← Founders Archive
Founder · Spanx
Sara Blakely
Turned $5,000 of savings into a billion-dollar brand — without VC.
- Founded
- 2000
- HQ
- Atlanta, GA
- Sector
- Consumer
- Company
- Spanx
“Failure is not the outcome. Failure is not trying.
The story in brief
A fax-machine saleswoman for seven years, Blakely cut the feet off her pantyhose and spotted a product. She wrote her own patent and pitched Neiman Marcus in person.
Spanx stayed fully founder-owned until Blackstone bought a majority stake in 2021 at a $1.2 billion valuation.
Read the full story · 5 min read$5,000, No Investors, No Business Degree: Sara Blakely's Spanx Playbook→Lessons for founders
01
VC is optional
02
Sell in person
03
Stay quiet until it's real
More founders
est. 1993
Nvidia
Jensen Huang
Planned Nvidia in a Denny's booth and survived years of near-bankruptcy.
SemiconductorsRead their story →
est. 2013
Canva
Melanie Perkins
Rejected by 100+ investors, she learned to kitesurf to get into the room.
Design SoftwareRead their story →
est. 2008
Airbnb
Brian Chesky
Rented air mattresses, sold cereal boxes, and built a global travel giant.
TravelRead their story →
est. 2010
Stripe
Patrick & John Collison
Brothers from rural Ireland who made payments a few lines of code.
FintechRead their story →