Michael Wystrach

Michael is the Founder & CEO of Freshly, the leading manufacturer of fresh, prepared meals in the U.S. He brings over 12 years of experience in the food industry, along with backgrounds in finance, real estate, and startups.

As CEO, Mike leads the charge at Freshly, managing the business model from operations and finance to growth, all to deliver on Freshly’s mission of breaking down the barriers to healthy eating.

On his morning routine. 

I’m usually up around 6 and jump straight into a morning workout. 

I had always been a CrossFit person, but without gyms open, I’m now doing a lot more HIIT training at home. My new routine involves a rotation of light weights, a weighted vest, bands, burpees, squats, pushups, and lunges.

From there, I’ll read through newspapers for an hour, then close with a 10-minute meditation to kick off my day with a clear head.

On his keystone habits.

What you allow into your life and your mind will directly impact your present state. I don’t enjoy letting the world passively flow by me.

As a result, I shut down all my social media accounts a bit over 3 years ago.

My personal challenge with social media was the feedback loops, which can get negative really quickly and adversely affect your mindset. 

I spend a lot of time making sure that I’m conditioning myself to feel optimistic and to maintain an optimistic outlook on life.

It’s an incredibly important trait to have, especially as a leader when people need to feel a degree of calm and stability in everything that you do. 

As a result, I’m constantly filtering out things in my life that have the potential to catalyze mental spirals that detract from my mindset and don’t serve me at all.

On mental clarity and stress.

Whether you’re running a 2-person startup or a 20,000 person corporation, both are insanely stressful. In the early days of Freshly, my stress was driven by target metrics surrounding making money and raising money.

Now, my stressors are completely different because we have to navigate and manage nearly 2000 employees, with 45 million meals that need to be shipped.

In the process of managing stress and scaling a business, mental clarity and focus are both wildly important, especially for executives.

As a founder, you need to focus and ensure that you’re showing up every day with an energetic and positive mindset. 

Stress can overwhelm you pretty fast and be quite random, so it’s more about proactive stress management for me.

In doing so, I prioritize proper sleep, exercise, and diet. You have to build these mechanisms and guardrails over time.

But the cognitive ups and downs will always be there.

Take this current situation as an example. There is obviously a ton of added stress for a lot of people, but certainly for business leaders, because this is a unique challenge they have never experienced before. It’s all about managing it. 

On investor alignment.

From my experience, there are three keys to founder-investor alignment.

First, as a founder, it’s absolutely critical that you’re transparent about what your own goals and outcomes are with your investor. From there, it’s as simple as finding investors who align with those same goals and outcomes. 

Second, get investors on your cap table who believe in what you’re building, and not solely motivated by the economic upside of the investment.

The best businesses tend to be those in which the team is really passionate. Passion drives a business further than anything else. 

Third, align yourself with people that think differently.

The best boardrooms I’ve been in are those with a lot of diversity of opinion, mindset, age, ethnicity, and gender.

If you’re a finance-oriented founder, find an investor who understands marketing. Experience matters, so it’s important to align with those that bring something unique to the table. 

On nutrition and fasting.

I’m a huge fan of intermittent fasting. Most days I’m not eating until 12 or 1 PM.

As you can probably guess, most of my lunches are from Freshly which is helpful because I’m usually grinding or on the go, so it’s nice to have a healthy meal that is quick and easy to prepare. 

We’re also eating Freshly a few nights a week for dinner because we have a 7-month-old at home and life can get a bit chaotic. The rest of the week, we’ll cook or order in as a family.

On his evening routine.

It’s a guilty pleasure, but I love silly 30-minute sit-coms like Friends or Seinfeld. I just like to unplug from the day with some lightheartedness and laughs.

For me, those shows don’t require a lot of thinking or processing and I can turn my brain off for a bit after a long day.

I also shut down emails and phone usage after 8 PM. In my opinion, there are zero benefits in staying tuned in to emails after that time.

I always sleep with my phone outside of the bedroom as well, to ensure there’s no interaction with any devices before I go to bed. 

It’s crucial that you disconnect from an always-on work environment and really focus on conditioning yourself to wind down before actually getting to bed.