Real-revenue cases
Andrew Tarvin left a corporate engineering job to run Humor That Works, a workplace-humor training company that has delivered programs to 250+ organizations including Microsoft and the FBI, reaching $12.5K/month.
01
It substitutes for standard corporate soft-skills and team-building training budgets, bought by HR or internal advocacy groups with real procurement and repeat demand (one event leads to the next). The founder's self-reported $12.5K/month indicates people keep paying.
Corporate clients pay for in-person training programs, billed per session or per engagement; early internal sessions at P&G were free before the model shifted to paid external work.
Existing corporate soft-skills training, team-building activities, or external speaker sessions.
02
The first customers came from inside P&G: an internal advocacy group wanted a workplace-humor training and picked the founder because he did stand-up comedy.
03
The 'sell first, build later, test content in low-cost settings, and systematize referrals' playbook transfers directly to AI training or AI consulting: validate modules through free or low-cost workshops, then package them into paid corporate programs.
04
Revenue basis · Founder self-reported, unaudited (see source page)
The $12.5K/month figure is founder self-reported, unaudited, and it is unclear whether it is revenue or profit.
No data on number of clients, average deal size, repeat rate, or churn.
No evidence on whether the business continued or stayed stable after 2019.