earlier of everyone having basic human needs met, it's so completely insane that that isn't the case today. There's no specific reason why people don't have their basic human needs met on our planet. But we just haven't got to act together as humanity.

6. 43:02

   And so that is a truly crazy big dream. But back to the two-step plan. Step one, build one of the world's most valuable companies. And step two, do the most good we can do. And finding ways to do that at the same time, I think, is extraordinarily important. That's incredible. It makes me think about, not to mention Elon again, but Elon's three-step strategy plan. And it's like build better cars. Versus this is like, okay, solve all the problems of the world and make the world a better place.

7. 43:31

   What a better master plan to compare. And something else about this that I love is a lot of companies have this, have something philanthropic going on with the company. And it's like sitting in a dock on some page as part of their mission. It's not actually that big of a deal to them. What I hear from folks at Canvas is something you talk about all the time. This is like an actually core part of how you work and think and how you set goals and set vision and missions.

8. 43:53

   Yeah. But I'm happy to hear that. I wouldn't do Canva if it wasn't going to have a positive impact on the world. Like for me, getting really rich is not a goal unto itself whatsoever. It's a means to an end. And I've been very blessed to be able to do some work and that creates wealth that can then go and have people's basic human needs, Matt. You know, it's completely, yeah, but they're working just as hard, but they don't have the opportunity.

9. 44:21

   and even our education product is now used by 100 million people each month and we are in most school districts and rolled out across countries and being able to bring quality education tools to every, and we give that away for free as well, being able to help empower schools all around the world and we're going to be doubling down and doubling down into that product to bring quality education to all.

10. 44:46

    I think it gives so much more meaning behind work. You know, we've also between our education product and our nonprofit program, where we also give away our paid product for free, we're giving away $1.5 billion of product a year now. And so the impact that that can have and the ripple effect of that, I think is pretty great. And I think for all of us, it gives a lot more meaning to our work than get rich.