Michael Wystrach

Michael is Founder and Managing Partner at Cutting Horse, where he partners closely with founders building the next generation of enduring consumer brands. He works side by side with leadership teams on growth strategy and scaling founder-led businesses.

As a two-time founder and operator, Michael has deep experience building high-growth consumer companies from the ground up. He founded Freshly and served as CEO, scaling the business from launch to over $500 million in revenue, 2,500 employees, and more than 100 million meals shipped before the company was acquired by Nestlé for $1.5 billion. He later co-founded Petfolk with his sister, Dr. Audrey Wystrach, and serves as Co-CEO.

Michael is an active advisor and investor across the consumer ecosystem, known for his ability to identify and support founders with the grit, vision, and resilience required to build category-defining businesses.

Outside of Cutting Horse, Michael is the founding President of Council 1869, a nonprofit committed to breaking the cycle of poverty for families in under-resourced communities on Long Island. He grew up on his family’s ranch in southern Arizona, where his parents still run the gas station, restaurant, and inn they built on one corner property. That background shaped how he thinks about building businesses: with your hands, close to the customer, and with very little margin for error.

Michael holds a B.S. in Finance from the University of Arizona’s Eller College of Management. He lives in Garden City, New York, with his wife, Kerry, and their four children.