Sara Blakely

Sara Blakely is an American entrepreneur, inventor, and the founder of Spanx — the shapewear brand she built from a $5,000 personal-savings start into a category-defining, billion-dollar company. Born in Clearwater, Florida in 1971, she sold fax machines door-to-door for the office-supply company Danka before a simple frustration in 1998 — not having the right undergarment for a smooth look under white pants — led her to cut the feet off her control-top pantyhose and invent her own solution. Over the next two years she developed the product, filed the patent groundwork herself, secured the trademark, and in 2000 launched Spanx into Neiman Marcus.

The turning point came in November 2000, when Oprah Winfrey named Spanx one of her "Favorite Things." Sales took off, and Blakely built the company without outside investors and without traditional advertising, retaining full ownership as Spanx expanded across thousands of retail locations in dozens of countries. In 2012, Forbes named her the world's youngest self-made female billionaire — at 41, with no inheritance and no business partner — and put her on its cover; the same year, Time named her one of its 100 most influential people. In October 2021, Blackstone acquired a majority stake in Spanx in a deal valuing the company at $1.2 billion, with Blakely staying on as executive chairwoman of an all-female board — and famously gifting every Spanx employee $10,000 and two first-class plane tickets to celebrate.

Beyond Spanx, Blakely is a committed philanthropist. She founded the Sara Blakely Foundation in 2006 to empower women through education and entrepreneurship, and in 2013 she became the first female billionaire to sign the Giving Pledge, committing the majority of her wealth to charity with a simple thesis: "I pledge to invest in women because I believe it offers one of the greatest returns on investment." She also teaches her methods directly through her MasterClass on self-made entrepreneurship.

Still building in her fifties, Blakely launched Sneex in August 2024 — her first new brand in more than two decades — a luxury "hy-heel" that reengineers the high heel for comfort, and which won Footwear News' "Launch of the Year." Based in Atlanta with her husband, entrepreneur Jesse Itzler, and a minority owner of the NBA's Atlanta Hawks, she remains one of the most relatable and instructive voices in entrepreneurship: living proof that a good idea, relentless resilience, and a willingness to fail can build something from nothing.