How did the Freshly founder go from $15 and $1M of debt to a $1.5B exit?

The Freshly founder, Michael Weistrach, started with $15 in his bank account at age 35, after an earlier company had gone bankrupt and he carried about a million dollars in debt that he had to pay off within three years. He says that pressure created urgency, and since the business already had product-market fit, he went all in and made it happen. Growth came from relentless, data-driven marketing: he says the company reached $550 million in sales in a little over five years, almost entirely through Meta ads. He started with 100% ownership, brought in a lot of investors, and sold for $1.5 billion while owning about 10% of it, arguing that without giving up that 90% there would have been no $1.5 billion exit. He also credits his work ethic, saying he is not the smartest and not the best looking but is the hardest working, and that this effort compounds over time.