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Spanx began with $5,000

When the problem you have is a market, and when it is only yours · 14 min

In 1998 Sara Blakely cut the feet off her pantyhose and started Spanx with $5,000. Two programmers started Devver the same way, from their own pain, and closed it. A UK survey found millions of people invent for themselves, and fewer than one in five inventions ever reaches anyone else. Is your own annoyance a market?

Takeaways

  • Sara Blakely started Spanx with five thousand dollars of savings and a pair of pantyhose with the feet cut off. Two programmers in the United States started Devver the same way, from a pain in their own work, and closed it. In their own words, a few users felt the pain acutely; most didn't care.
  • In a survey of one thousand one hundred and seventy-three adults in the United Kingdom, about six in a hundred had made or changed a product for their own use in the past three years. Only about seventeen in a hundred of those inventions ever reached anyone else. Most self-made solutions stay in one home.
  • Something to try: say, in one sentence, a problem you have already solved for yourself with a workaround. Then find five people who have the same workaround. Not five who like the idea. Five who already do something about it.

Chapters

  1. Scissors0:18
  2. The surest problem2:05
  3. Two point nine million inventors3:49
  4. A truck full of cabbage5:55
  5. Same workaround, different answer8:13
  6. Five people with your workaround9:37
  7. The answer11:40

References

  1. Spanx — About Us(2026)
  2. NPR — New NPR Podcast 'How I Built This' Begins With Spanx(2016)
  3. NPR (How I Built This) — Spanx: Sara Blakely(2017)
  4. Hoffman, R. (Masters of Scale) — 5 Steps to Finding Your Next Big Idea from Spanx's Sara Blakely(2018)
  5. Fore, P. (Fortune) — Spanx billionaire founder kept the brand a secret—even from family—for a year(2025)
  6. O'Connor, C. (Forbes) — Undercover Billionaire: Sara Blakely Joins The Rich List Thanks To Spanx(2012)
  7. National Inventors Hall of Fame — Sara Blakely(2026)
  8. Graham, P. — How to Get Startup Ideas(2012)
  9. Cooper, P. (Ruby Inside) — Devver: Run Your Tests or Specs 3 Times Faster (On A Cloud Of Servers)(2009)
  10. Rao, L. (TechCrunch) — Devver Promises To Speed Up App Testing For Ruby Frameworks(2009)
  11. Brinckerhoff, B. (Devver blog) — Lessons Learned(2010)
  12. von Hippel, E., de Jong, J. P. J. & Flowers, S. — Comparing Business and Household Sector Innovation in Consumer Products: Findings from a Representative Study in the United Kingdom(2012)
  13. von Hippel, E., Ogawa, S. & de Jong, J. P. J. — The Age of the Consumer-Innovator(2011)
  14. Franke, N., Schirg, F. & Reinsberger, K. — The frequency of end-user innovation: A re-estimation of extant findings(2016)
  15. Bafana, B. (IPS News) — Cool Scheme to Reduce Food Waste in Nigeria(2021)
  16. How we made it in Africa — Rotten tomatoes: Nigerian entrepreneur offers solution to age-old farming problem(2016)
  17. Ikegwuonu, N. C. (IFPRI) — ColdHubs: Addressing the crucial problem of food loss in Nigeria with solar-powered refrigeration(2018)
  18. Food Planet Prize — ColdHubs(2022)
  19. ColdHubs — ColdHubs Wins Curt Bergfors Foundation's 2022 Food Planet Prize(2022)
  20. ColdHubs — About Us(2026)
  21. Russell, C. (Belfer Center, Harvard Kennedy School) — Innovation Key to Nigerian Start-up to Keep Food Fresh(2022)