Before she became the youngest self-made female billionaire in history, Sara Blakely, founder of Spanx, sold fax machines door to door because she needed the cash and health insurance.
The global investment firm Blackstone is buying a controlling stake in Spanx, which is valued at approximately $1.2 billion, two decades after Blakely established the pioneering womenswear company she co-founded with her sister.
Blakely shared a video of her team’s celebration of the sale on Instagram last week. Eventually, she inquired, “Why am I spinning a globe?” as a globe was on a neighboring table.
In front of the small gathering, she explained why: she had purchased two round-trip first-class tickets for each of the company’s employees.
But it didn’t stop there.
There are times when you might want to treat yourself to an expensive meal or a luxurious hotel stay, as Blakely suggested. As a result, each of you will get $10,000 in the form of two first-class tickets to anyplace in the globe.
Tears and cheers erupted, and the room was transformed into a dance party.
There was a wide range of answers when asked how the presents will be used by employees, from a honeymoon in Bora Bora to an elopement in Sweden to an African tour.
While filming the video, Blakely reflected on how far she’d come from the sleepless hours and weekend cold-calling manufacturing plants working on her women’s shapewear idea.
She began to cry as she added, “I claimed this company will be worth $20 million one day and everyone scoffed at me.”
Then, she raised a glass to “all the women in the world who haven’t had this opportunity” and to all the women who have come before her.
She asserted that despite the fact that 50% of entrepreneurs are female, they only receive 2.3% of venture funding.
While thinking about her mother and grandmothers and the limited choices they had in life, Blakely reflected on the women who had come before her: In the past, this would have seemed like a far-fetched fantasy.