The sequence follows the pattern of adding powers of 2. We start with 1 and add 2 to get the second term, which is 3. To get the third term, we add 4 (which is 2 squared) to 3, giving 7. To find the fourth term, we add 8 (which is 2 cubed) to 7, which gives 15. Therefore, the missing number is 8.