Contents
- Most technology operations present curated financial snapshots — the best quarter, the highest-growth metric, the most favorable unit economics.
- The operation — Stealth Labz, operated by Michael George Keating — generated $868,147 in net revenue across 28 months (February 2024 through January 2026).
- The 28-month P&L reveals a business undergoing a structural transition from affiliate-dependent, high-revenue/low-margin operations to infrastructure-owned, lower-revenue/higher-control operations.
- The 28-month dataset is valuable precisely because it includes the bad months alongside the good ones.
The Setup
Most technology operations present curated financial snapshots — the best quarter, the highest-growth metric, the most favorable unit economics. PE decision-makers evaluating operators have learned to discount these presentations and ask for the full picture. Show me every month. Show me the losses alongside the gains. Show me the trajectory, not the highlight reel.
According to CB Insights' 2024 analysis of startup failure, 38% of startups fail because they run out of cash or fail to raise new capital. Harvard Business School research estimates that 75% of venture-backed startups fail to return investor capital. The common thread: insufficient financial transparency about operating realities, leading to misallocation of capital against unrealistic projections.
What follows is 28 months of unedited P&L data from a single technology operation — every month, every line item, including the months where revenue was $202 and EBITDA was negative $57K. This is the full financial record. No curation.
What the Data Shows
The operation — Stealth Labz, operated by Michael George Keating — generated $868,147 in net revenue across 28 months (February 2024 through January 2026). The P&L summary:
| Line Item | Amount | % of Revenue |
|---|---|---|
| Net Revenue | $868,147 | 100% |
| COGS (Affiliate Payouts) | $848,031 | 97.7% |
| Gross Profit | $20,116 | 2.3% |
| Project Shared (QB-verified) | $96,802 | 11.1% |
| Operating Expenses (QB-verified) | $61,721 | 7.1% |
| Chargeback Management | $8,376 | 1.0% |
| Total OpEx | $166,899 | 19.2% |
| EBITDA | -$146,783 | -16.9% |
The 28-month EBITDA is negative $146,783. That is the audited reality. The gross margin of 2.3% reflects the affiliate-heavy revenue model where external traffic sources consumed 97.7% of revenue as cost of goods sold. This is the structural challenge the operation addressed through its infrastructure build — and the trajectory tells the story the aggregate number does not.
The monthly data shows three distinct phases. February 2024 was the revenue peak at $311,443, driven almost entirely by external affiliate traffic, with EBITDA of -$57,050 (negative despite the highest revenue month, because COGS exceeded revenue by $47K). The trough ran from September 2024 through April 2025, with monthly revenue between $810 and $4,372. The recovery phase from July 2025 onward shows owned traffic infrastructure generating revenue at fundamentally different margins.
The correction that matters: the original P&L contained $416,552 in double-counted expenses — affiliate payouts that appeared both in COGS and again as project-specific line items. Once stripped, EBITDA corrected from -$563K to -$147K. Financial discipline required catching that error in audit.
How It Works
The 28-month P&L reveals a business undergoing a structural transition from affiliate-dependent, high-revenue/low-margin operations to infrastructure-owned, lower-revenue/higher-control operations.
The capital structure reflects this transition. Total outside capital deployed: $100,899 in direct debt ($69,899 from personal loans plus $31,000 from two additional lenders). Total capital deployed including reinvested revenue: $733,099. Zero equity sold. 100% ownership retained. All outside capital is structured as debt — no equity dilution at any point.
The current position (as of February 2026) shows monthly operating costs reduced to approximately $825/month from a peak of $8,367/month. All contractor dependencies eliminated. All SaaS vendor dependencies eliminated through PRJ-01. Ten revenue-ready systems across 7 verticals and 2 geographies. Total build cost of all assets: $65,394 (QB-verified). Market replacement cost: $1.4M-$2.9M.
Current liabilities total $139,100 across personal loans, credit lines, and estimated tax obligations. The business carries real debt against real assets — this is not a zero-liability presentation.
What This Means for Decision-Makers
The 28-month dataset is valuable precisely because it includes the bad months alongside the good ones. A PE operator evaluating this model sees the full risk profile: the $57K negative EBITDA month in February 2024, the 8-month trough below $5K/month, the 97.7% COGS problem in affiliate marketing, and the $139K in outstanding liabilities.
They also see the trajectory: monthly operating costs falling 90% in four months, contractor and SaaS dependency reaching zero, 10 production systems built at 2-8% of market cost, and a structural shift from rented infrastructure to owned infrastructure. The EBITDA trajectory moved from -$57K (February 2024) to +$2.7K (July 2025) — a margin swing driven by infrastructure replacement rather than revenue growth.
Full financial transparency is the foundation of credible operator evaluation. This is 28 months of it.
Related: [C7_S152 — Revenue Distribution Across 18 Business Lines] | [C7_S153 — The 97.7% COGS Problem] | [C7_S154 — From -$57K to +$2.6K Monthly EBITDA]
References
- CB Insights (2024). "State of Venture Report." Startup failure rates, cash flow analysis, and capital allocation patterns.
- Harvard Business School (2023). "Startup Failure Research." Analysis of venture-backed startup outcomes and capital return rates.
- Keating, M.G. (2026). "The Compounding Execution Method: Complete Technical Documentation." Stealth Labz. Browse papers