Meet Shan-Lyn Ma, the Aussie founder of $270m US wedding start-up Zola

Growing up in Sydney's Lane Cove, Shan-Lyn Ma recalls her Singaporean-born mother telling her to get an MBA in America. The family didn't know anyone who had an MBA.

Ma now ​heads up Zola, a wedding gift registry app valued at $US200 million ($270 million) with $US40 million backing from venture capitalists such as Lightseed Venture Partners, Canvas Ventures and Thrive Capital.

As CEO and co-founder of Zola, the now New York-based entrepreneur has been profiled by Forbes, Fortune and Vogue magazines and has delivered keynote speech to students from NYU, Stanford and Harvard business schools.

"Even though I didn't have much growing up, I was told if you work hard, then you can do anything. I dreamed about changing the world, creating something big out of nothing," she says.

After studying at UNSW and working in the local start-up community, Ma left Australia in 2004 to study full-time at Stanford University, and worked for Yahoo before joining Gilt, an online flash sales website.

In 2013, Ma co-founded Zola with two of her former Gilt colleagues. The website now has more than 300,000 registered users in the US, and 65 employees in New York City. Read more

Misa Han - Financial Review - 5 Jun 2017