Jessica Wilson was flying high. With a booming business spanning 130 countries, the Sydney-based entrepreneur had recently placed as a runner-up on a Chinese reality TV show searching for the next billion-dollar business idea.

Airing to over 15 million people per episode, the series – The Next Unicorn – had thrown Jess into the paths of the business elite: billionaires, high-rolling celebrities, and other powerful leaders of industry – all of whom were keen to work with her.

At just 25 years old, she had the world at her feet.

But in 2016, while meeting with a prospective investor during what she thought was going to be a business meeting, Jess was brutally sexually assaulted.

Shocked, she reached out to her mentor – someone she had idolised for years – only to be told to turn the other cheek.

Against advice, and against the odds, Jess commenced a lawsuit against her high-powered attacker. She won, but it’s what she wants to do next which is truly amazing.

This is her incredible story.

From country girl to Paris Fashion Week

Jessica Wilson had a modest start to life. Growing up in Karangi – a small country town located about 10 minutes drive from Coffs Harbour in New South Wales – Jess found herself as one of only six students in her school year group.

“The town was tiny. We had a population of only 850 people,” Jess, now 30, remembers. But her entrepreneurial spirit soon shone through, and when her school refused to host a formal after-party in Year 10, Jess spotted a “gap in the market”. From here, she grew a business hosting her own and other formal after-parties on the farmland she grew up on.

The concept took off, and soon she was using different paddocks as venues to host birthday parties for 16, 18 and 21-year-olds, making enough money to put herself through her first year of university.

Knocking on doors, Jess then secured an internship and eventually a position working on Fashion Weeks in Paris, New York and Australia.

“I was 19, and I was working with people in their 30s. I began noticing an industry-wide shift in global fashion and buying trends where millennials wanted to shop in a different way, and buying cycles were changing. I wanted to act on that opportunity by creating a new user experience using tech to engage the millennial market,” says Jess.

At 21, Jess booked herself a one-way ticket to Silicon Valley. With no contacts – and living off two-minute noodles – she scored meetings with people from Yahoo, Facebook and Google, giving her the insight to start her company Stashd – an online shopping app connecting fashion and beauty brands to millennials. Colloquially thought of as ‘Tinder for Fashion’, Stashd rapidly expanded to 130 countries, bagging Jess a swag of awards in the process.

The darkest point in my life

This story could have ended there. But in 2016, Jess was selected to appear on a top-rating Chinese reality TV Series called The Next Unicorn. The show – a hybrid version of Shark Tank and The Apprentice – was televised to 15 million people per episode, and when Jess took out the bronze trophy in the grand final – as the last female founder, and last Western team – she became an international sensation among the business elite.

Yet, after the show aired, Jess’s life took a dramatic turn. While running her business and meeting with investors, Jess – then aged 25 – was sexually assaulted.

“He was more than twice my age. I walked in thinking it was a business meeting to discuss a potential investment,” says Jess.

Instead, Jess was held against her will and violently sexually assaulted.

“It threw me into the absolute darkest point in my life. I had never come up against a trauma like that before, nor was I equipped to know how to handle it. I was in a state of shock.”

“When I eventually mustered up the courage, I decided that I was going to speak to a mentor and advisor I really looked up to. This is what they call a ‘first disclosure’,” she says.

“I trusted my mentor, and expected support, and to be heard and listened to. I told them everything that had happened.

“But they said to me, ‘Jess, put your head down. Focus on the business. And when you are more successful, you can do something about it then’.

“Looking back, I am horrified. What does that even mean? To wait until you are more successful to do something about a sexual assault? It’s absolutely horrific advice, and if anyone ever says that to you, you look them in the face and tell them to ‘do better’, and then run the other way.”

But at the time, Jess was highly vulnerable. She felt isolated, hopeless and deserted, and so, against her instinct, she tried to suppress what had happened. Following months of deteriorating mental health, she reached a point where she was in urgent need of psychological support to process the assault.

With the help of counselling, Jess’s strength renewed, and she began researching her legal options. Finally, in 2018, she decided she was ready to seek justice for what had happened to her.

Over several months, she met with over a dozen different lawyers and law firms. She learned that the options available to her were limited, traumatic, and heavily stacked in favour of the alleged offender.

“When I would speak to lawyers I kept hearing the same thing: ‘We believe what you’re saying, we believe you’re telling the truth. But it’s not about the truth. It’s about the law and how the law is structured, and unfortunately, there is no way you’re going to win’,” says Jess.

“It was like a gut punch. I was like, ‘Are you joking me?’ I have mustered the courage to get here. I am ready to go, and you’re telling me that it’s not possible, not because it didn’t happen, not because it’s not the truth, but because of how our legislation is structured?

“I found that mind-blowing. I found it wild at the time to hear.”

That wasn’t the only problem.

“I was also told that the blatant power imbalance between me and him meant I didn’t stand a chance. The investor was way too powerful. But this answer was just so unacceptable. Not just for me, but for any survivor to hear,” says Jess.

Undeterred, Jess appointed a law firm and commenced a civil lawsuit against her attacker. For 18 months she worked diligently alongside lawyers, barristers, psychologists, and Queen’s Counsel.

“I wanted to hold him accountable. I wanted to stand up for myself. I had lost a lot of confidence after the assault, and this was an empowering move for me, to back myself and to do something which I knew was right.”

Finally, three years to the day since the initial assault, Jess was victorious.

“It was the most challenging thing that I have ever done. But for me, it was equally if not more empowering. Because I did that – I stood up for myself and won,” says Jess.

“I picked myself up off the ground, put myself back together, stood up and said, ‘This is not okay’, started a lawsuit, figured out what to do, and won. And when people didn’t believe me or people stopped backing me – I never stopped backing me.”

As a result of a confidential settlement, news.com.au is not at liberty to publish the name of the investor or the settlement sum. But Jess says: “This isn’t about him now, and I’m not giving him oxygen. This is about my experience, what I have learnt through that process, and what I’m turning it into next.”

I had won against the individual – now I wanted to disrupt the system

Following on from the 2019 settlement, Jess turned her attention to the legal system, eager to use a portion of her settlement money to help generate reform.

“I didn’t want other women to have to navigate the same broken system which I had, so I spent months researching what avenue I could take, what business model I could adopt, and who I could partner with on this vital work so that my experience would not be repeated on others,” says Jess.

“I was introduced to the concept of law reform and discovered that it was possible for individuals to change laws, and that was a lightbulb moment for me. I didn’t know it was possible, and once I did, a mission was born.”

Putting her business acumen, contacts and entrepreneurial skill to use, she partnered with fellow entrepreneur Hayley Evans to create a new start-up, Women Making Waves, which will sell NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) to raise capital which can then fund activism focused on women’s rights and sexual assault law reform.

“NFTs are all about community. Culturally, I looked at #MeToo, Time’s Up and Australia’s #LetUsSpeak, and I noticed that what they all had in common were strong communities forming around the idea that survivors’ stories and voices deserved to be heard,” said Jess.

“In my mind, I started to ask, ‘What’s next?’ What can we all do, as multiple communities who all believe in the same thing, to change things on the next level?” said Jess.

“I looked at the problem through a business lens and realised NFTs are a mechanism to engage a community who hold similar values, to raise much-needed capital to fund and scale law reform.”

“By buying a Women Making Waves NFT, a holder will know that 50 per cent of all sales will go directly towards funding sexual assault and women’s rights law reform initiatives,” says Jess.

“Those holders will also be able to access a digital platform containing resources and content provided by law reform experts, and mental health and wellbeing content provided by the Chopra Foundation and Never Alone, a Chopra Foundation initiative.

“This then empowers communities across the globe to make the changes needed.”

Her idea has attracted the interest of several high-flyers, including the likes of Sir Richard Branson, whom she recently met and discussed the idea with, along with other leading entrepreneurs.

Jess says that for her, this fight is no longer about the individual man who assaulted her.

“I’ve moved on. This is not about him anymore. This isn’t even solely about me and my story – this is about creating change on a macro level. I won against my attacker. Next, we want to disrupt the whole system, and use tech and community to do it.”

Nina Funnell is a Walkley Award-winning journalist who pioneered the LetHerSpeak/LetUsSpeak campaign, which is referenced in this piece as an intended partner organisation.

SEXUAL HARM

Where to get help:

If it’s an emergency and you feel that you or someone else is at risk, call 111.

If you’ve ever experienced sexual assault or abuse and need to talk to someone, contact Safe to Talk confidentially, any time 24/7:
• Call 0800 044 334
• Text 4334
• Email [email protected]
• For more info or to web chat, visit safetotalk.nz
Alternatively contact your local police station – click here for a list.

If you have been sexually assaulted, remember it’s not your fault.