Sara Blakely

Sara Blakely grew up in Clearwater, Florida, and initially pursued a career in law but failed the LSAT twice before taking a sales job at Danka, selling fax machines door-to-door, which honed her persistence and sales skills. In 1998, at age 27, frustrated with pantyhose under white pants, she invested $5,000 of her savings to create footless hosiery, researching fabrics at night while working days. She wrote her own patent, secured a trademark for 'Spanx' for $150, and prototyped by cutting pantyhose herself, launching the company in 2000 without formal business training or investors. Blakely pitched prototypes to retailers like Neiman Marcus, demonstrating with before-and-after photos of her own body, securing initial orders that generated $4 million in first-year sales. A pivotal breakthrough came in late 2000 when Oprah Winfrey featured Spanx on her show, skyrocketing sales to $10 million the next year; a QVC appearance sold 8,000 units in minutes. She expanded offerings to leggings and swimwear, reaching hundreds of millions in annual sales by decade's end, all while owning 100% of the bootstrapped company. By 2012, Spanx was valued at $1 billion, making Blakely the youngest self-made female billionaire. She invested in the Atlanta Hawks NBA team in 2015 and, after Blackstone's $1.2 billion majority stake acquisition in 2021, became executive chairwoman. Blakely founded the Sara Blakely Foundation in 2006 to empower women and girls, launched the Leg Up initiative for female entrepreneurs, and lives in Atlanta with her husband and four children, advocating peak performance and emotional intelligence.