I lived in an area of Fort Collins, Colorado, where there were many "WaterPick" millionaires. Waterpick had a humble "penny" stock beginning.
No it didn't. It was acquired by Teledyne in 1967. Teledyne was already public; its IPO was in May 1961. Ironically, one of the venture capitalists involved with Teledyne, Arthur Rock, much later got taken by Bernie Madoff.
And there is no comparison to Fannie and Freddie, who became pennies as a result of the 2008 economic crisis.