15 People to $50M in Profit

The Turn: Blue Collar to Billions · Mar 31, 2026 · 29m

Bryan Carruthers started his first company in the middle of the 2008 financial crisis, right after college. A tiny consulting firm called Consilium. He sold it to a publicly traded business a few years later. Then he went the private equity route—got backing, bought a 15-person shop, and built it into a national $50 million EBITDA business in under five years. Then he sold it to one of the largest consulting firms in the world.

Most founders are obsessed with ownership percentage. Bryan was obsessed with acceleration. He gave away two-thirds of his first company to partners who knew more than…