This Australian quit her job at 24 and started a business out of her parents' garage—now, it brings in over $100 million a year

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Investors,Australia,Women's Fashion

Jane Lu is the founder and CEO of online fashion retailer Showpo. Today, the business brings in over $100 million a year.

Growing up, Jane Lu dreamt of waking up every morning and putting on a power suit to go to work at a fancy corporate finance job in one of the tall city buildings.

In 2009, one of Lu's friends approached her with a business idea: a pop-up store concept called "Fat Boye Group." "With a silent 'e,'" she said. This business idea eventually became Lu's side hustle. "I just hated it. I found it so boring, so dry," she said. "I used to always look at my corporate job as financial security, and the thing that was going to lift me and my parents out of ever having to worry about not being able to pay rent or mortgage...Then, all of a sudden, looking at it as like a prison sentence."

So, for months, she would wake up early in the morning, put on a suit, have breakfast with her parents and commute into the city with her mom as if she was still working in her corporate finance role. After her mom went to work, Lu would sneak off to spend her entire day working on Fat Boye Group.Coincidentally, about one month after Lu quit her job and went all in on the company, her business partner returned from an overseas vacation, and decided that she was over the startup life.

"I was a failure... I was embarrassed, ashamed, and I also couldn't get another job because it was the middle of the global financial crisis. So I was just so devastated," said Lu.Two months later, Lu was still unemployed and looking for work, so she reached out to the only friend she knew that owned a business in hopes of securing a job at his company. But instead of offering Lu a job, he offered to connect her with someone he knew in the online fashion retail industry.

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