Together We Build: How Entrepreneurs’ Organization Helped Brian Scudamore Turn a Junk-Hauling Idea Into an International Powerhouse

In celebration of Global Entrepreneurship Week and this year’s theme of “Together We Build,” Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) is sharing the story of EO member Brian Scudamore. Brian leaned on his EO peers to help him grow 1-800-GOT-JUNK? into a massive international brand. Today, he pays it forward by connecting with other EO members around the world when they need help. 

Nearly three decades ago, Brian Scudamore sat with his Entrepreneurs’ Organization Forum in Vancouver, pockets empty and business on the brink. He had to borrow four quarters from them to fill a parking meter so he could even attend the meeting. “I was completely out of cash,” he recalls. “I did not have a penny to my name.”

Pocket change aside, that day he needed them to help him untangle a more consequential problem: a US$36,000 phone bill from AT&T that he could not pay. His 1-800-GOT-JUNK phone number — the backbone of his fledgling business — was in jeopardy. Losing it because of overdue bills would likely have meant the end of a dream that had started in his teens.

“They said, ‘Have you tried to ask them for different terms?’” he remembers. “Someone in my Forum shared experience and we came up with a plan.”

“People were there for me. There is a feeling of loyalty. This is my tribe. This is my community.”

- Brian Scudamore (EO Paris) 

They suggested that he try to negotiate, so he called AT&T to ask if he could pay them the sum via 36 monthly installments. The idea seemed implausible, but desperation and trust outweighed pride. To Brian’s surprise, rather than push back, the AT&T account representative agreed immediately. He promptly sent the company 36 post-dated US$1,000 checks. “That probably saved my business,” he says.

Brian and the team he would go on to build parlayed those four quarters and 36 checks into an international junk-hauling powerhouse that now hauls in nearly US$1 billion in annual revenue. The 30-year EO member via EO Vancouver and EO Paris chuckles when he tells the story, but emphasizes that it underscores how invaluable it is for an entrepreneur to lean on a trusted community of peers. “If it was not for my Forum-mates giving me some confidence around an idea, I might never have asked,” he says. “That is something you cannot really learn in business school.”

Brian Scudamore (EO Paris and EO Vancouver)

Learning on the Job

Often unable to focus during his youth, Brian struggled in the classroom. He attended 14 different schools from kindergarten through college and holds neither a high school diploma nor a college degree — but his mind was always actively seeking new ideas.  

In 1989, Brian was a 19-year-old high school dropout in Vancouver trying to find a way to pay for college. While waiting for his order at a McDonald’s drive-thru, he spotted a beat-up pickup with “Mark’s Hauling” painted on the side and a lightbulb flashed in his mind. Within a week, Brian spent all his savings on a used Ford truck, advertisements, and business cards. He dubbed his one-man operation “The Rubbish Boys” and began hauling junk around town.

He made $1,700 that first year, which was enough to cover college tuition. But as he learned more running the business than he did in the classroom, he decided to drop out of college and devote himself to his venture full-time.

In 1997, he rebranded the business as 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, built a system ready for franchising, and set ambitious goals: establish a presence in North America’s top 30 markets, hit US$100 million in annual revenue, and nab an appearance on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” to help propel his brand into the stratosphere. Several years later, he and the company had achieved all three.

Today, he has built an empire: His parent company, O2E Brands (for Ordinary to Exceptional), now includes two other brands focused on home painting, cleaning, and detailing. In the three decades it has taken to get there, he never felt alone. “Anytime I would have a problem, I would turn to EO,” he says. “It became my place to get my education: My own sort of board of advisors, my own style of an MBA where I could go ask questions and learn from other entrepreneurs.”

Brian in the business's early days. 

Building Together

Brian’s belief in people — and his insistence on cultural alignment — became the cornerstone of his company’s success. In fact, O2E recently landed on Newsweek’s top 100 “Most Loved Workplaces” list, the only Canadian company to do so. “The cultural fit is the top of the pyramid,” he says. “You have to find someone that sees your vision, and that believes in the possibility. We spend so many hours at work; we might as well work with people we really enjoy.”

When longtime EO Vancouver Forum-mate Cameron Herold sold his business, Brian brought him on as 1-800-GOT-JUNK?’s part-time COO. What began as a temporary partnership took off and, together, they helped the company grow from US$2 million to US$106 million in annual revenue before departing.

 “We were like nitro and glycerin,” Brian says. “I think in the early days, for me, having a trusted friend was more important … it is the energy that really grew us so quickly.”

Nearly 30 years after joining EO, Brian remains a loyal member — now with EO Paris, where he and his family are living for a year. He has spent the past five years trying to master the language and, though he hails from another culture on the other side of the world, he says his new chapter “welcomed me with open arms.”

That pattern has repeated itself throughout his EO journey: connection through shared experience. Brian been on both sides of the mentorship equation. He speaks with other EO members around the world regularly. Where he once was the one reaching out for advice, he now fields routine requests for his input and mentorship. “I remember people were there for me,” he says. “There is a feeling of loyalty. This is my tribe. This is my community.”

In those conversations, he has helped steer other entrepreneurs away from painful missteps, especially those rushing to franchise their businesses too soon. Though he found immense success by going that route, it only came after growing locally for a decade before he created a blueprint that could be duplicated and implemented elsewhere. If someone thinking about franchising has not proven profitability over five years and built a repeatable model, he warns them against taking the leap.

“I have talked dozens and dozens of people out of it,” he says. “They think it is an easy way to print money, grow, and expand internationally, but I have shared all the trials and tribulations of how difficult it is and how long someone should be in business before they franchise.”

Counterintuitively, he says many leave the call appreciative that he urged them to slow down: “Sometimes you are giving people help just by giving them a mirror,” he says.

Brian and his executive team. 

Bigger Than Business

Not every EO lesson has been about money or management. In the late 1990s, Brian routinely faced debilitating panic attacks before flights. He began to miss key events and meetings because he was frozen by fear.

He turned again to EO, this time scouring a database to find members who had faced similar struggles. After he made a request for help, more than 50 members reached out to offer support and advice. Some shared their stories; others recommended medication. One even called him weekly for months, checking in and helping coach him through recovery. “We never met,” Brian says, “but they helped me get my life back.”

That experience, he says, reinforced what makes EO — and entrepreneurship itself — so powerful: connection, empathy, and trust. “You have a total stranger coaching you through the hardest time in your life and unconditionally supporting you,” he says. “That comes from the entrepreneur-to-entrepreneur connection — understanding and empathy for their fellow entrepreneurs.”

Interested in becoming an EO member like Brian? Learn more here.