Key Lessons for Building a Research Consultancy

Before StealthX, I built a $10M/yr consulting practice from $0. Here are 13 things I learned along the way. 1. Do the little things. Take notes. ACTUALLY listen. Follow up. Follow through. Be the person who does what they say they will. These small actions build trust & credibility over time. 2. Focus on relationships, not deals. People remember how you make them feel. Be the trusted advisor they call when they’re stuck or need a sounding board. Play the long game. 3. Show, don’t tell. Actions always speak louder than words. Create prototypes, mockups, or models to demonstrate ideas. Don’t talk at people or assume they are on the same wavelength. 4. Be ready for long sales cycles, especially with big companies. Decide upfront if the potential payoff is worth the time and effort. For example, we were working on selling into a large Fortune 100 for 2 years before we got an MSA and then had a year after that before we closed our 1st deal 🫠 5. Never count on a deal until it’s signed. I learned this the hard way, more than once. Nothing is guaranteed until the ink is dry. 6. Build systems early. From wikis for shared knowledge to standardized sales processes, the right systems let you scale faster and more smoothly. 7. Focus on culture and hiring for 30% skills. I believe 70% of skills are hard skills, and 30% of skills are the soft skills. These are so much more important. Also hire for what I call the "Core 4. " Have a growth mindset, good communicator, high give-a-s***t factor, and a strong bias towards action (i.e., hire doers). 8. Walk away from bad deals. Not every opportunity is worth it. Protect your team and focus on doing work that aligns with your values and goals. Be willing to leave $ on the table. Focus on the inputs and the score takes care of itself. 9. Invest in yourself. Read books, listen to podcasts, attend industry events, get executive coaching. You’re the ceiling for your team. Raise it constantly. 10. Ask bigger questions. Get to the why behind the what. Help your clients think beyond the surface to understand the real problem they’re trying to solve. For example, “Why do you want to do this? What’s the ultimate outcome? Who's this for? How do you know this is the right problem? What might cause us to fail?” 11. Use storytelling to drive change. Don’t just present data. Paint a picture of what’s broken and the future you can help create. Connect emotionally and tailor your approach to your audience. 12. Start small, then scale. Land a small project first, prove your value, and earn trust. It’s easier to build momentum this way than pitching huge engagements upfront. 13. Don’t trap clients. Empower them. The consulting world loves recurring revenue, but clients hate feeling dependent. Deliver clear, goal-driven projects with measurable outcomes. Results bring them back, not reliance. These lessons shaped how I approach building teams, serving clients, & growing businesses. Now they’re the backbone of StealthX 🤘

My consulting journey: from $0 to $685K in 6 months 🚀 Yesterday’s newsletter was one I never thought I’d write. It unexpectedly drew in messages and questions, so I’ve decided to make it public. Some key takeaways (so far): 1. Consulting is hard. Probably harder than you think. 2. Most clients come from a close network and recommendations.  3. The biggest challenge: how to get top talent, fast, and be able to afford it. Scaling a consultancy is all about the quality of people you bring in: 🔹 Many analysts out there are unmotivated and often underqualified, expecting over $150K compensation for Power BI dashboards and SQLServer querying. As more people enter the data field, the number of “qualified” candidates has tripled while the number with solid foundations has sharply declined - often inversely proportional to their hourly rates. 🔹 Consulting requires a different mindset. You have to move faster, over-communicate, over-deliver, but also under-promise and under-charge. Be patient with stakeholders, but stay laser-focused on deliverables. Be fast and effective, yet accurate, and mindful of the customer's natural pace and processes. 🔹 Nothing can be trusted out there: Stripe dashboard is a joke, Apple sends receipts that don’t match data in-house. Meta grossly over-reports every metric (I’m convinced they just multiply everything by 3 by default). Events can fire whenever, with or without any logic, and so on. You have to replicate all baselines yourself, even if the client doesn’t ask for them. Measure tests and initiatives against accurate reporting that you can replicate or validate yourself. 🔹 Delegating works - until it doesn’t. People are unpredictable and not reliable. Know how to do it yourself. Fast. 🔹 History matters: relationships and trust are everything. Clients share their budgets, revenue, strategy, and pain points with people they trust and have confidence in. Treat this responsibility accordingly. 🔹 Analytics is best done “in pairs”. Mistakes happen, errors slip in, and it’s essential to have someone on your team to check your code, calculations, and even common sense. If you’re considering consulting, I hope my story below will give you the highs and lows and help you avoid some of the mistakes I made along the way. Read it here: https://lnkd.in/gVypc9aX If you have any questions about consulting, I highly recommend reading/watching Benjamin Rogojan, who covered every little aspect of consulting.

If I had to build a $10M services firm with just a laptop... Here’s exactly what I’d do in the first 30 days: 𝗪𝗲𝗲𝗸 𝟭-𝟮: 𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝗹𝗮𝘀𝗲𝗿-𝗳𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝗻 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 “𝘁𝗵𝗲” 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺 Most people try to solve problems they 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 exist. I spend my time talking to actual buyers. I find a problem that isn't getting solved well. Then I pick a target that struggles with this problem. Fortune 500? Mid-market? Small companies? Finally, I dig into: 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘱𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘥𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘯𝘰𝘣𝘰𝘥𝘺 𝘦𝘭𝘴𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘥𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘭𝘺? 𝗪𝗲𝗲𝗸 𝟯-𝟰: 𝗦𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁, 𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗱 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝟭: Most people flip this the wrong way around. I always sell the solution before building the team. I would get on sales calls. I’d close deals. You’ll learn more from five sales calls than from five weeks of “market research.” 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝟮: Line up a world class team who will join when you sell work. The hardest part of building a consulting firm is aligning sales with hiring. Start getting this right early. People will want to join your new firm as an early employee and the right candidates will be willing to be ready to go if you sell something (and willing to wait a while if you don’t). 𝘐𝘧 𝘢 𝘤𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘣𝘶𝘺𝘴, 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳. 𝘐𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵, 𝘱𝘪𝘷𝘰𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶’𝘷𝘦 𝘩𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘦. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝗱𝘃𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗱: This approach forces you to master the most important balancing act in services: Selling work and building the team to deliver it, without getting ahead of yourself. It’s a tightrope you’ll walk for the entire life of the business (I was still doing it when we grew Nexient to over 1,000 people). The key is to line up talented people who are willing to join 𝘪𝘧 you sell the work, without hiring them prematurely. You can even include these future team members in your sales proposals (just be transparent with clients that this is how you’re operating). You then get to highlight their experience as part of your pitch. This approach is harder. But it’s far more cash efficient. You’ll know there’s real demand before you spend a dollar on delivery capacity. Most people overthink, overbuild, and overhire. Don’t. Sell something people actually need. Then scale.