All About Sara Blakely: Behind the Spanx Founder’s Success

[Sara Blakely](https://www.masterclass.com/classes/sara-blakely-teaches-self-made-entrepreneurship) 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. Nowadays, 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 is headquartered. She and her husband, entrepreneur Jesse Itzler, are minority stakeholders in the group that owns the Atlanta Hawks professional basketball team. Sara graduated from Florida State University, where she studied <a href='https://masterclass.com/articles/robin-robertss-tips-for-effective-communication' target='_blank' class='mc-text--link' data-mc-segment-trigger='true' data-mc-segment-event-type='Article Page Click' data-event-obj='{"textTag":"p","href":"https://masterclass.com/articles/robin-robertss-tips-for-effective-communication","linkCopy":"communications","category":"automated-link"}' automatic='true'>communications and tried a few different careers before committing to Spanx full time: - __Attorney__: After graduating undergrad, Sara Blakely considered becoming an attorney but did not perform well on the LSAT exam required for law school admission. - __Stand-up comedian__: Sara also considered a career in entertainment, performing occasionally as a stand-up comedian. Sara credits stand-up with getting her accustomed to speaking to strangers. - __Walt Disney World employee__: Sara briefly worked at Epcot at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, where she buckled amusement park guests into a ride—a job she did not enjoy and left after three months. - __Fax machine salesperson__: Sara left her job at Disney World to join office supply company Danka, for which she went door to door, cold-calling businesses to sell fax machines. Sara had the idea for Spanx’s first shapewear product while working for Danka. Sara Blakely invented Spanx in the 1990s out of her own frustration with the limitations of pantyhose and other undergarments. While hawking fax machines door to door in the Florida heat, 27-year-old Sara had to wear pantyhose—a dress code Danka enforced. While Sara liked the control-top element of the hosiery, she didn’t like the seam that showed through her open-toed shoes. She decided there must be a way to have one without the other. Soon after, Sara had a chance to put the idea into practice. She had been invited to a party and decided to go in a pair of white pants—a garment notorious for revealing panty lines. She grabbed a pair of pantyhose, but first, she picked up a pair of scissors and made them footless. Motivated to further develop her idea, Sara spent the next two years and $5,000 of her savings traveling to various clothing manufacturing plants in North Carolina in the name of research. Before she turned 30, Sara made the very first prototype for what was to become Spanx. Sara Blakely has grown Spanx into a shapewear juggernaut that’s estimated to do more than $400 million in business each year. The company was profitable from day one, generating $4 million its first year and $10 million its second year. Many events and milestones have impacted the company’s growth and success, but here are a few key moments in Spanx’s history: - __In 1999, Neiman Marcus started carrying Spanx__. Spanx’s meteoric rise happened in large part because of Sara’s marketing savvy. During pitch meetings with stores and buyers, she modeled the product 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. - __In 2000, Oprah Winfrey named Spanx one of her “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. - __In 2001, Spanx partnered with QVC__. Sara made a deal with QVC, a home shopping channel, which further boosted sales and expanded Spanx’s market footprint. - __In 2003, Sara Blakely met Richard Branson__. Sara met Virgin Group mogul Richard Branson when she was cast on his reality TV show, *The Rebel Billionaire*. After she competed on the show, Branson gave Sara $750,000 to help start the Spanx by Sara Blakely Foundation, which today invests millions of dollars to empower women through education, entrepreneurship, and the arts. - __In 2012, Sara Blakely was featured in *Forbes*__. Sara appeared on the cover of the distinguished business magazine, which touted her as the youngest self-made female billionaire in the world. Today, Spanx products are available in major chains ranging from Neiman Marcus to Target. Spanx remains a private company, with Sara Blakely owning 100 percent of the business. She maintains that beyond the $5,000 in savings she initially spent to get Spanx off the ground, she has never taken an outside investment. The Spanx founder is on the exclusive list of billionaire business titans, alongside high-net-worth individuals Oprah Winfrey, Richard Branson, and other notable personalities. Get the [MasterClass Annual Membership](https://www.masterclass.com/) for exclusive access to video lessons taught by business luminaries, including Sara Blakely, Chris Voss, Robin Roberts, Bob Iger, Howard Schultz, Anna Wintour, and more. Spanx founder Sara Blakely launched her brand in 2000. It has since grown into a multimillion-dollar company that sells undergarments, leggings, and swimsuits.