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The Making it in Melbourne podcast series brings you conversations with Melbourne migrant entrepreneurs who are reshaping our city’s business landscape.
In this series, we hear the stories of migrant startup founders sharing how their cultural backgrounds have shaped their entrepreneurial journeys, offering insights, lessons, and tips for aspiring entrepreneurs.
From creative and social innovations, artificial intelligence, mental health, and people changing careers, these are the stories of people who journeyed across borders to Melbourne, to build something extraordinary.
This podcast series is brought to you by the City of Melbourne. Follow us at @cityofmelbourne across Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin and X.
We support migrant business founders to incubate ideas in our city through grants, specialised programs and connecting with the local community. Find out about upcoming opportunities at www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/startups-and-innovation
If there's one thing that I've learned from all of these conversations is that there are many different pathways to entrepreneurship, from students to research, to starting from the bottom, or as in the case of my next guest, starting from the top of a very successful corporate career. [01:15:00] Irene Tsang moved from Hong Kong to Melbourne as a solo parent with two young children, and over 100 conversations with women, she discovered that there was a gap that only she could fill with Lift Women, her crowdfunding platform.
This is how Irene Tsang is making it in Melbourne
I am here with Irene Tsang, the founder and CEO of Lift Women, and I'm so excited for this conversation, Irene. Uh, we have known each other for a few years now, where I've been watching you build and grow your business, and we've been part of the same portfolio, um, of the Alice Anderson Fund, which is so exciting.
And so this is a real treat to have a chat with you.
Irene Tsang: Thank you for having me.
Jeanette Chia: Thanks for being here. Now, first of all, let me talk about your, you know, your decision to arrive in Melbourne, because you grew up in Hong Kong, and from what [01:16:00] I know about you, you had a pretty impressive corporate career, massive portfolio.
Good job. What made you leave all that and come to Melbourne, and not just by yourself, but with young kids as well?
Irene Tsang: Well, to be honest, um, that was one of the hardest decisions of my life. Uh, at that time I was giving up a very promising corporate career, a very attractive corporate paycheck, amazing team, a good bosses, and friends, network, or, like, a very familiar world that I've, I've been growing up with.
Um, and it's, it's very tough. Uh, but I guess it's also my lived experience that gave me a different perspective. I lost my parents, um, both my parents when I was young, and then I was then going through a divorce, and that was the moment that I start to ask myself some deeper questions, like, what truly matters in life, and what kind of life and lifestyle I wanna build for [01:17:00] myself and my two young children.
Um, and that's, that's when I have that aha moment that, um, maybe I wanted to, uh, move. And then when I was in Hong Kong, I work in a corporate life, you know, the Hong Kong corporate life. We work from, I work f- from 8:00 to 8:00- Wow ... most of the days, and I often traveled a lot, and then, um, have attend ev- uh, evening meetings all the times or event functions.
Um, but, like, I flew business class all the time, met celebrities, you know, dined in some of the most amazing- Sounds
Jeanette Chia: fancy ...
Irene Tsang: most amazing restaurant in the world. So on paper, that was, like, a life that most of the people aspired. Um, but I think, uh, I don't have time for my kids, and then because I divorced, uh, I know that I'm a single mom, and then if I don't, uh, give them the time at that time, then, um, I couldn't buy back [01:18:00] the, the time with them.
So I guess that's the moment that I really decided that, um, I have to change. And coming to Melbourne, coming to Australia was trying to give them options in the future and trying to give them the best chance in life, um, because I admire the, um, environment here, the upbringing of the children, the way they teach, um, the way they inspire young generations to think.
So I think that will be a better place for them to grow up.
Jeanette Chia: You were on this amazing track and, you know, I don't think in that journey, to date, you had thought about being an entrepreneur, and yet when COVID hit in 2020, something changed in you. You observed some changes, and this triggered this entrepreneurial drive.
What did you notice about people, um, that made you wanna help and change your direction?
Irene Tsang: During COVID, a lot of people suffering, a lot of small business closed down, and what I witnessed is women suffer the most. Um, [01:19:00] and then because they still have that, um, um, you know, caring responsibilities and family's responsibilities on their shoulder, so they have to look after their kids, uh, look after the families, and sometimes lost their jobs.
Um, and then, um, s- I start to coach women, um, around me. I'm pretty good at doing that and coaching them because of my corporate background in strategy, finance, marketing. Then I put problems and the tools together and I create Lift Women. Um, it started as a small initiative to try to support women to go through the difficult time regain their financial independence.
Um, and then we just started from there, and we'd gone viral in a very short period of time. Mm-hmm. Um, I know that if someone, especially women, if they can have some sort of financial independence, they have options in life, um, it's life-changing, for family, for herself, for the communities. And that's why I always so [01:20:00] fascinated by anything, any technology that can facilitate that to happen or what we call close the gender finance gap.
Yeah.
Jeanette Chia: So you're seeing gaps in venture funding, you're seeing gaps in people being unbanked and having those, that financial confidence, and also the flow of, I guess, the crowdfunding money in Asia Pacific compared to the rest of the world. So all of this put together and you've created Lift Women, which is a movement, a platform, all sorts of things.
Tell me about Lift Women. What is it?
Irene Tsang: So Lift Women started as a Australia's first crowdfunding platform dedicated for women. We support women and empower women to raise non-dilutive capital to start their businesses.
Jeanette Chia: What does non-dilutive capital mean for those of us listening who might not be in the finance or business world?
Irene Tsang: Non-dilutive means it doesn't take away your share and ownership of the company, what we call equity. So dilutive means you have to give away the ownership of the company, um, [01:21:00] in order to, in return for the capital. But non-dilutive means, um, you retain 100% of the ownership of the company.
Jeanette Chia: Ooh, we like that.
So we're keeping our ownership of our company, and we're raising funds from the crowd, as the term crowdfunding would suggest. Correct. So, so tell me a bit about what I might experience as a user. So if, if I'm logging on to Lift Women, the website, what will I see there?
Irene Tsang: When you look on, uh, look, when you go to the website of Lift Women, you will see lots of projects for women founders.
So if you are a supporters or anyone in the community that wanna support a women-owned businesses, you can choose the projects that, um, inspired you or connect with you or resonate with you, and then you can back them by choosing some of the reward they offer and then pay it forward and pledge their projects.
And for if you are a women looking for starting a business or aspiring starting a business or scaling a business, then you can create a projects on Lift Women to raise fund from the community or [01:22:00] anyone around the world who are interested in your products or wanna support you. Um, and we've just launched a new versions of the website that empa- uh, embed AI, uh, uh, tools in there that can helped you to launch a projects in minutes.
Jeanette Chia: Oh, that's amazing because, I mean, one of the biggest challenges I think of seeking funding as a, uh, often a first-time woman founder or, or maybe even a multiple-time founder, is that time and confidence to put into a campaign-
Irene Tsang: Yeah ...
Jeanette Chia: to raise, raise that money. And so the kinds of projects that you support, they range from Somebody writing a book to a creative project to, you know, big startups with tech.
Tell me a little bit about the kinds of businesses that are supported through Lift Women.
Irene Tsang: Well, it's a very wide range. We support business from product to service to technology.
Jeanette Chia: Mm-hmm. And once again, it's, it's giving people the option, you know? It's another option in which capital can flow to them that isn't a bank loan, that isn't an angel investor or venture capital.
I love that. Now, tell me about the [01:23:00] process of building Lift Women, because it obviously didn't... You had all this inspiration coming from different parts of your life and your observations, but you also then learnt directly from the women themselves about what they needed, because you did how many c- consultations, like 100 free consultations- Yes
during the build?
Irene Tsang: Yes. I actually started Lift Women during pandemic lockdown. I have two young kids at home homeschooling, uh, so that was, uh, that was unforgettable experience. So I have no experience in starting a business, but thanks to my corporate background, so I kind of know, um, from scratch, like, how you build things, uh, strategize, financial modeling, uh, and marketing.
So at that time, once I built a know that, um, I knew that crowdfunding wasn't something that really popular, and maybe a lot of women don't really know about it, or even they know about it, they don't know how to go about it. So what I did was I offer free consultation, so just for one purpose is wanted to reach out to more women and be able to teach them how it [01:24:00] works and convince them to give it a go.
Um, so what happened was then, uh, yeah, I, I, I, I got booked in, like, 100 calls within two months, I think- Wow ... every day because I offer, like, 30 minutes free consultation, so every day my consultations are from 8:00 to 8:00. Uh, and I keep talking, like a nonstop talking. It was so fun. And the more consultations I did, like, the more that I realized I actually really good at it, and I enjoy doing it.
Jeanette Chia: And you're onto something.
Irene Tsang: Yes. And what, what's life-changing moment for me was, like, every time when I start a call, the woman was a little bit unsure and not sure where to go, and don't really, didn't really have the confidence. But after that short 30 minutes, they feel ... They see hope.
Jeanette Chia: Mm-hmm.
Irene Tsang: They feel hopeful, um, and they feel energized, and they regain that confidence, and they actually say, "Okay, Irene, I'm gonna give it a go.
Um, I'll do it." And then [01:25:00] the conversions of that consultation was super high. It's, like, more than 80% of the women that I did a call, they started a crafting projects. And that's also when we, we'd be able to launch, uh, 100 projects within two months.
Jeanette Chia: I want to understand how you bridged the gap between your amazing business acumen and the technology required to actually build the platform.
Like, were you ... How did you kind of bridge that tech gap, and, and what did you do for those who might not be a, a technical founder?
Irene Tsang: Wow. Okay. So first of all is, I guess, again, my corporate background gave me, um, a little bit of the tech background, uh, or tech experience. Not building the tech, but at least I know what it takes to coordinate with the technology side.
I have done UAT, UR, which is the user testing- Mm-hmm ... or user requirement right up before, so I kind of know this terminology. Um, so when I started Lift Women, um, I actually contacted a local petite, um, marketing firm, [01:26:00] and they can help me build website. At that time, my thinking was very simple. I say, "Oh, I'm here to support local businesses," so I was like, "Might as well I, I hired a local marketing firm to help me."
So then that's when I start talking to local firms and I hire them to build that for me as, like, a, you know, on the side. For me, then I wrote my own requirement. Mm-hmm. I, I wrote my own UR, user requirement, and then I, I did my own testing, give them some feedback. I also learned, um, how to do it along the way.
Um, and it's good at the beginning, but also some failure, um, later on, um, along the way. But that's how I start to learn. Um, and then I do some self-learning as well. Um, and later on is I guess, um, I try to find good technology partner. I got connected with a tech guy that, um, he helped start up to build technology, and I actually asked him, "Hey, look, do you think this is [01:27:00] a good idea?"
Um, and he actually challenged me. He was like, "Ah, no, you can't help all the businesses. Uh, where's your niche?" So, and that's actually got me thinking, refined my niche, refined my target customers. Mm. So that actually is one of the lessons that I've learned, is the importance of finding someone that you trust to talk to, um, before you're starting a business or building a model.
Jeanette Chia: Yeah. I think surrounding ourselves with the right people is, is, it's a theme that comes up over and over again, and I think that's also why it's so cool to see founders like yourself re- you know, ready to pay it back and, and help the next generation of people come through. Okay. So, so we've, we've built Lift Women, we've got the website, we've got over 100 projects in two months, and now we're looking to raise some capital.
So I understand that you were tapping your network, having those conversations. What success have you had to date in terms of funding this business?
Irene Tsang: Well, um, today I have raised 1.3 million.
Jeanette Chia: Okay, snaps for that.
Irene Tsang: Yay. Uh, so, [01:28:00] uh, two round. I've raised a pre-seed, uh, two years ago, and then I just closed a seed round.
Um, I was very lucky, uh, at that pre-seed stage. Um, I've got two incredible angel investor supporting me, um, when Lift Women was, was just, you know, having the two months experience and just mostly on the PowerPoint and paper. I've also got the support from Launchvic, um, through the Alice Edison Fund. Um, these support, um, means the world to me, and they also help me, uh, build the foundations.
Um, at that time, because I know that crowdfunding or Lift Women, it's gonna be sort of, um, finance, uh, platform supporting people's finance and wealth, which then I know I need credibility. So what better than having government's backup and also having some incredible senior executive, um, to back you up, and this gives you the credibility that you need- Mm-hmm
to tell [01:29:00] people that, "Hey, look, I'm serious about that. I'm legit. I'm really here to build something that can help." Yeah.
Jeanette Chia: I think that's so important to, um, to understand, I guess, the signals that you're sending through the people that you work with and that you bring on as investors- Yeah ... and advisors.
Irene Tsang: And I, I actually wanna share, uh, a really inspiring story or life-changing moment was when I first thinking about, um, raising capital, then through LinkedIn, I reach out to my ex, uh, boss.
So and then when I reach out to him through, um, LinkedIn, I wasn't say about raising capital, I was just saying like, "I'm doing this. Um, can I, you know, uh, pick your brain on strategies?" Um, and then he said, "Sure." And then we had a call. Uh, and then that's when everything started is then he said, "How about this?
Um, you, uh, build a pitch deck, and then you try to pitch to me." "Because you're gonna pitch to a lot of male investor in the future, so maybe you pitch to me, I'll give you some feedback." And that's when I did the pitch deck, pitched to him, and then, and then he say, "How [01:30:00] about this? You build a financial model next week and present to me."
So that's when I built that, and I present to him, and he say, "Okay. Then, uh, s- write me a 12 months marketing plan, so then maybe I can invest in you." Um, that's what I did. So he basically guide me through, um, that journey.
Jeanette Chia: Wow.
Irene Tsang: And then he brought in another incredible investor, so that- that's how we started.
Jeanette Chia: Some early angels.
Irene Tsang: Yes. And then for the first 12 months, um, uh, he offer, we actually have caught up, like, every once every fortnight.
Jeanette Chia: Mm-hmm.
Irene Tsang: Uh, just to keep me grounded, um, you know, tap my shoulder, "You've been doing a great job. Keep going." So
Jeanette Chia: important.
Irene Tsang: Oh my God, that just so critical.
Jeanette Chia: A- and this is the thing I think with entrepreneurship sometimes is the story often circles the founder, but there are so many people who have a role to play in making it in Melbourne and in building entrepreneurs.
It's the supporters, it's the people that you've met along the way. It's those who come in with the right advice. I think that e- everyone plays a, plays a part in it. [01:31:00] Now I'm gonna move us along to your key strengths as being, I guess, a cultural bridge. So you, you can speak corporate, you can speak startup, you can also speak English, Cantonese, Mandarin.
You've moved in between different worlds. How does this, I guess, show up as a superpower for you at work?
Irene Tsang: I love that of myself. Um, I guess first it's mindset. Um, I've grew up in Hong Kong, a cosmopolitan cities, um, very diverse. And then for my corporate work, I got the chance to work, uh, across 18 APAC market.
Um, that also gave me incredible vision and perspective on different culture. So that's how I get to know different peoples, um, different countries, different cultural. Um, what I realized was, um, there are beauty in, um, each and every, um, heritage. Um, and then we can learn so much from each other. Um, I always so inspired and I, I [01:32:00] always curious, um, how do they do that and, you know, um, how does this gonna work in your country?
Because that's also part of my corporate job is we need to localize things, uh, while maintaining, um, our strength. Mm. So when I came to Australia, me as a migrant, um, I learned a lot as well. I learned from, um, um, the country how, how they, um, put family first, uh, the loving culture, the welcome and inclusive culture, of how they articulate impact and how they, uh, look after the environment.
All of these is, um, quite different from, um, what I've learned from city. Um, I can say I, I was a city girl, right? Mm-hmm. So, uh, a lot of those things, um, actually opened my eyes, opened my vision. Uh, and then, um, how people interact, um, I really love that. And so to me, um, I love bridging the gap. Um, and so for all the programs and all the founders that we do, we're very diverse [01:33:00] and I always bring founders fr- um, from Asia, uh, to meet with the founders in Australia, um, and also the other way around.
And then what I observed and found was, um, all, we, we, we are so inspired and energized by each other's culture. To me, I guess is it's just have to stay open mind and always look for the things that we could improve and we could learn from each other.
Jeanette Chia: It's, it's such a beautiful way to, to think about, you know, bringing t- the different parts of yourself together, but also the role that you play and being the glue for all those different, those different parts of culture- Yeah
and in corporate. Now, I'm going to, I'm going to ask you about this beautiful city that we live in, in Melbourne, that you chose to bring your family to. If you were going to write a promotional tweet about Melbourne to convince any other migrant to build their business here, what would you tell them?
What would it be?
Irene Tsang: Well, I think there's, Melbourne is the best place to live and [01:34:00] start a business. The reason is, um, Melbourne is so diverse, multicultural, and beautiful. Um, so except the weather, which is four season- Four season a day. It took me a while to adapt. But, um, look, Melbourne has, um, Australian Open, Formula 1, uh, beautiful sports event, international sports event.
They have incredible arts culture. They have beautiful museums. They have the best coffee. Um, and they have great food. Um, the Vietnamese pho- ... you know, all, all this sort of food, and it's just so beautiful, and I, I love that. Um, it has the feeling of city, um, business hubs and centers, but it's also, um, uh, allow you to enjoy life and have that balanced lifestyle.
Um, from my personal experience, when I first came to Melbourne, I feel so [01:35:00] welcomed.
Jeanette Chia: Mm-hmm.
Irene Tsang: And when I started my own business, um, I feel so blessed to have the support by the government and built my network here. Um, people are just incredibly beautiful. Um, they're so willing to help. Uh, and I love, uh, they having four seasons as well.
A lot of places you don't really have four seasons. It's a-
Jeanette Chia: it's another, another element of diversity in Melbourne.
Irene Tsang: Yeah.
Jeanette Chia: I, I have to say, you know, I think the city is very lucky to have you here building Lift Women from, you know, from your heart, from your experience, and I think, you know, we talked a bit about you, the fact that you're, you've got the corporate background and started a startup, but at the end of the day, startups are temporary.
You either close down or you become a corporate, so eventually that experience starts to become even more valuable. My final question for you, Irene, is if you could give one piece of advice to a migrant woman sitting in Melbourne right now with a business idea and no clear path forward, what would you tell her?
Irene Tsang: First, I would tell her, "You are enough. [01:36:00] More than enough. The fact that you have the courage to move to a new country, um, to be the best version of yourself or build something, um, for your family, that's incredibly inspiring. So you have to believe in yourself, and if you are a woman wanting to start a business, just give it a go.
And, uh, this is a beautiful city. Uh, a lot of amazing people here, uh, is wanting and waiting to support you. Uh, just give it a go and make a difference. Um, and you've got this."
Jeanette Chia: I love that. They're, they're brave, they're capable, they are enough, and, uh, I think that their first w- internet search should be Lift Women website so they can figure out how to fund their next great idea.
So Irene, thank you so much for joining me today on Making It In Melbourne, and, uh, thank you for everything you're building and doing to support women entrepreneurs.
Irene Tsang: Oh, thank you for having me, Jeanette.[01:37:00]
Jeanette Chia: That was Irene Tsang, the founder of Lift Women. She's clearly a woman on a mission, and I've actually already recommended many people to her to raise funds for their businesses. The story of how success looks very different depending on who you are really resonated with me. I'm Jeanette Chea, I'm the founder of Hex, and I've been building my business in Melbourne for the last nine years.
Listening to the stories of entrepreneurs is one of the best parts of my job. On the next episode of Making It In Melbourne, we've got something pretty special for you. We're bringing back guests from season one, Yifei Wang from AI Build and Asami Koike from Shapes and Sounds. They're going to share how their very special collaboration has resulted in an AI-powered robot that helps elderly people with their mental health and wellbeing.
Join me wherever you get your [01:38:00] podcasts.