Broke & in debt: The $100 million turnaround

The lazy CEO: Jane Lu on building her $100M empire
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The lazy CEO: Jane Lu on building her $100M empire
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Franki Hobson
March 19, 2026
— 9:43am
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At Showpo headquarters in Sydney’s inner west, the pace is fast, the team energetic and the racks of new-season dresses never stop moving. But founder and CEO Jane Lu insists she isn’t interested in glorifying hustle culture.
Instead, she describes herself as something else entirely. “The lazy CEO,” she dubs herself.
This isn’t a ‘cutting corners’ confession. It’s a philosophy about building smarter systems, eliminating wasted effort and focusing only on the work that actually matters.
That mindset helped Lu turn a small startup launched from her parents’ garage into Showpo, a global fashion brand with revenues exceeding $100 million.
But when she first began, success felt a long way off.
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“Day one was scary because I had no idea what I was doing,” Lu recalls. “The imposter syndrome was very strong. But I kind of knew that it was sink or swim. I had to make it.”
Watch the full video below to see how Jane Lu turned ‘laziness’ into a $100 million fashion empire.
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Sewing new seeds: from accountant to entrepreneur
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Before Showpo, Lu worked as an accountant. The job offered stability, but little fulfilment.
“I left because I didn’t love it and I didn’t feel fulfilled,” she says. “Even though I was broke and didn’t know what I was doing, I was just so excited.”
Her first attempt at launching a business failed spectacularly during the global financial crisis. Unable to find another corporate role, Lu found herself broke, in debt and starting again from scratch. Showpo emerged almost by accident.
“Showpo actually started by default,” she says. “My only option was to start another business.”
The turning point came when the fledgling retailer suddenly outperformed her former salary.
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“The moment I felt like I had made it was when I made more in a day in revenue than what I was making in my annual corporate salary,” Lu says.
Instead of pushing longer hours, Lu began building systems that allowed the business to operate more efficiently.
Today Showpo sells to customers around the world, but Lu says the biggest mindset shift came when she realised hard work alone would not sustain growth.
“The moment I realised working harder wasn’t the answer was when I realised that I was the bottleneck,” she explains. “My 15-hour days were not shifting the needle the way they used to.”
Seamless: working smarter, not harder
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Instead of pushing longer hours, Lu began building systems that allowed the business to operate more efficiently.
“If you have to do something twice, then build a system for it,” she says.
Many of the first tasks she automated were repetitive operational jobs such as product uploads, email marketing workflows, inventory management and approval processes.
The shift allowed her team to spend less time gathering information and more time interpreting it.
“Modern tools don’t replace human effort,” Lu says. “They facilitate it. Instead of gathering reports, our team can spend more time interpreting the data and the information.”
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For Lu personally, that shift means spending more time on strategic decisions rather than day to day administration.
“If I’m looking at a new campaign proposal or a new strategy, I’ll run scenarios using AI to look for blind spots and alternative angles,” she says.
Across many modern workplaces, the tools used to manage documents, approvals and collaboration are evolving just as quickly. Platforms such as Adobe Acrobat’s new Studio workspace are designed to streamline the way teams review, share and act on documents, helping businesses move faster without adding complexity.
Pattern for success: focus on what actually matters
For Lu, the broader lesson is about focusing attention where it matters most.
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“Founders should work on things that actually shift the needle. Product market fit, marketing their brand and hiring exceptional people,” she says.
The trap, she adds, is mistaking busyness for progress.
“It might feel productive to tweak every Instagram caption or attend every meeting, but that’s just procrastination dressed up as work.”
That philosophy is particularly relevant for the next generation of entrepreneurs launching businesses with little more than a laptop.
“For someone starting today, their biggest advantage is that they can start clean,” Lu says. “You can automate early, document properly and structure everything right from the start.”
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And if that sounds like laziness, Lu is happy to own the label.
Because in her world, the smartest leaders are the ones who learn how to do less and achieve far more.
Discover how Adobe Acrobat Studio helps professionals streamline documents, automate repetitive tasks and collaborate more efficiently across teams. Explore the tools designed to simplify complex workflows and free up time for work that truly matters. Find out more at adobe.com/acrobat .
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