Brian Graves

Co-Founder Everything But The House (EBTH)

Last Reviewed: September 26, 2026

Executive Summary

Brian Graves co-founded Everything But The House (EBTH), the online estate sale and consignment auction company based in Blue Ash, Ohio, with Jacquie Denny in 2008. EBTH sells the contents of homes and collections through online auctions that start at $1. Its history includes a near-failure: in 2019 the company went through a court-supervised liquidation, and Graves’s company, High Road Holdings, bought its assets and trade name for $3.5 million, returning control to the founders. EBTH then called him Founder & President and in 2021 announced a state-backed plan to add more than 800 Ohio jobs. EBTH’s own pages currently describe him as a co-founder.

Career Highlights

• Co-founded EBTH with Jacquie Denny; the two posted the company’s first sale in 2008.
• Before EBTH, worked in application development and quality improvement at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital while dealing antiques on the side.
• Held the title Founder and Chief Learning Officer in the company’s mid-2010s press materials.
• In August 2019 led High Road Holdings LLC’s $3.5 million purchase of EBTH’s assets and trade name out of an assignment for the benefit of creditors.
• As Founder & President, announced in January 2021 a five-year growth plan with JobsOhio and the City of Blue Ash that committed to more than 800 new jobs.

Professional Journey

Graves grew up in Withamsville, Ohio, and dealt in antiques from an early age. Before EBTH he worked in application development and quality improvement at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital while buying and selling antiques on the side. EBTH began when he helped Jacquie Denny with her tag sale business. In 2008 the two posted the first sale on EBTH.com, aiming to take estate sales online and put a family’s goods in front of an international audience.

The company grew into a national operation. By the middle of the decade its press materials listed sales out of more than a dozen US markets, and in 2014 it raised a $13 million Series A. Graves was then titled Founder and Chief Learning Officer, and the company pointed to his knowledge of period furniture, original artwork and American art pottery.

By 2019 EBTH was under different ownership and in financial difficulty. That July, EBTH Inc. petitioned a Delaware court to pursue an assignment for the benefit of creditors, owing lenders and secured creditors about $7.5 million, with around 230 Cincinnati-area jobs at stake. The assignees considered about three dozen potential investors and chose High Road Holdings, Graves’s company, which paid $3.5 million in cash for the assets and trade name. Graves said he had put the bid together with Denny and an investment syndicate.

By January 2021 EBTH was based in a 217,000-square-foot facility in Blue Ash. That month Graves, as Founder & President, announced a five-year growth plan with the City of Blue Ash, the State of Ohio and JobsOhio that committed to more than 800 new jobs; the company had about 325 employees across two Ohio warehouses at the time. EBTH’s press page lists a 2026 Cincinnati Business Courier ranking of the city’s top private companies under the headline “Surpassing $97M in 2025, EBTH Ranks in the Top 150 Private Companies in Cincinnati”, and its 2026 releases include an online auction of items from Matthew Perry’s personal estate. The company’s website is operated under the name High Road Holdings, LLC.

Education

EBTH’s press biography says he attended Wilmington College and graduated from the Mendenhall School of Auctioneering. No degree is stated.