Moonshot Health Score: Methodology
The Moonshot Health Score is a 0–100 measure of how well a business is set up to convert effort into revenue without relying on heroics or manual recovery. This page explains how it is calculated and what it does and does not measure.
What the score measures
The score captures six operating dimensions that, together, determine whether a small business can consistently turn attention into revenue. Each dimension reflects a different type of loss: speed loss, friction loss, visibility loss, time loss, system fragility, or leak blindness. A business that scores well across all six is not just working hard — it is working in a way that compounds.
The six dimensions
Lead response
18%How quickly and reliably new leads and inquiries receive a real response. Speed here matters because attention fades fast — a slow first reply often ends a conversation before it begins.
Follow-up
20%Whether warm conversations stay alive through consistent follow-up. Most deals are not lost to a competitor — they are lost to silence. This dimension measures the discipline that keeps momentum going.
Visibility
18%Whether the owner can see the business — active opportunities, pending issues, and slippage — on a weekly basis. Problems that are invisible cannot be corrected until they are already expensive.
Time allocation
14%How much of the owner's time is protected for revenue work versus consumed by reactive admin. Founder time is the business's most constrained resource; where it goes shapes everything else.
Systems maturity
15%Whether core workflows are documented and repeatable, or rely on tribal knowledge and manual recovery. Immature systems make a business fragile to growth, delegation, and mistakes.
Revenue leak awareness
15%Whether the owner can identify where leads, deals, and opportunities are dropping off. You cannot fix a leak you cannot see — this dimension measures that visibility.
How the weights were set
Weights reflect the relative impact each dimension has on revenue outcomes for small businesses. Follow-up carries the most weight at 20% — it is the dimension where consistent discipline most directly converts warm interest into closed revenue. Lead response and visibility are tied at 18% each, together measuring how quickly the business captures attention and surfaces problems before they become expensive. Time allocation is the lowest individual weight at 14% because it affects capacity rather than conversion directly. Systems maturity and revenue leak awareness each carry 15% as the foundational infrastructure that limits how far the top dimensions can compound.
| Dimension | Weight |
|---|---|
| Lead response | 18% |
| Follow-up | 20% |
| Visibility | 18% |
| Time allocation | 14% |
| Systems maturity | 15% |
| Revenue leak awareness | 15% |
| Total | 100% |
Score ranges
75 – 100
Strong foundation
The operating basics are in place. The business is not losing obvious ground to preventable gaps. Tightening the weaker spots now prevents drift later.
50 – 74
Some drift detected
Parts of the business are working, but meaningful gaps exist. These gaps compound quietly — they are worth addressing before they become the ceiling on growth.
0 – 49
Significant optimization gaps
Important parts of the business still depend on manual recovery, late visibility, or heroic effort. The bottlenecks here are active and will limit progress until they are resolved.
What the score is not
The Moonshot Health Score is not a measure of business performance, revenue, or long-term viability. A business can have a high score and still be struggling — the score measures operating practices, not outcomes.
It is also not a comprehensive audit. The diagnostic asks a specific set of questions about six operating dimensions. Dimensions that fall outside those six — product quality, pricing fit, market size, team dynamics, financial runway — are not reflected in the score.
The score is based on self-reported answers. It reflects what the owner observes and reports, not verified external data. A business with strong habits that are hard to articulate may score lower than the actual reality; a business with good intentions but poor execution may score higher. The score is most useful as a starting point for honest self-examination, not as a definitive grade.
Finally, the score is a snapshot. It reflects the business as of the moment the diagnostic was completed. Operating conditions change, and scores should be re-evaluated periodically rather than treated as fixed.
How the model is updated
The dimensions, weights, and scoring model are reviewed as Moonshot gathers more diagnostic data and observes how well the score predicts actual business outcomes. When the model changes, existing reports are not retroactively rescored — the score on a given report reflects the model version active at the time it was generated, which is noted on the report itself.
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