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Why good marketing can't outcompete a bad product (w/ Canva's Cliff Obrecht) | Rapid Response

About Cliff

  • Co-founded Canva, a design platform valued at $35B+ as of 2025.
  • COO of Canva, reaching over 230M users and $3B+ annual revenue.
  • Instrumental in Canva's adoption by 95% of Fortune 500 companies.
  • Pledged to give away most of his wealth; announced $100M philanthropy for Malawi.
  • Championed democratizing creativity and integrating AI at massive global scale.

| 27:20

For over a decade, Canva has made design and publishing more accessible than ever. Now, the company is wrestling with how to harness AI while staying true to its mission of empowering individual creators. Co-founder and COO Cliff Obrecht joins Rapid Response to reveal how Canva is navigating this shift—and why the stakes are so high when it comes to AI-adoptation in the creative industry. He opens up about leading the company alongside his wife and co-founder Melanie Perkins, their decision to give away $100 million to causes in Malawi, and what it means to scale without compromising values. Obrecht also shares Canva’s role in the future of technology and how marketing could define the business’s next chapter.

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Canva’s $35B design biz is quietly taking over the workplace
Canva’s Cliff Obrecht
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