Sara Blakely

Why You Want Me On Your Council

I built a billion-dollar company from my apartment with $5,000 and zero industry connections. No MBA, no fashion background, no investors — just a problem I wanted to solve and the willingness to look ridiculous figuring it out. I spent two years researching patents at night while selling fax machines by day. I got laughed out of every hosiery mill in North Carolina until one owner's daughters convinced him my idea wasn't crazy. I cold-called Neiman Marcus, pitched buyers in their bathroom, and personally stood in stores doing demonstrations because nobody else was going to sell my product for me. If you're building something from nothing, if you're the underdog with more belief than resources, if you need someone who's been told 'no' a thousand times and kept going anyway — that's exactly where I live. I'll show you how to turn your naivety into your greatest weapon, how to bootstrap when everyone says you need funding, and how to build a brand that people can't stop talking about. I don't do theory. I do 'here's exactly what I did, and here's how you can do it too.'