Jane Lu never imagined that her dreams of corporate power suits and city skyscrapers would one day give way to running a $100 million fashion retail company, as reported by CNBC Make It.
The 38-year-old CEO of Showpo has built a thriving online retail business while amassing a social media following of nearly 400,000 and becoming a judge on Shark Tank Australia. But Lu's journey was anything but a straight shot to success.
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Born in China, Lu moved to Australia with her parents at age eight, carrying nothing but hope for a brighter future. Adjusting to a new country wasn't easy. She didn't speak English, her parents took on cleaning jobs to make ends meet and she was often singled out at school.
"You don't realize you're poor until someone points it out," she recalled, sharing how her mom cleaned houses for classmates' families. Those struggles, though painful, lit a fire under her.
Lu was a natural overachiever. By her first year of university, she had already secured a position at KPMG, a prestigious Big Four accounting firm. She later moved to Ernst & Young, balancing her corporate role with school and dreaming of financial security for her family.
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But the grind of corporate life soon lost its appeal. "I hated it," she admitted. "I used to see it as my ticket to financial freedom. Suddenly, it felt like a prison sentence."
In 2009, she dipped her toes into entrepreneurship with a pop-up store called Fat Boye Group. By day, Lu crunched numbers in corporate finance; by night, she ran the business, hauling supplies from her parent's garage and setting up shop every weekend.
When the venture failed in mid-2010, leaving her $60,000 in debt, she hit rock bottom. "I felt like a failure. I was embarrassed and ashamed," she said. Job hunting during the global financial crisis only deepened her despair.
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Then came her breakthrough. Two months into her job search, Lu reached out to a friend who owned a business, hoping for a position. Instead, he connected her with someone in online fashion retail.
The two clicked instantly and by their third meeting, they had brainstormed the name and concept for a store. Lu went home drunk and built the website overnight. They named the brand "Show Pony," later shortened to "Showpo." By that weekend in September 2010, they had conducted their first photo shoot and secured suppliers.
Without funds for traditional marketing, Lu turned to social media – a move that aligned perfectly with the booming e-commerce market, which, according to Statista, is expected to surpass $8 trillion globally by 2027. Within months, the business took off.
After 15 months, Lu’s partner left as sales kept dropping. "Sales were declining and her other business was thriving, so she decided to step away," Lu explained.
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In 2011, Lu bought out her business partner and fully controlled Showpo. By the next month, she had doubled her monthly revenue to $9,000. Two years later, the company hit a $1 million run rate and by 2012, it was thriving enough for her to reveal her secret to her parents.
On Father's Day, Lu took her parents to a fine dining restaurant in Sydney's Center Point Tower to share life-changing news.
She revealed she'd buy them a new car – upgrading from their secondhand ones – and pay off their mortgage. Her parents were stunned, especially when Lu admitted she'd quit her corporate job years ago despite pretending to go to work.
"They couldn't believe it," she said. "It took a while to convince them, but once the shock passed, they were thrilled." Now a mother of two, Lu runs Showpo full-time with her husband.
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