Spanx
$5,000 and a pair of cut-up pantyhose → the youngest self-made female billionaire.
▶ Founder shortScalingBusiness & growthConsumerE-commerceUSA
Sara Blakely sold fax machines door to door for seven years. With $5,000 in savings and an idea everyone laughed at — footless shapewear made by cutting the feet off pantyhose — she wrote her own patent, cold-called mills until one said yes, and got Spanx into Neiman Marcus by demonstrating it in a bathroom. She kept 100% of the company for two decades; the 2021 Blackstone deal valued it at $1.2B and made her the youngest self-made female billionaire.
Why it's indexed
- Bootstrapped from $5,000; sole owner for 20+ years.
- Valued at $1.2B in the 2021 Blackstone deal.
- Wrote her own patent and won her first retailer with a bathroom demo.
Coverage
Founder short: Sara Blakely & SpanxFounder short
More in Business & growth
MercorAI-powered hiring — match, vet and pay specialized talent at scale.
F
FunnelCraftConversion architecture templates for social-first brands.
C
CohortBeamRetention intelligence for subscription and media products.
Scale AIThe data foundry for AI — training data and evaluation for frontier models.