JUSTINE FLYNN
THANKYOU CO-FOUNDER
AND BRAND DIRECTORW
hen Justine Flynn co-founded
bottled water company Thank-
you in 2008, the industry was
worth $600 million. At the same
time, 900 million people didn’t have access to
safe drinking water. Compelled by the injus-
tice, Flynn, her then boyfriend (now husband)
Daniel and friend Jarryd Burns launched a
social enterprise that was 100 per cent charita-
ble – using its profits to fund water projects in
developing countries.
“In our first year, we made just $7000.
We’d put so much into the business and made
so many sacrifices. It was quite discouraging,”
says Flynn, now 30. What kept her going was
her passion to end global poverty.
Thankyou has now raised more than
$5.5 million for programs that improve living
conditions of people worldwide – impacting
755,338 people. The range has expanded to 50
items and is stocked in 5500 outlets.
In 2010, Flynn travelled to Cambodia to
visit the first project they had funded. There,
she met a mother who used to spend her entire
income on medical expenses because of the
diseases her family contracted from drinking
dirty water. With access to safe water, the
mother could use her money to buy a plough.
“The family then used that plough to generate
an income for themselves, giving them the
opportunity to get out of poverty,” says Flynn.
“For me, success isn’t about getting rich and
having lots of material possessions, it’s about
enriching the lives of others.”MELANIE PERKINS
CANVA CEO AND CO-FOUNDERM
elanie Perkins has an unusual hob-
by – she likes to think of an industry
and imagine what it will be like in
10 years’ time. That’s exactly how
the idea for Canva, a graphic design app, came
about when Perkins was 19. “I was teaching Pho-
toshop and InDesign courses at university and
they were super complex. It seemed very apparent
to me that the future of graphic design would be
web-based and much simpler,” says Perkins.
Instead of trying to change the entire world
of design as a teenager with no business or soft-
ware development experience, Perkins spent five
years building her skills. She met with Twitter
investor Bill Tai and Google Maps founder LarsRasmussen in San Francisco, and secured
$3 million in seed funding to launch Canva
in 2013 with co-founders Cliff Obrecht and Cam-
eron Adams. Now, the business is worth $458
million, with 10 million users in 179 countries.
“It’s crazy to think that this little idea has
become a reality and is in the hands of millions of
people,” reflects Perkins, who says she is proud to
be called a disruptor. “Being a disruptor is less
about the disruption and more about the outcome.
The goal is to make things simpler and easier.”
Next up, Perkins, now 30, is disrupting the
printing industry by launching Canva Print for
business cards and posters. It’s world domination
by (personalised) wedding invitation.194194 marieclaire.com.au