7 Product Development Consulting Business Success Stories [2024]
Struggling to turn ideas into market-ready products? Consider diving into product development consulting. This business involves helping companies transform their concepts into tangible, sellable products.
As a consultant, you'll guide businesses through market research, prototype creation, and product launch strategies. The expertise you bring can save companies time and resources while maximizing their product's potential.
This field offers a blend of creative problem-solving and strategic planning. You get to interact with various industries, keeping your work dynamic and engaging. With each project, you build a reputation, creating rewarding and impactful relationships with clients.
Starting a product development consulting business requires a solid understanding of various markets and a knack for innovation. If you're detail-oriented and love bringing ideas to life, this could be your path to a fulfilling business venture.
In this list, you'll find real-world product development consulting business success stories and very profitable examples of starting a product development consulting business that makes money.
1. ThirstySprout ($3.6M/year)
David Stepania, the Founder of ThirstySprout, came up with the idea for his business while taking a break on a Hawaiian beach. With a background in startups and a realization that building an extraordinary startup required an extraordinary technical team, David decided to solve the problem of connecting startups with top technical talent they could trust. ThirstySprout was born out of this desire for growth and success, and it has since grown to a team of over 40 people with $2.5 million in gross revenue last year.
How much money it makes: $3.6M/year
How much did it cost to start: $500
How many people on the team: 0
ThirstySprout, a talent acquisition platform, connects remote technical talent with high-growth startups and enterprises, boasting a team of 40-60 remote contractors and $2.5 million in gross revenue last year, with plans to double that in the next year or two.
2. Innovolo Ltd ($2.4M/year)
Bradley Pallister, co-founder and Head of Innovation at Innovolo, came up with the idea for the business after recognizing the need for an innovation and product development consultancy that could help B2B clients create a culture of innovation. With their flagship product, Unlimited Innovation-as-a-Service, Innovolo offers business owners a cost-effective solution to bring in an external innovation team tailored to their needs, resulting in accelerated product development and a fast turnaround time, as seen with one client's product being expedited from eight months to six weeks. With an impressive revenue forecast of £2.4 million this year, Innovolo is poised to disrupt the remote product development space.
How much money it makes: $2.4M/year
How much did it cost to start: $1K
How many people on the team: 12
Innovolo, an innovation and product development consultancy, went from offering fixed-sum product development to providing product development chain management with a unique program called Unlimited Innovation-as-a-Service, shortening their client's product expedited time significantly, and increasing revenue astronomically since their launch in 2018.
3. Spencer Patterson ($1.68M/year)
Spencer Patterson, an ex-financial broker turned product developer, launched a paywall platform in 2019 initially to streamline his own content operations. Seeing its potential as an alternative to Patreon, he monetized the bootstrapped SaaS to $125,000 - $142,000 MRR, ultimately selling it for $3.5M on Flippa.
How much money it makes: $1.68M/year
How much did it cost to start: $6K
How many people on the team: 1
This case study is about a founder who launched a paywall platform for content creators in 2019, bootstrapping it from $0 and eventually selling it for $3.5M on Flippa, with the platform generating between $125,000 - $142,000 in Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) on 95% margins.
4. theta. ($864K/year)
Emmanuel Iroanya, the founder of theta, had a unique journey that led him to start his civic and government-focused digital firm. Inspired by his father's entrepreneurial efforts in working with the City of Baltimore to provide mental health and family preservation services, Emmanuel realized he could make a difference by working with federal agencies. His time at a large federal systems integrator solidified his idea to create a company that existed at the intersection of technology and government, with the goal of addressing the limitations and implications of technology in the public sector.
How much money it makes: $864K/year
How many people on the team: 0
Digital and management firm theta. has served over six government agencies since its inception, providing innovative solutions to unique computing problems that meet client needs so effectively, it has doubled its employee number and is aiming for a 50/50 prime-subcontractor revenue split.
5. illumisoft ($792K/year)
Dan Prince, founder of illumisoft, started the company because of his passion for technology and creating innovative solutions. He realized that many technical projects fail because of a lack of understanding between business and technology. illumisoft bridges that gap by understanding the client's needs and designing solutions that meet their expectations. With over $10 million in projects and zero failed projects, illumisoft has become a trusted software development company in the healthcare industry.
How much money it makes: $792K/year
How much did it cost to start: $0
How many people on the team: 2
Illumisoft, a software development company specializing in cloud migration, web applications, business solutions, and data management, has experienced consistent growth and success with 42 completed projects worth over $10M, 30 different clients, and 100% 5-star reviews, while focusing on providing services solely to the healthcare industry and changing lives of hundreds of thousands of people worldwide.
6. Dusseau and Company ($420K/year)
Mark, the founder of Dusseau and Company, drew inspiration from his personal experiences as a former foster child and his professional background in software development. He saw a need to help small businesses and diverse founders build disruptive software companies, and thus, Dusseau and Company was born. With a scientific approach to product development and a commitment to empathy and helping others, Mark has successfully worked with clients like Chevron and JP Morgan Chase, helping diverse founders raise $700k in funding and achieve over $15 million in company valuations.
How much money it makes: $420K/year
How much did it cost to start: $1.5K
How many people on the team: 0
Dusseau and Company is a boutique product development firm focused on helping diverse founders ideate, design, develop, and scale disruptive technology companies, with a leading service of executing different levels of the product development lifecycle, and boasts an impressive metric of helping diverse founders build products that have gone on to raise $700k in funding and over $15 million in company valuations.
7. Ora ($252K/year)
Nikolay Mihaylov, along with his co-founders Vasil Enchev and Nikolay Yanev, came up with the idea for Ora PM while working at Codemotion in 2015. As they were managing their work with existing project management systems like Trello and Slack, they realized the need for a more sophisticated system with time tracking. Unable to find a suitable solution in the market, they decided to create their own project management system, which eventually evolved into Ora.
How much money it makes: $252K/year
How much did it cost to start: $50K
How many people on the team: 5
Ora PM is a project management system that generates an average monthly revenue of $21k, and is designed for use by individuals as well as companies with big projects.
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Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
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