FOUNDER DIARIES - Scott Ellam on Bitcoin-Backed Recruitment PLCs & Rethinking Treasury Strategy
Welcome back to Founder Diaries, a RecTalk podcast hosted by Nitin Sharma. This episode is a big one. Most recruitment businesses measure success by headcount, revenue, and placements. But what happens when a founder decides to measure success differently — by building a resilient balance sheet powered by Bitcoin? In this conversation, Nitin sits down with Scott Ellam, Founder & CEO of XCE – Connecting Excellence, to unpack one of the boldest strategic moves we’ve seen in the recruitment industry. Scott didn’t just build a profitable international executive search business — he took it public, adopted a Bitcoin treasury strategy, and positioned the company as a long-term, balance-sheet-first growth vehicle. What We Cover in This Episode This isn’t a surface-level “crypto chat.” This is a deep dive into: * Why traditional perm-heavy recruitment businesses struggle with exit strategies * The limitations of chasing vanity metrics like headcount growth * Why Scott rejected property, gold, and stock portfolios as treasury strategies * The case for Bitcoin as a long-term reserve asset (not “crypto”) * The impact of inflation and monetary policy on business owners * Taking a recruitment business public with a Bitcoin-backed balance sheet * Creating long-term equity incentives for consultants * Building a recruitment PLC with zero debt and a scalable acquisition strategy * Why “don’t get poor slowly” matters more than “get rich quick” Scott also shares his personal journey — from working-class roots in the Northwest, to building a global executive search firm, to developing an 8-year conviction in Bitcoin before implementing it publicly. This episode challenges conventional thinking about wealth creation in recruitment. Why This Conversation Matters for Recruiters Let’s be honest… Recruitment is cash generative… but asset light. Exits are difficult. Private equity success stories are rare. And inflation quietly erodes retained profits. Scott makes the case that founders need to rethink how they store long-term value — and how they create real equity upside for consultants. Whether you agree or disagree with the thesis, this is a conversation every ambitious recruiter should hear. Who This Episode Is For * Recruitment founders building long-term value * Exec search owners considering an exit in 3–10 years * Cash-rich recruitment businesses exploring alternative treasury strategies * Consultants who want genuine equity upside * Operators curious about public markets & capital strategy * Anyone interested in Bitcoin’s role in business balance sheets 🔗 Connect with the guest Scott Ellam: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-p-ellam-5a097449/ XCE - Connecting Excellence: https://xce.io/ 🔗 Connect with the host Nitin Sharma: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nitin-rectools/ Discover recruitment tools and services: https://www.rectools.io/ New episodes of RecTalk (including Founder Diaries and Talking Talent) currently drop on Wednesday and Friday. Look out also for new episodes of The Mixed Grill — the official podcast of the Recruitment Curry Club — dropping on Thursday. https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-recruitment-curry-club/ Listen on another platform: https://rectalk.co.uk/ 🔗 Get in touch with these recommended suppliers Ascen: https://www.ascen.com/ ThinkinCircles: https://thinkincircles.com/ Infinity Staff Global: https://www.infinitystaffglobal.com/ The Marketing Junction: https://themarketingjunction.com/ Konquest: https://konquest.io/
