My Startup Consulting Solopreneur Business Makes $30K/Month

Mike Rome

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Published: February 2nd, 2024

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Mike Rome

Founder, moonwater

$30.3K

revenue/mo

Founders

Employees

moonwater

moonwater.studio

from Chicago, IL, USA

started January 2022

$30,276

revenue/mo

Founders

Employees

Discover what tools Mike recommends to grow your business!

G Suite

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Quickbooks

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Slack

analytics

Google Analytics

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Canva

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Pexels

Discover what books Mike recommends to grow your business!

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Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?

Hey Starter Story Community! I’m Mike, and I’ve spent 13 years helping post-product-market fit startups scale faster and more efficiently. I left full-time startup exec work 2 years ago to start my own growth studio, moonwater. My mission is to help high potential startups & teams do the work of their life.

One of my favorite learnings from starting my own biz is how far you can get with an incredible bias for action and a few pretty sparse assets.

What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?

Before breaking into startups in 2012, I got fired from my first job and then lasted only 15 months in the corporate world as a management consultant.

I left management consulting for 2 reasons - I wasn’t good at “the game,” and when you consult, oftentimes, your work gets shelved. That is, you make a bunch of recommendations, but very few get implemented.

I didn’t care much if my recs were right, but I wanted to put them into the world to see if I was right. To learn and grow. And that’s not really how consulting works.

I didn’t know if going to work for a VC or venture-backed startup would be right. But culturally, it seemed the opposite of management consulting (one of my biggest pain points), so I thought I’d take a shot.

So I scoured the Internet for interesting investors and startups and built a mini-CRM in Excel. I usually had 2-3 formats per email address (i.e. first name only, first name, first initial/last name, etc.) because they weren’t publicly available. So I tried several “email format” options to make sure my sends got through.

After sending hundreds of emails, I landed a meeting with a leading VC, I sold him on how my analytical skills from consulting could be helpful, he got me an interview in his portfolio, and he told me to go sweep their floors.

A few weeks later, I got a startup gig. I never swept floors, but I offered. I did however take a 40% pay cut to get the hell out of management consulting and get into startups. It was the first time I learned this valuable lesson:

If you want a different outcome, you’ve got to make different choices.

Since those early days, I’ve seen the grit, joy, and heartache that come with building something new. I’ve made many mistakes and learned lots of lessons. From my first startup though, I’ve never looked back.

Take us through the process of building the first version of your product.

I started my biz, moonwater, in only 3-weeks after taking a Chief Growth Officer role with a venture-backed startup flush with cash. I let a good offer cloud my judgment, though, and a few weeks in, I knew it wouldn’t last. While 10 years earlier, I would have killed for this type of role, the culture was toxic, and I couldn’t do my best work. Life is short, and I knew I had to go.

I had a family to support, but I couldn’t go right into another full-time gig. I couldn’t accept making the same mistake twice. So I sold for 3 weeks, booked a full load of startups, and bought 6 months of runway to launch my own company and keep figuring it out.

At the time, leaving fast felt like a failure. Turns out, it opened more doors than ever before:

I’m doing some of my best work, on my own terms, and averaging $30K+/month in revenue at a 93% margin.

moonwater is a one-person growth studio helping 7 & 8-figure startups scale faster and profitably. It’s similar to the work I’ve always done in startups, but instead of working for one company, I work for myself, and I work on 2-4 startups at a time.

I mostly make money 3-ways:

5-week growth audits - to help startups find their fastest path to sustainable growth. This service has become more productized over time which has helped with scaling and profitability.
Advisory - lighter touch engagements post-audit to help the startup implement audit action items faster.
Fractional operating - heavier touch engagements post-audit to help the startup implement audit action items faster.

There are many startup advisors and fractional execs who might have 10-15 clients, but I zigged when many zagged.

I make my $30K/mo. from working on only 2-4 companies usually. Rather than have a lot of lower paying clients, I much prefer going deeper, having more skin in the game, and making larger amounts off a small subset of great partners.

One of my favorite learnings from starting my own biz is how far you can get with a) an incredible bias for action and b) a few pretty sparse assets.

For example, I booked my first 3 clients and 6-months of runway without a website. Granted I had a strong network after spending 10+ years working my way up startups, but all I had was a PDF underscoring the value prop I’d bring to startups (i.e. help them grow faster, more efficiently), how I was different (my proven system could deliver quick results), and my relevant accomplishments.

All this said, my favorite mantra is “Execute like hell, hope you get lucky.”

While I pushed hard to land my first clients, it was January 2022, and the tech economy was still in a great spot. In retrospect, this was an awesome tailwind for booking quality clients fast. In other words, I got lucky.

If I had been trying to start in January 2024 for example, it would have been way harder because startups are much more conscious of costs, etc. right now.

Describe the process of launching the business.

It’s true sometimes the hardest part is getting started and you need less than you think. I didn’t even build a website until I was 6-8 weeks in and doing $25K+/month in revenue.

I got my initial clients by emailing a one-page PDF with what I planned to do, the problem I was solving, my solution, and why it was better than 90% of the alternatives out there.

Granted, I’d cultivated a network in startups for a decade to send this to, but this was enough to help me book a full load of biz for the first 6 months.

While you might get lucky and find growth fast, it won’t happen often. The best businesses build processes and tap tools to make iteration the standard.

Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?

I sell high-ticket professional services, so almost all my business comes from two sources: 1) referrals from those I’ve worked with and 2) my network.

To me, high-ticket services are “5-figure professional services.” For me, it’s the 3 offerings for startups above (growth audits, advisory, and fractional operating), but selling professional services is something tons of white collar professionals can do (i.e., accounting, finance, product development, etc.).

I’m not selling $199 courses. That model is very different. It takes way less trust to get a purchase, but you need hundreds or thousands of customers to build a big business. Instead, I’m selling $10-$15K monthly retainers with only a few customers.

Both models have their pros and cons but the latter is more suited to my work style.

The main value I offer startups is 80% of the strategy & execution you’d get from a great growth executive for only about 20% of the cost. E.g., The average startup growth exec might make $250K annually, but I can give them 80% of the benefit for say, $50K, and shorter-term engagements.

Especially with today’s tough tech macro, the message has been resonating enough for me to stay fully booked with 2-4 clients.

While I have a newsletter, The Scale MBA, that took off on LinkedIn (280,000+ views in less than a week…see image below), and got me 1,400 subscribers in 4 days, this is mostly a tool for me to cultivate my network. It’s not something that drives business in the short-term. It’s a longer game play.

How are you doing today and what does the future look like?

As noted above, I’m doing some of my best work, on my own terms, and averaging $30K+/month in revenue at a 93% margin.

This year I’m hoping to spend more time working ON the business, as I spent the first 2 years optimizing for revenue and profitability. While that’s worked out well, there’s plenty of work and opportunity for me to further productize, automate lead gen, and improve at selling and closing deals.

So this year I’m planning to say “no” to more work than I historically have in the hopes of building new systems and habits to scale smarter in ‘25 and beyond.

Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?

3 of my favorite learnings:

1. You have to be your own hero: You can’t expect a rescue. Self-reliance is key. You either cut out the noise, focus, and will things into existence, or wither away. This doesn't mean not asking for help or surrounding yourself with others who are steps ahead. But none of that matters if you haven’t gone all in on belief in yourself and incredible follow through.

2. People who say they work 70-80-hour weeks are lying to you: Because their definition of “work” is broken. The truth is, working 70-80 hours almost always requires incredibly unproductive hours. E.g., Meetings with no agenda, excessive emailing, multitasking poorly, busy work, overplanning without execution, etc.

To me, if any of the above is true, it doesn't count as “work.” You don’t get points for being ineffective. Most people can’t do the work of their life for more than 40-50 hours. This high bar requires an intense amount of brainpower and focus, and it can’t last 24/7.

3. Most growth happens during iteration: While you might get lucky and find growth fast, it won’t happen often. The best businesses build processes and tap tools to make iteration the standard. Because they’ve accepted a hard truth about businesses that win -> Good things take time.

What platform/tools do you use for your business?

Kajabi is my go-to for MY business, but I do use others while I’m supporting my clients’ startups. E.g., Google Analytics 4, A/B testing tools, heat mapping software, ad platforms, email & SMS marketing software, etc.

What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?

My favorite book recently is The Comfort Crisis by Michael Easter.

I also listen to plenty of pods like The All-In podcast, The Lex Fridman podcast, and Ryan Holiday’s Daily Stoic.

Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?

Here are the 7 most important things I’ve learned starting and scaling my business:

Be brutally honest
Take bad news well
Always find ways to not get demoralized
Build incredible stamina (it matters more than even speed)
Let small fires burn
Master focus
Never stop showing up

Everything else is secondary, and if you do this long enough, you’ll win. So go get it.