How 1-800-GOT-JUNK? Failed Its Way to Success

CEO Brian Scudamore describes the challenges of growing too fast and relying too much on credit.
How 1-800-GOT-JUNK? Failed Its Way to Success

It took 1-800-GOT-JUNK? 8 years to make its first $1m. Now 30 years in, the company does more than $250m annually.

What happened in those early years is instructive to any startup that is over-leveraged. The company’s founder and CEO Brian Scudamore spoke at Hustle Con 2018, describing the challenges of growing too fast and relying too much on credit.

At one point, the business owed more than $36k in phone bills and faced the threat of losing service — which would have crippled the company. But Scudamore persevered, and today owns a massive junk removal service, along with several other companies under the O2E Brands umbrella.

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