Confessions of a Female Founder with Meghan
Business Is Not a Battlefield with SPANX’s Sara Blakely
Tue, 27 May 2025
On today’s episode, Meghan sits down with Sara Blakely, the founder of SPANX, who turned $5,000 in savings into a billion-dollar brand that redefined shapewear. In this conversation, the pair get real about betting on yourself, and building bold business strategies. Sara also opens up about starting from scratch again—this time with her latest venture: a shoe line called Sneex. Follow Meghan @Meghan and Sara @SaraBlakely on Instagram. Stay up to date with us @LemonadaMedia on X, Facebook, and Instagram. For a list of current sponsors and discount codes for this and every other Lemonada show, go to lemonadamedia.com/sponsors. Joining Lemonada Premium is a great way to support our shows and get bonus content. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Main Theme: “Crabbuckit” words and music by Kevin Deron Brereton (c) Universal Songs of Polygram Int., Inc. on behalf of Universal Music Publishing Canada (BMI) / 100% interest for the Territory.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Chapter 1: What inspired Sara Blakely to start Spanx?
Mm-hmm.
And so I just used the profits from the sales and it continued to get bigger and bigger and grow in that way. But I was very scrappy, very bootstrappy. You know, I remember standing in rooms back in those days hearing how much money all the people around me had raised and thinking in moments like this. oh my God, I'm such a loser. Like I haven't raised anything.
But then I look back on it and it just never felt right to me. I never took a business class, but I was like, why does that feel off to me? Like everybody around you saying, I raised 20, I raised 50, I raised 100 and they're all high-fiving each other and they're like, but... I tell entrepreneurs, when you do that, and there are times where you have to do that. There are certain business models.
There are certain things that you're going to do. You are giving up a piece of something for that. You're diluting yourself. You are diluting yourself. So why are we all high-fiving you? It became like a badge of honor when I was starting Spanx. How much money did you raise? And I'd say, none. And they'd be like, oh.
But I also felt like I was willing to grow smaller if I needed to and be very intentional and stay very focused on the consumer, which is my love. I want to make her happy. I want to make her feel better. I want to give her better options. And I'll let the chips fall where they may around me. But if I had investors, I knew that I wouldn't be able to honor my intuition. Yes.
Because intuition is not on a spreadsheet. It's very hard to explain. And it's sometimes really counterintuitive to business and the way business works.
I completely agree with that. I mean, I've, you know, I've invested in a lot of female founders and I'm really conscious, I know as you do too, but also you just mentor so many women and you want them to succeed to really, I'm not in the business of trying to dilute you. I'm in the business of trying to uplift you.
Right.
You want to be the person that they can call when they're having a quality control issue or they're worried about something or they just feel uncertain as we all do. And now I'm on the flip side of that going, wow, I have a partner. I was going to do it all by myself. Took a complete U-turn because I really believe in what Netflix and their CPG department are doing.
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Chapter 2: How did Sara Blakely redefine business strategies?
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