Australian software start-up Canva pulled out all of the stops at a company event in Los Angeles, complete with a rap performance which spruiked new product features.
But a two-minute video of the musical number went viral over the weekend and attracted mixed reviews on social media, with some users branding the song as “cringe”.
According to the company’s co-founder Cliff Obrecht, the video was “meant to be funny” and “it worked” after the footage racked up hundreds of thousands of views online.
“Our enterprise rap was my favourite part of Canva create by far,” Obrecht said in a LinkedIn post.
“Tech company product launches have essentially tried to be Steve Jobs launching the iPhone since that happened.
“We decided to be ourselves, do something different and not take ourselves too seriously. Haters gonna hate.”
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The performance has drawn comparisons to a Microsoft launch event in 1995 when executives Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer danced to Start Me Up by the Rolling Stones.
Canva hosted its first, in-person Create event late last week in the US to introduce its new enterprise features.
Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger and Emmy-nominated writer, actor, and producer Mindy Kaling were among the featured guests.
The company, which is valued at an estimated $US39 billion ($58.9 billion), has more than 185 million users globally.
The start-up is understood to be in the final phase of entering the public market.
