He Sold For $1.5B But Will Never Retire

**Mike Wystrach** (0:00)
Now, the downside of that is, I had about $15 in my bank account, and I had personally guaranteed a 20-year lease. We get sued, we lose, I get a judgment against me for a million dollars. So I've got 15 bucks in the bank, now I've got a negative million dollar balance sheet. That was 2014, fast forward 2020, we're doing half a billion in revenue.

**Daniel Berk** (0:19)
What did you do that day? You got a wire for $100 million.

**Mike Wystrach** (0:23)
You know, people will always anchor over like, oh my God, what did it feel like when you had the money? It's like, man, like I just spent so much more time thinking about like the bonds, the people we created.

**Daniel Berk** (0:31)
In 2012, Mike Wystrach had $15 in the bank and a judge had just ruled he owed his former landlord a million dollars. He started the meal delivery company out of the wreckage of that restaurant. And eight years later, Nestlé bought it for $1.5 billion.
But after Nestlé bought Freshly, they shut it down. The thing that Mike had spent nearly a decade building was gone. And I wanted to know what that does to a person when they've already made life-changing money from the exit. I also wanted to know where did all that money go and where does it still go? Because Mike did not retire. He didn't even take six months off. He started a veterinary company with his sister and put serious money into it. And then he raised the $75 million fund to back other founders. His entire payout went right back out the door into new bets. So the question I had going into this conversation was, at what point do you actually stop?
And do you want to? Moneywise is a podcast where we talk with ultra-high-net-worth individuals, and many of them are part of Hampton, a private network for high-growth founders doing $3 million or more in revenue or who have already had an exit of $10 million or more. If that's you, go to joinhampton.com. Now here's our episode. I'm Daniel Berk, your host. This is Mike Wystrach.
Mike, thanks so much for joining us today on Moneywise.

**Mike Wystrach** (1:50)
How are you doing? I'm excited to be on. Thanks for having me.

**Daniel Berk** (1:52)
Me too. I would love to hear a little bit about the Freshly story. Tell me what led to the start of that journey and then the acquisition and some of the payout. Tell me that journey of yours.

**Mike Wystrach** (2:02)
Yeah. Give you a quick recap. So we started that business. I think fun part about Freshly is it's like the ashes of the Phoenix. I started that business in 2012 I started a business, a restaurant. That business was failing.
I was working my ass off in the restaurant non-stop trying to save it. And so I wasn't as healthy as I wanted to be. I wasn't working out. I'm generally pretty fit, gym rat. And so I asked a good buddy who's a family doctor, Dr. Frank Comstock, genius in food and early writer in the paleo diet. So I was like, what should I be doing? He's like, you got to eat better. And I was like, I don't even know what that means. Just draw me up a list of things I can eat. And I'm going to have my chefs at the restaurant, because I'm there nonstop, just cook a bunch of stuff and then make to go. So fast forward 60 days, back to my life. I feel great. My energy levels are high.
And people start asking me, what are you doing? I'm like, oh, I've got this doctor who made all the ingredients. My chefs just cook it. I just eat it. And they're like, can you do it for me?
So here I've got a failing business. And all of a sudden people are like, can you do it for me? And I was like, I wonder if this is a business. So I sent out an email to 50 of my friends. This is in Tucson, Arizona. And I hacked together a website. And next morning I wake up $2,000 in sales, which was all I needed to be like, okay, we got something here. So the restaurant continues to tank and this business continues to go up. And I had to make a decision. Is this like, hey, this is gonna fail? And you just gotta be okay with that and then put all your energy in there. So I did that. Now, the downside of that is I had about $15 in my bank count. And I had personally guaranteed a 20-year lease. So we get sued, we lose. I get a judgment against me for a million dollars. So I've got 15 mucks in the bank. Now I've got a negative million dollar balance sheet. Now, the goods and bads of that is like, now it was like all the bridges were burned. Like I was like, this has to succeed. So that was 2014 Fast forward 2020, we're doing half a billion of revenue.