Sara Blakely

Sara Treleaven Blakely is an American billionaire businesswoman and the founder of Spanx, the shapewear company she started with $5,000 in personal savings and built into a global brand worth over a billion dollars — without taking a single dollar of outside investment or debt. Born on February 27, 1971, in Clearwater, Florida, Blakely is one of the most remarkable self-made entrepreneurs in American history.

Before Spanx, Blakely's path was anything but conventional. She wanted to be a lawyer but scored poorly on the LSAT twice. She worked at Walt Disney World and then spent seven years selling fax machines door-to-door for Delphi Communications, an experience she credits with teaching her how to handle rejection. The idea for Spanx came in 1998 when she cut the feet off her control-top pantyhose to wear under white pants. She realized no product existed to solve this common problem.

With no fashion industry experience, no business training, and no connections, Blakely spent two years developing her product. She wrote her own patent (after researching patent law at Barnes & Noble to save on legal fees), convinced a reluctant hosiery mill to manufacture her prototype, and personally sold Spanx to Neiman Marcus by demonstrating the product in the store bathroom. Oprah Winfrey named Spanx one of her "Favorite Things" in 2000, and the brand exploded.

Blakely maintained 100% ownership of Spanx for over two decades, making her the youngest self-made female billionaire when she joined the Forbes list in 2012. In 2021, she sold a majority stake to Blackstone for $1.2 billion — and celebrated by giving every one of her employees a $10,000 bonus and two first-class plane tickets to anywhere in the world. She is married to Jesse Itzler, entrepreneur and co-owner of the Atlanta Hawks.

Born February 27, 1971, in Clearwater, Florida, Sara Blakely grew up in a middle-class family. Her father, a trial attorney, instilled in her a healthy relationship with failure by asking her and her brother each week what they had failed at — and celebrating the attempts. She attended Florida State University and briefly studied law but scored poorly on the LSAT. She worked at Walt Disney World and then spent seven years selling fax machines door-to-door for Delphi Communications, which she credits with teaching her everything she knows about sales, rejection, and resilience.