Thread by @chrisxmunn

Sara Blakely sold @SPANX today for $1.2B

SPANX was stared with just $5,000 and never took any investor money.

Here's the story of how she did it, and how several men almost killed it 👇

Sara graduated college with plans to become an attorney.

But those plans were quickly derailed when she kept receiving low scores on her LSAT test (the test taken to get into U.S. law schools).

So Sara took a job a Disney World as a ride reader.

After the Disney World stint, Sara took a job selling fax machines.

Sara found some success in selling the fax machines and was eventually promoted to national sales trainer at age 25.

She didn't know it at the time, but the skill developed here were crucial to launching SPANX.

But one thing nagged at Sara. While selling faxes she often wore panty hose.

She liked how the top portion smoothed everything around the butt/thigh area.

But she hated the leg/foot portion as she walked in the Florida heat selling fax machines.

So out of sheer frustration, Sara cut the bottom part off and SPANX was born.

$5,000 was her initial investment to create prototypes and file for a patent.

But, Sara would soon find out that this would be a huge obstacle.

She reached out to patent lawyers and manufacturers. All men. And none of them understood Sara's product.

She even called the chamber of commerce in her state to find a woman patent lawyer.

There wasn't one.

Sara was stuck on both sides.

One day a manufacturer called her and agreed to produce the prototypes.

He told his 3 daughters about the product and they convinced him.

Otherwise, SPANX might not be around today.

And for the patent, Sara wrote it herself!

Sara used her sales skills learned from selling faxes to get SPANX into Neiman Marcus.

Then she got put on Oprah's favorite things list and things really took off. 🚀🚀

Blackstone purchased a majority stake in SPANX today for $1.2B.

The deal was led by an all-female team at the firm.

They also committed to an all-female board at the company going forward.

The story of @SPANX is truly one of grit and determination.

But also of the importance of diversity.

Men couldn't understand the product and it almost derailed the company.

The diversity in the decision making room is critical.

To learn more about Sara and SPANX, I would highly recommend the @HowIBuiltThis podcast featuring her.

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/spa…

For more stories like this or to learn more about business in general, follow me at @chrisxmmunn.

I write threads related to business and leadership 1-2x a week.

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