Sara Blakely spent seven years selling fax machines door to door before she cut the feet off a pair of tights and decided to build a product with five thousand dollars in savings. This episode follows the patent she wrote herself from a library textbook, the hosiery mills that turned her down until one owner asked his daughters, the ten minute meeting at Neiman Marcus that ended in the ladies' room, and the day Oprah named Spanx one of her favourite things.
It also covers how she grew the company without a single investor or advert, the Forbes cover, the Giving Pledge, the 2021 sale to Blackstone and the ten thousand dollars and two first class tickets she gave every employee. Founder Stories tells the story of one founder per episode, told plainly and in order.
