Start With a Beachhead, Not the Ocean
Perkins' first company wasn't Canva. It was Fusion Yearbooks — a product that let schools design and print custom yearbooks. It solved one narrow problem for one narrow market. But in the process, it proved every core component of what Canva would eventually be: drag-and-drop design tools, templates, collaboration, and printing. She ran Fusion Yearbooks for five years before launching Canva. 'The beachhead wasn't a pivot. It was a prototype. We proved the core technology worked before we bet on the global product.'
The play
Before tackling your big ambitious vision, build a smaller, narrower version first. Pick one specific customer segment with one specific need that's a subset of your larger vision. Ship that. Learn. Once the smaller version has proven the core mechanics, expand. Most founders build the ambitious version first and fail because the foundational technology wasn't proven. The beachhead is the cheapest way to validate the ocean.