What Rebekah Campbell learnt about partnerships from Canva’s Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht

Rebekah Campbell is founder of Posse.com, and co-founder of Hey You. She spent her twenties and early thirties focused entirely on work and didn’t go on a single date in ten years. At age 34, she felt alone and terrified of the future.

So, she decided to take what she’d learnt building businesses and apply it to finding a partner, starting with a resolution: one date every week for an entire year.

Campbell’s book, 138 Dates, documents the journey of building Hey You, raising capital in Silicon Valley and dating 138 different men to eventually find her partner Rod. The book features lessons learnt along the way as well as advice from founders and investors including Bill Tai and Lars Rasmussen.

In this exclusive extract, Canva founders Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht give Rebekah some powerful advice that she applies to both business and dating, covering how they work together and their tips for making business partnerships a success.

The perfect partner

Mel wears a flowing halterneck shift dress and looks like a model from a catalogue. She glances both ways before cautiously crossing Devonshire Street to The Book Kitchen. Mel moves in the same way that she runs her business: planned, precise and with conviction. Cliff flips up the back of a black skateboard with his foot, catching the end in one hand. Adam and I follow the genius kids like two old-timers in need of advice.

We take two couches in a corner surrounded by a wall of books. 

“How’s everything at Canva?” Adam asks.

Mel’s lips are a flat line and she and Cliff smile at each other with their eyes. “It’s going pretty well. There’s still a lot of work to do.”

Mel always strikes me as a mix of both confidence and humility. Like a cool cat with a ginormous brain. Their design platform still only has 400,000 users but it’s clear their trajectory is straight up. Each step is planned out meticulously.

“We’re raising capital at the moment,” says Cliff. “We thought we were done, but —” he throws up an arm in frustration “— you know what it’s like.”

I shuffle on the couch. “I wanted to get us all together, firstly to introduce you to Adam. And to get some advice.” I pause.

“On business partnerships,” says Mel. 

“Yeah.”

Last week we’d called a meeting of investors and shared the plan to merge our companies. Adam described how we’d combine the technology in the Beat the Q and Posse apps, and I explained the marketing plan. Everyone agreed that our strategy made sense and a few of the shareholders even asked if they could buy more equity. 

“People keep saying that the biggest risk to our plan is me and Adam working together. We’re both used to running our own thing,” I say.

“Isn’t there some crazy stat on that?” says Cliff. “Fifty percent of business partnerships fail or something.”

I look to Adam. The situation feels a bit like an arranged marriage. We both have something the other wants. We like each other enough, and it’d be so nice to have a friend to share the highs and lows of running the business. I’m done with doing everything alone.

“I wanted to talk to you guys because you’re the best example I know,” I say. “You seem like a perfect partnership. What makes it work?”

Mel turns over her phone on the table. “I made some notes.”

Of course she’s made notes. 

‘The first thing is that we’re both dreamers,’ she says, holding up a finger. “We’re always talking about our vision for the business. We walk together every day, we have a lot of crazy conversations where we brainstorm ideas.” She looks to Cliff. “What do you think?”

“Yeah, we talk about what the business will look like in five or ten years’ time. We’re both so clear on the goal that it makes every little decision easy. We don’t have to ask each other.”

Mel nods, looking back to her phone. “Another thing is that we never score points. Sometimes we’ll disagree, but once a decision is made then it’s a team decision. We don’t ever talk about who wanted what or the process of how we made the decision.”

Adam leans in. “So how do you argue?”

“Mm.” Cliff scratches his nose. “I wouldn’t say we argue. We always focus on what’s best for the company. Sometimes we might have different ideas.” He tips his head both ways. 

“The last thing is about trust.” Mel puts her phone away. “This is going to be hard for you guys because you don’t know each other yet.” She points to Cliff and back to herself. “When we started our first company, we both did everything. After a while we worked out what we’re each good at and we started dividing tasks. We know each other so well. We trust each other so —”

“So we can play to our strengths,” Cliff interjects, finishing her sentence like a second arm. “It means we can get so much more done.” He fires us a hopeful look. “You guys are going to need to trust each other, if it’s going to work. It’s a leap of faith.”

We finish up our cups of tea and chat about staff, how hard it is to find software developers, the plans for Canva’s new office. “We’re building a commercial kitchen,” says Cliff. “We’re going to hire a chef so we can eat lunch together every day.”

Mel checks her watch. “We better get back.”

Adam and I hang behind to unpack what we’ve just learnt and talk about how we’ll work together as partners. I watch Mel and Cliff cross the road outside, speaking closely like they’re planning a revolution. 

Rebekah Campbell’s book ‘138 Dates’ is out now through all good bookstores and online at Booktopia.