Jess’s story is equal parts fascinating, educational and inspiring.
“I’ve been told multiple times in my life I ‘don’t have it in me’, it’s ‘not possible’ or to ‘put my head down and not fall out of line’
Doesn’t mean I have to listen”
Jess Wilson grew up in a small farm town (Karangi), starting her first business at 16 years old - running formal after-parties for students on the farmland she grew up on, utilising different paddocks as venues. From there she grew and scaled this business to cover 16ths, 18ths, and 21st and made enough money to put herself through her first year of university.
She then dropped out of University after a careers advisor told her she ‘didn’t have it in her’ to have a career in the fashion industry due to her lack of contacts and small-town roots. Jess then dropped out of university determined to forge her own path.
Knocking on doors Jess secured an internship which lead to a full-time job working throughout fashion weeks, Jess then from 19 years to 21 worked throughout Australia, New York and Paris fashion weeks with some of the biggest fashion brands in the world. This unique perspective allowed Jess to see an emerging trend within the global fashion industry, resulting in the launch of online shopping app Stashd.
Jess noticed the emergence of tech and the change in buying cycles, so booked a one-way ticket to Sillicon Valley at 21 with no contacts and lived off two-minute noodles for two months, but managed to meet people from the likes of Yahoo, Facebook and Google which gave her the insight to start Stashd at age 22.
Jess grew her business into 130 countries, featured as Apples ‘Best New App’ in 12 countries and ‘Top Lifestyle App’ in five countries cementing herself as a global leader in women in tech often featuring in publications such as Forbes and discussing leadership with the likes of Malcolm Turnbull for girls in ICT Day and Richard Branson at his home on Necker Island. Jess also represented Australia at Google’s global tech accelerator program in Silicon Valley, discussed entrepreneurship with global leaders spanning trips to Antartica to EY’s Accelerating entrepreneurs program in Rome, touring as the opening keynote for Tony Robbins and Tom Bilyue and winning various awards such as Commonwealth Bank’s Australian of the Day, Smart Company’s 30 under 30 three times and being pinned by Forbes as one of 1,000 entrepreneurs to change the world in the next 50 years.
Jess then took her business into China, launching via a TV series ‘The Next Unicorn’ (China’s version of Shark Tank x The Apprentice), a televised global search for the next billion-dollar business in China airing to 15M per episode. The show traveled the US, Israel, Europe and Australia hearing from thousands of startups selecting 55 teams to fly to Shanghai to film the television show.
The judges included the seed investor in Paypal, Seed investors in Baidu, the ex-CEO of Alibaba and partners of leading China funds Sequoia, GGV and Zen Fund. The television show aired on China’s largest business TV network. Jess placed in the grand finals winning the bronze trophy as the last western team and last female founder in the competition.
Shortly after the TV show aired Jess was sexually assaulted by a prospect investor while raising money - she turned to a mentor for guidance, yet was told to turn the other cheek. Shaken, but determined she went against her mentor's advice, educated herself on the legal system, met with well over a dozen lawyers and law firms and started a lawsuit which took 18 months and ultimately - won.
But Jess didn’t stop there. She took her direct learnings navigating the legal system and entrepreneurial mind to take what she learnt and turn it into a tech business Women Making Waves which she co-founded with business partner Hayley Evans to fund and scale the work of those who specialise in women’s rights law reform. Launching the company via the front page of Australia’s largest newspaper ‘The Australian’ and a cover story on Forbes shortly followed by a viral LinkedIn campaign #ITookThePledge across LinkedIn which involved leaders in the Venture Capital space such as Blackbird, Airtree, Square Peg, Giant Leap and Rampersand to name a few posting in support of women’s rights law reform. Women Making Waves now works with impact partners who have changed an accumulative 45+ laws and counting and world leaders such as Deepak Chopra’s The Chopra Foundation and Caren Yanis who previously built Oprah’s philanthropy portfolio.
Women Making Waves continues to partner with global giants such as Google Cloud and AirBNB in support of women’s rights law reform.