Building a $15k+ MRR services company to fund SaaS development

Günter Richter quit his job at 50 and started a consultancy. A few months in, his consultancy is bringing in $15k MRR, and he's using the revenue to build a SaaS product called Data Maturity Lab.

Here's Günter on how he's doing it. 👇

Going solo at 50

I started my career implementing ERP software. Then, I moved into business intelligence and data warehousing as a business analyst. From there, I did some freelancing and joined a management consultancy before returning to data and analytics, focusing on strategy and organizational change.

Finally, I established a business consulting practice and capability within two multinational consulting firms.

I had always wanted to go solo, but never found the "right moment." A few years ago, I turned 50 and realized it was time to act while I still had the energy and desire. In 2025, the timing worked out, and I took the opportunity.

I now run a small consultancy that helps organizations with their data challenges (and opportunities), focusing on data and AI strategy, data governance, and organizational change. We're currently over $15k MRR.

Starting with services

It's a services business. I chose this approach because I have done it for my whole career. I have 30 years of knowledge and experience and I know the industry really well. So, while I didn't build a product initially, per se, I did do some setup, including branding, a website, legal and commercial document templates, and systems like accounting and timekeeping.

My services stack is:

• Sage (for accounting)

• Clockify (for timekeeping)

• Google Workspace

• Microsoft Office (for Teams - ugh!)

• Todoist (for task management)

• Claude.

Starting with servcies gives me the funding and bandwidth to build what will become a B2B subscription-based SaaS product called Data Maturity Lab that helps organizations build their data maturity. I am taking on some alpha users to get initial feedback and help shape the product roadmap. Building it was quite easy, as the application is web-only and essentially a CRUD application with no advanced business logic, payment integration, AI, etc.

It probably took about 15-20 hours to build over a few weeks. I still need to invest more time in updating the web copy and onboarding process. Here's the stack:

• Built and hosted it with Replit

• Supabase for authentication and the database

• The roadmap includes migrating the hosting to somewhere like Railway or Render and continuing development using Claude Code or Google Antigravity.

It's important that I build a profitable product, because I can only sell so many consulting hours in a day.

A service model

Currently, my business model is pure professional services. I do not offer fixed-price projects; I offer time and materials (with a budget agreed with the client, of course), where I charge per day (or part thereof).

This model is not scalable unless I take on staff. For now, this complicates things, so I use associates — I already have an offshore technical delivery partner, doing a data platform build for a client.

Challenges of going solo

Transitioning into solo work has had its challenges. Cash flow is hard, for example. While my operating expenses are very low, 30-day payment terms with customers mean I cannot immediately take money out of the company. Having some savings really helped.

Securing and delivering multiple smaller projects instead of one larger one has been hard too. It requires a lot of context switching, and I cannot neglect marketing and business development activities. If I could start over, I'd be more structured and focused on these activities.

The good news is that everything I've been building over the years is paying dividends now. My business network has been invaluable in growing the business. And my IP — including engagement approaches, frameworks, and templates — has been hugely helpful.

Growth via network and LinkedIn

As I mentioned, my network has been invaluable for growing the business. Posting on LinkedIn also helped.

For the Data Maturity Lab product, I still need to focus on growth. I anticipate a combination of my network, cold outreach (on LinkedIn and elsewhere), and social media will be needed.

My advice: Invest in and leverage your network!

Finding your killer idea

Before quitting your job or dropping your income, try many projects to grow your skills, especially transferable ones. For example, setting up an email sequence or building a landing page.

These are skills you can use again and again, whatever your product or service is. You never know, you might find your killer idea.

What's next?

I’m not planning to grow a consultancy to sell it, but I want to scale my revenue (and of course profit). I plan to do this through an associate network (rather than taking on full-time people) and the SaaS product I am building.

I am looking for Alpha testers who get free access for life. If any readers are interested, please reach out to me. Here's the website (warning, it is still a little rough!).

You can also check out Umlaut Consulting or my personal website. Here are my Substacks, The Data Coach and Ivory Basement. And I hang out on LinkedIn.