 In 1998, Lawton was one of three founding partners of Vancouver-based leading tech incubator IdeaPark Ventures, Inc. that was listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.In 2000, IdeaPark sold to Itemus Inc – a dot com incubator co-founded by Goldcorp mining magnate Ian Telfer.Lawton continued her business career by investing in start-up companies and was an early stage investor in Vision Critical and Yoga.