From $700K in Debt to a Billion-Dollar Business: The Story of MaryRuth's

In August 2025, ten representatives from Capital One approached an entrepreneur with an offer of more than $420 million in debt financing to help her buy out nearly every outside investor in her business — an unusually rare move for a bank. The entrepreneur who accepted the offer is Mary Ruth Ghiam, founder and co-CEO of Los Angeles-based organic supplements company MaryRuth's. "They really fought for me," says the 41-year-old Ghiam.

Ghiam's relationship with Capital One dates back to 2014, when she founded the company and covered early expenses by racking up thousands of dollars in debt on the bank's card. Today MaryRuth's, which sells more than 300 forms of liquid vitamins, gummies, and other supplements, has been profitable since day one — revenue over the past 12 months was roughly $600 million, with EBITDA profit of $125 million, a margin of about 20%. Even accounting for the $420 million owed to Capital One, Forbes estimates the company is worth at least $1.5 billion.

Over the years, Ghiam turned down nine-figure offers from several major financial institutions, including Blackstone. "If you have profit, you have freedom," she says. But the path wasn't easy: when she founded the company, she was on the hook for her mother's $700,000 personal debt and went nine years without paying herself a salary. In 2021, when the business's annual revenue reached $135 million, TPG Capital offered a $250 million valuation. Other investors — Summit Partners, Butterfly Equity, and Blackstone — later pushed the offered price up to $400-525 million. Ghiam turned down Blackstone's offer because the deal would have pushed her out of management from day one, and instead struck a deal with Butterfly Equity, selling 40% of the company.

During Butterfly's investment period, the business more than doubled, with annual revenue topping $270 million by 2023. But just two years in, the investors said they wanted to exit — and the very week Ghiam put the company up for sale, she got divorced. Offers came in valuing the company at $800-900 million, but a deal with Advent International fell through. In the end, New York-based firm King Street took a stake of nearly 3%, with Butterfly reinvesting $50 million into King Street — while Ghiam bought additional shares herself, retaining a 97% stake.

It was precisely to preserve that large ownership stake that Capital One's $420 million loan offer came about — according to bank representative Paul Baisley, MaryRuth's is outperforming even some large publicly traded companies among private consumer goods businesses. "Her approach is entirely data-driven. If people shift to creatine, she can shift too; if interest in gummy vitamins rises, she can adapt to that," Baisley says.

Even so, Ghiam appears to be preparing to give up full control of the company. The reason: rival Grüns sold an 80% stake to Unilever for roughly $900 million — about four times revenue. Notably, Grüns founder Chad Janis was on the Summit Partners team that conducted due diligence on MaryRuth's back in 2021. "That's genuinely scary. Now a company like mine could be built in two years with just 10 employees," Ghiam says, admitting that now that she's going through a divorce, she's once again considering starting a new sale process.