Acquiring Minds 4th Time's the Charm: 3 Broken Deals to Buy a Great Business
Aug 21, 2025
Bryan Houck, the owner of Extra Credit Projects, is a seasoned entrepreneur who purchased an award-winning creative agency at 58 after a series of setbacks. He shares his journey of resilience, reflecting on losing everything in a startup and discovering his unique talents. Bryan discusses the importance of hiring a buy-side advisor, navigating financial complexities in acquisitions, and crafting innovative marketing strategies like guerrilla campaigns. His insights on personal motivations demonstrate how entrepreneurship can thrive at any age.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
Left Corporate Life To Start Businesses
- Bryan left a secure corporate career at Cintas to start businesses and never regretted it despite later losing everything in 2008.
- He calls himself a serial entrepreneur who learned by doing and consulting after that loss.
Lost Everything In 2008 Startup Crash
- Bryan recounted founding a mobile storage franchise-style company that grew then collapsed in the 2008 crash.
- He suffered a hostile takeover and lost everything at age 41, which he calls a formative experience.
Talent: Seeing Around Corners
- Bryan discovered his talent for seeing around corners and visualizing business outcomes, which guided his later moves.
- That pattern made consulting attractive but also pushed him toward owning a business to implement changes himself.
