Jane Lu

Biography

Jane Lu, born on 12 June 1986, is an Australian businesswoman who founded and runs the fashion label Showpo. She also appeared as a "shark" on seasons five and six of Network 10's Australian version of Shark Tank. Lu is the only child of Chinese-Australian parents. After finishing school, she did an accounting cadetship at KPMG and then worked as an analyst at Ernst & Young. In 2009, a friend suggested they start a pop-up shop together, which they called Fat Boye Group. A year later, Lu left Ernst & Young, and just a month after that, her friend told her she was leaving the venture, so Lu shut down Fat Boye Group. That experience pushed her to launch her own online retail business, where wholesalers provided products on consignment. She started the business in 2010 under the name Show Pony, but changed it to Showpo after discovering an American company already owned that name. The business took off and has grown in value every year since. In 2015, Cosmopolitan named Lu Entrepreneur of the Year. The following year, Forbes Asia included her in its "30 under 30" list. She also made Smart Company's "Hot 30 under 30" list in both 2016 and 2017. In 2017, Lu was one of the most-viewed fashion professionals on LinkedIn, and she appeared on The Australian Financial Review's "Young Rich List" that same year. In February 2023, Lu apologised after a Showpo warehouse sale drew far more people than she expected, leading to problems. Customers complained about waiting in long queues in hot weather and about product quality. Lu said she had been worried about low interest after fewer than 400 people confirmed attendance on the Facebook event page. Following the complaints, she promised to fix the issues for the next sale by providing more stock, more changing rooms, more EFTPOS machines, and more staff. In March 2023, Lu was announced as one of five new sharks for a revived series of Shark Tank. She, along with Davie Fogarty, Sabri Suby, and Catriona Wallace, replaced the previous cast of Janine Allis, Andrew Banks, Steve Baxter, Glen Richards, and Naomi Simson when the show returned later in 2023. Canadian shark Robert Herjavec also joined the Australian series.