Sara Blakely Bio: How the Self-Made Billionaire Invented Spanx

Sara Blakely is the founder of Spanx, a brand of slimming undergarments launched in 2000. Sara invented Spanx in the late 1990s despite having no fashion, retail, or business leadership experience. Today, she provides advice to small businesses as a shark on Shark Tank.

In addition to her entrepreneurship, Sara engages in philanthropy through the Spanx by Sara Blakely Foundation, which she established in 2006. The foundation supports women through entrepreneurship, education, and the arts. Sara also donated to the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls and, in 2013, became the first woman to join Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett’s “The Giving Pledge”—a movement through which some of the wealthiest people in the world promise to donate at least half of their money to charity.

Sara Blakely hails from Clearwater, Florida, but in her late twenties relocated to Atlanta, Georgia, where she still resides and where Spanx has its headquarters. She and her husband, entrepreneur Jesse Itzler, are minority stakeholders in the group that owns the Atlanta Hawks professional basketball team.

Here are five interesting facts about Spanx founder Sara Blakely:

1. 1. Sara is a self-made billionaire. In 2012, Sara was one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World and she appeared on the cover of Forbes Magazine as the youngest self-made billionaire. The Blackstone Group acquired a majority stake in Spanx that same year, valuing the company at $1.2 billion.
2. 2. Sara invented Spanx out of her frustration with pantyhose. While hawking fax machines door to door in the Florida heat, 27-year-old Sara had to wear pantyhose—a dress code her employer enforced. While Sara liked the control-top element of the hosiery, she didn’t like the panty lines or the seam that showed through her open-toed shoes. She decided there must be a way to have one without the other.
3. 3. Sara did her own marketing. During pitch meetings with stores and buyers, she modeled the shapewear herself. She also reached out personally to journalists to request coverage. After she persuaded department store Neiman Marcus to carry Spanx, Bloomingdales, Saks, and Bergdorf Goodman followed.
4. 4. Spanx is one of Oprah’s “favorite things.” After Sara sent some of her products to The Oprah Winfrey Show, the media mogul featured Spanx in one of her famous “favorite things” campaigns, helping the product take off and providing Sara the opportunity to work on Spanx full-time from 2000 forward.
5. 5. Sir Richard Branson wears Spanx. Sara met Virgin Group’s Richard Branson when she was a contestant on Richard’s reality TV show The Rebel Billionaire in 2004, and the two have been friends ever since. In 2018, Richard shared that Spanx briefs are his favorite underwear.

Sara’s class guides you through all the steps of entrepreneurship, from finding your idea to selling it. Here are some highlights from her class:

1. 1. A prototype can be the difference between success and failure. “Every person in their life has had a million-dollar idea,” she says. According to Sara, the biggest difference between a successful idea and a failure is whether or not one takes action. Prototyping is one way to bring an idea to life. “The goal of the first prototype is to bring your idea into the world and then study its strengths and its weaknesses,” she adds. “And then, the idea and the reason you get the first prototype made is because you want to bring your crude concept into the physical world. You want to see that it can be made. You wanna see that it can be done. And then you want to educate yourself on the strengths and the weaknesses of your prototype. And you do that by comparing it to what else is available in the marketplace.”
2. 2. Culture fit trumps talent. Spanx is well-known for its exceptional company culture for which Sara credits prioritizing culture-fit over technical training. “Typically, if someone’s super talented and not a culture fit, we will not hire them,” Sara says. “We believe that, and we’ve seen it time and time again that culture fit trumps talent.” Learn more about building a culture at work.
3. 3. Identify your support system. A support system is the foundation of Sara’s survival guide. “It’s really important when you’re starting out as an entrepreneur to create a board of advisors that’s your support system,” she says. “So I’m talking about the people that make you feel good, that can give you the energy and the pep talks that you need. And know who they are. Write ’em on a piece of paper. I wrote down the four or five people in my life that make me feel the most confident, make me feel the best. And they didn’t even really know they were on my board of advisors, but they were. And they were the people when I was hitting the valleys, which happen often as an entrepreneur, the times I wanted to give up or the times that I thought I cannot do this anymore, I would pick up the phone and call them.”
4. 4. Share your story. Spanx became the brand it is today by creating a product women love and share by word of mouth. Sara encourages you to lead with your origin story and build awareness through creative marketing tactics. “Everybody has a story,” she says. “So even if you think, ‘Branding isn’t my strong suit.’ Why are you doing this? What’s the why and who are you in the world? Maybe you always felt a certain way growing up and now you’ve overcome something and now you’re starting this business. Share that part of the story. I mean, the more vulnerable you’re willing to be and the more open you’re willing to be, the deeper the connection will be with your consumers. And they’ll be rooting for you. It’ll change the feeling of I’m being sold to, into I’m rooting for this person. I really care about them and I want them to be successful.”
5. 5. Stay connected to the “why.” Every entrepreneur experiences highs and lows throughout their career. Sara is no exception. She believes finding your purpose is the key to maintaining motivation. “It’s important to know your purpose when you’re on an entrepreneurial journey,” she says, “because if you start with why and you stay connected to the why, that’s gonna fuel you through this very intense, very difficult journey. I mean, you wanna talk about a rollercoaster? You’re up, you’re down, you’re on the biggest high ever, you just landed the deal, then you just lost the deal. Then you just invented something, and then somebody else came out with it—it is one big wild ride. But if you have a purpose, and it’s bigger than yourself, and you’re connected to the why, you’ll survive the ups and downs.”

For additional perspectives on entrepreneurship, check out:

1. 1. Bob Iger on business strategy and leadership: Bob Iger’s tenure as the CEO of the Walt Disney Company saw some of the entertainment company’s biggest acquisitions and successes. Watch Bob’s class to learn how he fuses curiosity, creativity, and candor to grow a business.
2. 2. Howard Schultz on business leadership: Howard D. Schultz is an entrepreneur and philanthropist responsible for turning Starbucks into a top global brand. Watch Howard’s class to learn how he leads a values-based business.
3. 3. Richard Branson on disruptive entrepreneurship: In 2004, Sara Blakely was a contestant on Virgin Group founder Richard Branson’s reality TV show, The Rebel Billionaire, in which he coached young entrepreneurs through a series of challenges that mirrored his own path to success. In Richard’s class, he’ll teach you some of the same lessons: having an adventurer’s mindset, listening deeply, and putting yourself in your customer’s shoes.

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